Photo: cabbey via Tesla Motors Club
Tesla has been busy opening V4 Supercharger stations across Europe in the past six months, with about a dozen already up and running. Although no V4 Supercharger station is available in North America, the first will open soon in Oregon. Construction of the Wilsonville Supercharger station began in August.
Tesla Supercharger network is consistently regarded as the best fast-charging network in the world. Tesla doesn't just operate the most extensive DCFC network, with over 50,000 stalls around the globe. It also has the best uptime records in the industry, at an impressive 99.95%. It's hard to beat that, but availability and reliability are not everything. As the Cybertruck deliveries are imminent, Tesla needs better charging stations to serve the hungry 1,000-volt electric pickups.
This is where the Supercharger V4 should prove its qualities. When the first rumors about the updated chargers appeared last summer, Tesla already deployed the Megachargers at PepsiCo facilities to charge the Semi trucks. Later, Elon Musk clarified that the Megachargers were actually Supercharger V4. That may indicate that they're both capable of outputting 1,000 volts and over 750 kW of power since the Cybertruck and the Semi share similar drive units and power electronics.
And yet, they differ in at least one area: the charging plug. The Megachargers are fitted with a unique Megawatt Charging System (MCS) plug. This is significantly different from the NACS plug used at all Supercharger stations in North America. Charging a Semi at a Supercharger or another Tesla vehicle at a Megacharger is thus impossible, even though the internals might not be that different. This includes the Cybertruck, which doesn't appear to feature an MCS port.
The situation is even more complicated in Europe, where Tesla doesn't sell the Semi or the Cybertruck. The EV maker has been busy deploying V4 Supercharger stations across the continent, with about a dozen in operation or under construction. They are also different from the ones in the US. First, they have CCS2 plugs instead of NACS. Second, because Tesla doesn't have a 1,000-volt EV on the European market yet (nor is it planning one in the future), the V4 Supercharger stalls don't differ much from their V3 cousins. They're still outputting 400 volts at a power not exceeding 350 kW.
This makes the first V4 Supercharger station in Wilsonville, Oregon, even more exciting. Tesla began building it in August, and people thought it was another V3 station until the workers installed the charging stalls. This means it will be the first V4 Supercharger in North America when it opens later this month. Since the construction is not yet complete, we still don't know all the technical details, but what we know makes us believe it would not feature MCS plugs like the Megachargers.
It's unclear whether Tesla will fit the V4 Superchargers with a Magic Dock to allow charging CCS EVs. Considering that the stations built in Europe did not allow third-party EVs at first, we expect a similar thing to happen in North America. And soon, most carmakers in North America will equip their EVs with NACS plugs anyway, so that it won't matter much.
This is where the Supercharger V4 should prove its qualities. When the first rumors about the updated chargers appeared last summer, Tesla already deployed the Megachargers at PepsiCo facilities to charge the Semi trucks. Later, Elon Musk clarified that the Megachargers were actually Supercharger V4. That may indicate that they're both capable of outputting 1,000 volts and over 750 kW of power since the Cybertruck and the Semi share similar drive units and power electronics.
And yet, they differ in at least one area: the charging plug. The Megachargers are fitted with a unique Megawatt Charging System (MCS) plug. This is significantly different from the NACS plug used at all Supercharger stations in North America. Charging a Semi at a Supercharger or another Tesla vehicle at a Megacharger is thus impossible, even though the internals might not be that different. This includes the Cybertruck, which doesn't appear to feature an MCS port.
The situation is even more complicated in Europe, where Tesla doesn't sell the Semi or the Cybertruck. The EV maker has been busy deploying V4 Supercharger stations across the continent, with about a dozen in operation or under construction. They are also different from the ones in the US. First, they have CCS2 plugs instead of NACS. Second, because Tesla doesn't have a 1,000-volt EV on the European market yet (nor is it planning one in the future), the V4 Supercharger stalls don't differ much from their V3 cousins. They're still outputting 400 volts at a power not exceeding 350 kW.
This makes the first V4 Supercharger station in Wilsonville, Oregon, even more exciting. Tesla began building it in August, and people thought it was another V3 station until the workers installed the charging stalls. This means it will be the first V4 Supercharger in North America when it opens later this month. Since the construction is not yet complete, we still don't know all the technical details, but what we know makes us believe it would not feature MCS plugs like the Megachargers.
It's unclear whether Tesla will fit the V4 Superchargers with a Magic Dock to allow charging CCS EVs. Considering that the stations built in Europe did not allow third-party EVs at first, we expect a similar thing to happen in North America. And soon, most carmakers in North America will equip their EVs with NACS plugs anyway, so that it won't matter much.
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