Photo: Tesla Motors
In late November, an unlikely union made out of BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford, and Volkswagen Group (through its Audi and Porsche brands) announced they would forge an alliance to put in place a network of ultra-fast chargers throughout Europe.
The plan is to build 400 of these very powerful charging stations as quickly as possible, but by 2020, thousands of them should become available. The signers of the Memorandum of Understanding say the chargers will have a power output of 350 kW, which makes them more than double the current output of Tesla's Superchargers.
After years of owning the most powerful charging network in the world - and, as far as the U.S. is concerned, probably the one offering the best coverage - Tesla couldn't possibly sit back and watch its crown be taken away by a bunch of legacy carmakers.
Tesla's presence in Europe can't really be described as "massive," but the Palo Alto company is working on it. It only has 260 Supercharger points on the Old Continent so far, but it looks to almost double that number by the time the Model 3 becomes available.
It's no secret that access to the Supercharger network was one of the selling points that helped Tesla get where it is today. Even though this will cease to be free of charge for those who order their cars starting next Monday or don't get delivery of them by April 31, 2017, a strong network is still pivotal.
Not only were Teslas the EVs with the longest range, but they also had the shortest recharge times thanks to the 145 kW put out by the Superchargers. These two put together made long-distance travelling not only possible, but also more like a walk in the park.
A lot of other brands (a few of them we've mentioned before) now have a newly found desire to build EVs, so they need to take care of the charging aspect as well. Tesla, on the other hand, wants to remain a step ahead, and Elon Musk gave us a hint on how he plans to do that.
Fred Lambert of Electrek felt like pumping a few secrets out of Tesla's CEO, so he asked whether Tesla's V3 Superchargers would offer the same 350 kW output as the stations promised by the alliance we've talked about earlier.
Judging by the answer he provided on Christmas' Eve, Elon Musk probably started a bit early with the eggnog. He replied with a rhetorical question that doesn't really reveal much, but suggests it's going to be a lot more than that. "A mere 350 kW... what are you referring to, a children's toy?" he said, and left it at that.
Even if it had planned so before, we don't expect Tesla to offer anything under 350 kW now that the plans of Daimler&Co have been made public. But how much more powerful are the Superchargers V3 going to be and what precisely will that mean for the people charging their cars' batteries there, is something we won't find out just yet.
After years of owning the most powerful charging network in the world - and, as far as the U.S. is concerned, probably the one offering the best coverage - Tesla couldn't possibly sit back and watch its crown be taken away by a bunch of legacy carmakers.
Tesla's presence in Europe can't really be described as "massive," but the Palo Alto company is working on it. It only has 260 Supercharger points on the Old Continent so far, but it looks to almost double that number by the time the Model 3 becomes available.
It's no secret that access to the Supercharger network was one of the selling points that helped Tesla get where it is today. Even though this will cease to be free of charge for those who order their cars starting next Monday or don't get delivery of them by April 31, 2017, a strong network is still pivotal.
Not only were Teslas the EVs with the longest range, but they also had the shortest recharge times thanks to the 145 kW put out by the Superchargers. These two put together made long-distance travelling not only possible, but also more like a walk in the park.
A lot of other brands (a few of them we've mentioned before) now have a newly found desire to build EVs, so they need to take care of the charging aspect as well. Tesla, on the other hand, wants to remain a step ahead, and Elon Musk gave us a hint on how he plans to do that.
Fred Lambert of Electrek felt like pumping a few secrets out of Tesla's CEO, so he asked whether Tesla's V3 Superchargers would offer the same 350 kW output as the stations promised by the alliance we've talked about earlier.
Judging by the answer he provided on Christmas' Eve, Elon Musk probably started a bit early with the eggnog. He replied with a rhetorical question that doesn't really reveal much, but suggests it's going to be a lot more than that. "A mere 350 kW... what are you referring to, a children's toy?" he said, and left it at that.
Even if it had planned so before, we don't expect Tesla to offer anything under 350 kW now that the plans of Daimler&Co have been made public. But how much more powerful are the Superchargers V3 going to be and what precisely will that mean for the people charging their cars' batteries there, is something we won't find out just yet.
@FredericLambert A mere 350 kW ... what are you referring to, a children's toy?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 24, 2016
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