One of the best parts of owning a Tesla is having access to the vast and fast Supercharger network. However, Tesla is actually lagging a bit behind on the number of stations it aimed to build and now that it is allowing non-Tesla EVs to plug in too, the need to expand the network will be even greater.
The manufacturer is well aware of this and has created a system that uses prefabricated pieces that make Supercharger construction quicker than before. This 12-stall Supercharger station in Brooksville, Florida went up in just 8 days, thanks to pre-assembled stalls that came loaded on a flatbed truck - this timelapse video from Tesla Charging shows how that all unfolded.
The site wasn’t made operational in 8 days, but even just the construction phase finished so quickly is impressive. There is also no real fixed time frame for how long building a Supercharger and bringing it online, since this varies depending on many factors, many of which are outside Tesla’s control like finding the location or getting permission to build it.
Tesla announced late last year that it is targeting an increase in the global Supercharger network by 31 percent in 2022, increasing its capacity from 3,382 stations and more than 30,000 stalls by an additional 1,047 stations and an additional 10,000 stalls.
Only around 37.4 percent of the Supercharger network has V3 stalls, the ones that deliver up to 250 kW, although this varies around the world. In Canada, for instance, almost 50 percent of Superchargers are V3.
Tesla also announced that it will increase the V3 station charging speed by around 30 percent to 324 kW, bringing the Supercharger closer to what some other DC fast chargers are offering, with speeds of up to 350 kW at 800 V. To go beyond that, Tesla will eventually launch a V4 Supercharger.
