As it is right now, charging your electric car on the go can be one of the most annoying aspects of owning an EV. Tesla seems to have already largely solved the problem of getting to your destination, with them claiming 99% charging coverage in North America. While on average over 80% of charging is done at home, spending time charging on a road trip is an unavoidable obstacle. Having large infotainment screens with Netflix softens the blow, but wasting time charging just makes your journey longer.
Tesla is changing this unfortunate reality with the rollout of its new V3 Supercharger network. They’ve recently rolled out a new route Superchargers going across Canada. So let’s take a look at what these new fast chargers will mean for the future of electric cars.
No wasted time
The ultimate dream would be to take a road trip in an electric car without having to waste hours charging. Spending hours waiting for your car to charge is something you need to plan around, unlike stopping at a gas station to top off real quick. Well, these new chargers hit that same level of convenience. Charging at over a 1000 miles of range an hour means you really can just make a quick stop to top off your battery.
That’s over 75 miles in just 5 minutes. As this expansion continues I hope we see these Superchargers well spaced. If we could just stop for 5-10 minutes every hour or two we could spend much more time on the road to our destination. This would also practically eliminate range anxiety. Knowing that you’ll be able to stop at a Supercharger on the way to your destination and still make it on time will eliminate the biggest advantage gas-powered cars still have. This could open the floodgates for EVs going mainstream.
No wasted space
Tesla’s current Supercharger network is already ahead of the pack in terms of getting a charger. Other similar fast-charging networks have about the same coverage with a competitive amount of charging stations. But Tesla has by far more individual chargers total. This means Tesla owners don’t have to worry about going to a charging station to find all the spots taken.
Faster charging helps this issue even more. If a spot only needs to be taken for 5-10 minutes, that spot will be cleared faster, allowing more people to charge. No more headaches waiting for someone else to finish charging that you couldn’t plan for.
Our Take
Frankly, it looks to me like these Superchargers are going to be the gas station of the future. As Tesla continues to roll these out we’ll have the infrastructure required for EVs to go completely mainstream. I just hope they’re quick to get more of these installed. There’s gonna be a huge demand for chargers soon with the Model Y on the horizon.
I do think this might be the doom of other electric car brands. There isn’t a network that can compare to Tesla’s Supercharger network. And if they get these V3 chargers out there quickly other manufacturers could be in trouble. There simply isn’t an alternative out there to these kinds of chargers. And if these chargers are as big of a selling point as I expect them to be, everyone else could be left in the dust.
