Tesla opened its first V4 Superchargers in Europe today, kicking off the newest iteration of its charging network in Harderwijk, the Netherlands.
Details regarding charging speed, cable length, and others have not been officially detailed by Tesla, but Teslarati received some details from a visitor to the new V4 Supercharger today that will clarify some of the meat of what people want to know.
Charging Speed
Tesla’s V4 Superchargers still have the same output as the V3 Superchargers, which is rated at 250 kW. However, the changes in power are roughly 30 percent.
V3 Superchargers had an amperage of 425 A, while the new V4 Superchargers saw a 31 percent increase to 615 A, according to the panel label.
The label still shows the output power at 250 kW, but the rated current has gone from 425 to 615.
This may be to support new voltage architectures across multiple vehicle manufacturers. As most vehicles will shift to an 800-volt architecture, this will support faster charging speeds across many vehicles, not just Teslas.
Current 400-volt architectures will not support anything higher than roughly 250 kW, for now.
This may be why Tesla chose to roll out the V4 Superchargers in Europe, where the non-Tesla Supercharging Pilot Program has been in motion for a couple of years. In the United States, Tesla just enabled non-Tesla EVs to utilize the Supercharger Network.
Tesla V4 Charging Cable Length
Perhaps one of the biggest needs of the new Superchargers was a longer Supercharger cable, which could be utilized by many EV makers as charging ports are not always in the same locations.
In the past, the V4 Design hinted toward being more like a gas station to alleviate this problem, but it appears Tesla has ultimately chosen to lengthen the cable.
The V3 Superchargers offered a cable length of roughly 6 to 6.5 feet. Esther Kokkelmans, who visited the Supercharger in Harderwijk today and took pictures for Teslarati, said the new cable was roughly 2.9 to 3 meters in length. This is roughly 9.5 to 9.8 feet, which is significantly longer than the previous V3 Superchargers.
This is a sizeable increase that should alleviate most of the concerns regarding whether vehicles will be able to park correctly in the new spots. That is one issue many U.S. users have run into during early trials of non-Tesla EVs at Superchargers.
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