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Tesla’s V4 Supercharger rumors begin to swirl: new designs, CCS support

Credit: Tesla

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Rumors about Tesla’s upcoming V4 Supercharger are swirling throughout the community, with various details about the new charging stacks being speculated against. Tesla Superchargers are the most populous on Earth and have also started to expand to other automakers in some regions, like Europe. However, the company is looking to bring out a new design and also a potential adoption of CCS support for non-Tesla owners.

Tesla’s current top-of-the-line Supercharger is the V3, which is capable of 250 kW charging speeds that can give owners 1,000 miles of range per hour. The introduction of the V3 Supercharger was during my first days as a journalist at Teslarati, and I remember it vividly. It was incredible to see such fast charging speeds and a controlled and calculated rollout of Tesla’s new tech. But of course, even new tech becomes outdated.

The new V4 Supercharger could have a completely updated design, according to @MarcoRPTesla, who stated that the new design will be taller, slimmer, and more streamlined than previous Supercharger shell designs.

One could argue that the design of the upcoming V4 Superchargers are similar to the Megachargers Tesla will utilize for the Semi. Teslarati showed exclusive images of the Megacharger design at the Frito-Lay factory in Modesto in June, and it is similar to the drafts of the V4 Supercharger design.

Credit: Teslarati reader Timke Klinker

As you can see from these drafted designs, the new V4 Supercharger could be completely different in terms of dimensions and could be an advantage when used with Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck as it is a larger vehicle.

The front page of a report also leaked from Tesla that showed the company is planning to develop a Supercharger Charge Post that has Dual Cables that are suitable for both V3 and V4 charging speeds and could also include a potential CCS charging port for third-party automakers to use.

Now, Tesla has discussed opening Superchargers to third-party companies for several years, and it’s already started in the form of a Pilot Program in Europe. The same type of program could be launched in the United States later this year, and it likely will start with the V4 Supercharger. After all, the White House said in late June:

“Later this year, Tesla will begin production of new Supercharger equipment that will enable non-Tesla EV drivers in North America to use Tesla Superchargers.”

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Earlier this week, automaker Aptera pleaded to Congress that Tesla’s Supercharger should be the standard in the United States. “While electric vehicle technology has rapidly advanced, the charging standard in the U.S. has not,” Aptera wrote in an email to Teslarati. “CCS and SAE J1772, the US’s common standards, are clunky, cumbersome, and expensive.”

Tesla’s non-Tesla Supercharger pilot program expands to France, Norway

It is unlikely that Tesla’s Supercharger design will be adopted as the Standard, but the inclusion of CCS-compatible charging connectors on upcoming Superchargers would be a huge advantage for e-mobility and the adoption of EVs as a whole.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor proves to be difficult

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Credit: Grok Imagine

Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor is proving to be a difficult task, according to some riders who made the journey to Austin to attempt to ride in one of its vehicles that has zero supervision.

Last week, Tesla officially removed Safety Monitors from some — not all — of its Robotaxi vehicles in Austin, Texas, answering skeptics who said the vehicles still needed supervision to operate safely and efficiently.

BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor

Tesla aimed to remove Safety Monitors before the end of 2025, and it did, but only to company employees. It made the move last week to open the rides to the public, just a couple of weeks late to its original goal, but the accomplishment was impressive, nonetheless.

However, the small number of Robotaxis that are operating without Safety Monitors has proven difficult to hail for a ride. David Moss, who has gained notoriety recently as the person who has traveled over 10,000 miles in his Tesla on Full Self-Driving v14 without any interventions, made it to Austin last week.

He has tried to get a ride in a Safety Monitor-less Robotaxi for the better part of four days, and after 38 attempts, he still has yet to grab one:

Tesla said last week that it was rolling out a controlled test of the Safety Monitor-less Robotaxis. Ashok Elluswamy, who heads the AI program at Tesla, confirmed that the company was “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader Robotaxi fleet with Safety Monitors,” and that “the ratio will increase over time.”

This is a good strategy that prioritizes safety and keeps the company’s controlled rollout at the forefront of the Robotaxi rollout.

However, it will be interesting to see how quickly the company can scale these completely monitor-less rides. It has proven to be extremely difficult to get one, but that is understandable considering only a handful of the cars in the entire Austin fleet are operating with no supervision within the vehicle.

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Tesla gives its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent

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Credit: BLKMDL3 | X

Tesla has given its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent, as a new feature seems to show that the company is preparing for frequent border crossings.

Tesla owner and influencer BLKMDL3, also known as Zack, recently took his Tesla to the border of California and Mexico at Tijuana, and at the international crossing, Full Self-Driving showed an interesting message: “Upcoming country border — FSD (Supervised) will become unavailable.”

Due to regulatory approvals, once a Tesla operating on Full Self-Driving enters a new country, it is required to comply with the laws and regulations that are applicable to that territory. Even if legal, it seems Tesla will shut off FSD temporarily, confirming it is in a location where operation is approved.

This is something that will be extremely important in Europe, as crossing borders there is like crossing states in the U.S.; it’s pretty frequent compared to life in America, Canada, and Mexico.

Tesla has been working to get FSD approved in Europe for several years, and it has been getting close to being able to offer it to owners on the continent. However, it is still working through a lot of the red tape that is necessary for European regulators to approve use of the system on their continent.

This feature seems to be one that would be extremely useful in Europe, considering the fact that crossing borders into other countries is much more frequent than here in the U.S., and would cater to an area where approvals would differ.

Tesla has been testing FSD in Spain, France, England, and other European countries, and plans to continue expanding this effort. European owners have been fighting for a very long time to utilize the functionality, but the red tape has been the biggest bottleneck in the process.

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Tesla Europe builds momentum with expanding FSD demos and regional launches

Tesla operates Full Self-Driving in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.

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SpaceX Starship V3 gets launch date update from Elon Musk

The first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.

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Credit: SpaceX/X

Elon Musk has announced that SpaceX’s next Starship launch, Flight 12, is expected in about six weeks. This suggests that the first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.

In a post on X, Elon Musk stated that the next Starship launch is in six weeks. He accompanied his announcement with a photo that seemed to have been taken when Starship’s upper stage was just about to separate from the Super Heavy Booster. Musk did not state whether SpaceX will attempt to catch the Super Heavy Booster during the upcoming flight.

The upcoming flight will mark the debut of Starship V3. The upgraded design includes the new Raptor V3 engine, which is expected to have nearly twice the thrust of the original Raptor 1, at a fraction of the cost and with significantly reduced weight. The Starship V3 platform is also expected to be optimized for manufacturability. 

The Starship V3 Flight 12 launch timeline comes as SpaceX pursues an aggressive development cadence for the fully reusable launch system. Previous iterations of Starship have racked up a mixed but notable string of test flights, including multiple integrated flight tests in 2025.

Interestingly enough, SpaceX has teased an aggressive timeframe for Starship V3’s first flight. Way back in late November, SpaceX noted on X that it will be aiming to launch Starship V3’s maiden flight in the first quarter of 2026. This was despite setbacks like a structural anomaly on the first V3 booster during ground testing.

“Starship’s twelfth flight test remains targeted for the first quarter of 2026,” the company wrote in its post on X. 

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