Although the Tesla Model Y L has only just been unveiled and the Cybertruck’s entry into China is still “far away”, the infrastructure prepared for its future models has been quietly in place.
Since Tesla laid the first V2 supercharging pile in China in April 2014, a full 11 years have passed, and V4 supercharging has finally come.
As a “charging professional”, the “LAB test” was the first time to experience it, so how does it perform?
What has changed
Compared with the previous V2 and V3 supercharging piles, the new V4 supercharging piles have the most significant changes in appearance design.
The classic hollow design is replaced by a fully enclosed shape with an integrated package.
The pure white pile body, with the eye-catching red “TESLA” logo, continues the brand design language while highlighting a strong technological texture.
In addition, the length of the charging cable has also increased significantly by 1 meter from 1.98 meters in the V3 era to 3 meters.
This not only prepares the company for its upcoming big Cybertruck, but also means that the V4 supercharging pile is officially available for all brandsNew energyModels are open.
The prompt sign on the wall clearly marks the operation steps. If you are also curious about the charging performance of other brands of models on Tesla’s V4 supercharging piles, please pay attention to the follow-up measurement report of “LAB Test”.
In addition to the visible changes, the core upgrade of the V4 supercharging pile lies in the significant improvement in performance.
The peak power of the V3 supercharging pile is 250kW. In the context of the continuous emergence of 480kW and 600kW supercharging piles, this power is close to the lower limit of the overcharging field.
And the all-new V4Charging piles, which not only increases the peak charging power to 500kW in one fell swoop, but is also compatible with a wide voltage platform from 400V to 1000V.
What is the measured experience?
We used a new standard Model Y for SOC 30%-90% charging testing.
About 20 seconds after inserting the gun, the vehicle reached the advertised upper limit of 175kW charging speed.
However, charging power does not stop there, and continues to climb over time.
In the end, it took 27 minutes and 30 seconds to charge from 30%-90% of the new standard version of the Model Y.
The peak power is 185kW, and the charging capacity displayed on the side of the car is 39.797 degrees.
After the test, an old Model Y came to the same venue, and when charging, the peak power was 155kW.
As a comparison reference, in March this year, we tested the refreshed version of the long-range Model Y on the Tesla V3 supercharging pile in Hainan.
At that time, the peak power reached 251kW, which not only exceeded its nominal upper limit of 250kW, but also “eaten” the entire output power of the V3 pile.
Of course, the experience of overcharging is destined not to be cheap. When we tested V4 overcharging, the electricity price was 2.29 yuan per kWh, and the total cost was about 91 yuan.
Written at the end
Thanks to the first-mover advantage, as of June this year, Tesla has built a total of more than 2,100 supercharging stations and 11,600 supercharging piles in China, “far ahead” most of its own brands in terms of quantity.
For Tesla owners, Tesla supercharging piles, which are stable and do not jump guns, clean and tidy stations, and can calibrate the vehicle’s battery while charging, are indeed frequently used in daily cars.
But for owners of other brands, there is a question mark over whether they will choose to use Tesla supercharging because the Tesla V4 is fully open.
After all, the electricity price of 2.2 yuan per kWh at every turn, even in the city center of Shanghai, is comparable to the “oil price”.
However, Tesla officials also said that the follow-up V4 supercharging pile will cover more service areas, and high-speed charging will be more convenient.
So if you really see Tesla V4 overcharging in the service area one day, will you try to use it?