Photo: Elon Musk on Twitter
Yes, "mph" still means what you think it does. Yes, miles per hour. No, Tesla hasn't gone mad, and neither have we. The 1,000 miles-per-hour you see there doesn't refer to speed - or, at least, not the kind of speed we usually associate to this measurement unit.
There are two ways in which electric vehicles can compete side-by-side with their fossil fuel-powered counterparts in terms of practicality, and that's by either increasing their maximum range or shortening their charging times. If you give it a second thought, though, it's the latter that matters the most since no matter how great the range, you're still going to have to recharge at some point. And if that takes hours, it's no good.
EVs seem to try and deal with both aspects, but it's really only Tesla who managed to nail them so far. Europe's Ionity stations promise to offer 350 kW charging rates, but there are no models available at the moment to take advantage of that. That means it's still Tesla's Supercharger network that leads the way with its 250 kW output that matches the chargers on the company's most recent models, the 3 and the Y.
Up until recently, the older S and X could only charge at 200 kW. A recent over the air update pushed that to 225 kW, but now the company's website quotes the maximum charging rates for the battery-powered sedan and SUV at 250 kW. What gives?
Apparently, Tesla managed to bring the two older models on par with the 3 and the Y in terms of Supercharging speed, enabling that coveted (because it sounds good) 1,000 mph charging rate. What that means is that the EVs can recuperate 1,000 miles worth of range during one hour of being plugged in. That's 100 miles in six minutes, or roughly 300 miles in 20 minutes.
The jump was made possible by the use of thicker wires which, as Elon Musk explains in a Tweet, help reduce resistive heating - so, not everything can be achieved through over-the-air upgrades. The 1,000 mph charging, however, isn't entirely accurate for the S and X because of their larger batteries and, particularly with the SUV, its lower efficiency. Even so, new Model S and Model X users should be able to appreciate the faster charging times of their vehicles from now on, making longer trips in a Tesla feel even less of a hassle than before.
EVs seem to try and deal with both aspects, but it's really only Tesla who managed to nail them so far. Europe's Ionity stations promise to offer 350 kW charging rates, but there are no models available at the moment to take advantage of that. That means it's still Tesla's Supercharger network that leads the way with its 250 kW output that matches the chargers on the company's most recent models, the 3 and the Y.
Up until recently, the older S and X could only charge at 200 kW. A recent over the air update pushed that to 225 kW, but now the company's website quotes the maximum charging rates for the battery-powered sedan and SUV at 250 kW. What gives?
Apparently, Tesla managed to bring the two older models on par with the 3 and the Y in terms of Supercharging speed, enabling that coveted (because it sounds good) 1,000 mph charging rate. What that means is that the EVs can recuperate 1,000 miles worth of range during one hour of being plugged in. That's 100 miles in six minutes, or roughly 300 miles in 20 minutes.
The jump was made possible by the use of thicker wires which, as Elon Musk explains in a Tweet, help reduce resistive heating - so, not everything can be achieved through over-the-air upgrades. The 1,000 mph charging, however, isn't entirely accurate for the S and X because of their larger batteries and, particularly with the SUV, its lower efficiency. Even so, new Model S and Model X users should be able to appreciate the faster charging times of their vehicles from now on, making longer trips in a Tesla feel even less of a hassle than before.
We had to increase some wire thicknesses in S/X to reduce resistive heating. Technically, won’t be quite 1000 mph charging, as X especially is much bigger than 3.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2020
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