Tesla has now opened a new world’s largest Supercharger station with a whopping 72 charging stalls just a month after beating its own record number of stalls at a charging station.
Tesla Supercharger Network
Unlike most automakers producing electric vehicles, Tesla doesn’t rely on third-party charging networks.
Early on, Tesla decided to invest in its own charging networks to optimize its ownership experience.
The automaker built the Supercharger network to enable long-distance driving and quick city charging, and the Destination network for a slower charge in places like hotels and restaurants.
The Supercharger network can charge electric vehicles at a charge rate of up to 250 kW with the latest Supercharger V3 technology, though most stations are equipped with systems capable of charging up to 120 kW.
Recently, Tesla announced that it deployed its 20,000th charger in the Supercharger network.
One of the biggest advantages of the Supercharger network is that it is built around convenience with a plug-and-charge system that enables drivers to simply plug in their car and it starts charging. The billing system is handled automatically.
Also, Tesla tends to install a higher number of charging stalls per charging station on the Supercharger network than competitors.
Unlike third-party networks, Tesla doesn’t rely on its charging network as a source of revenue. Instead, it aims for the Supercharger network to add value to the Tesla ownership experience.
It means that while other charging networks try to optimize the use of its charging stations so that every stall is used as much as possible, Tesla doesn’t mind having stalls left unused most of the time if it means that owners have a better chance to always have a place to charge.
This results in Tesla building some stations with higher numbers of stalls than other networks who rarely build stations with more than eight chargers.
Tesla’s new world’s largest Supercharger station
In November, Tesla deployed a new world’s largest Supercharger station: a 56-charging stall station in Firebaugh, California.
Now just a month later, Tesla is beating that record by a wide margin with a new 72-stall Supercharger station in Shanghai.
The automaker announced the new charging station on its Chinese Weibo account:
The new charging station is located at the Jing’an International Center in the center of the Chinese megacity.
A local Tesla owner going by “Jay in Shanghai” on Twitter shared a few pictures of the new charging station:
Interestingly, while it is Tesla’s new largest Supercharger station in the world by number of stalls, it’s actually not the most powerful Supercharger station overall.
Tesla lists the power capacity of the stalls at 120 kW, while the previous largest Supercharger in California is equipped with Tesla’s latest V3 250 kW Supercharger technology.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
