tidmutt
Well-known member
- First Name
- Daniel
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2020
- Threads
- 8
- Messages
- 603
- Reaction score
- 992
- Location
- Somewhere hot and humid
- Vehicles
- Model Y Performance, Model X P100D
- Occupation
- Software Architect
That may all be true... but... reducing charging time significantly would mean not having to communicate those rather nuanced facts and educate buyers. You can simply say, 0-100% as fast as a gas car! Bam! People lining up.I have no doubt the Cybertruck will charge at 1000V. Elon said it would. But here's the rub: The fact that V.4 chargers are capable of 1 MW of current does not imply the Cybertruck will accept the full 1 MW. It might briefly accept 800 kW for a minute or two at low states of charge before starting to taper. If it could accept the full megawatt, it would only be for seconds, not minutes.
People dreaming of a full charge in 7 minutes are not thinking clearly. That said, after owning two Model 3's for over 4 years each, I can say the speed of Supercharging is the most over-talked about metric of EV's ever. It's already quicker than most people realize (if the driver knows enough to draw the battery down to 10%-25% before charging). When I'm travelling Interstate, the car charges faster than I'm ready to hit the road again.
And having said all that, I WAS a little concerned the much larger battery and higher energy consumption/mile of the Cybertruck that it would be taking a step backward relative to the hyper-efficient and aerodynamic Model 3 when it came to Supercharging times on trips. In other words, all else being equal, a higher Wh/mile vehicle sits at a Supercharger longer than a more efficient vehicle because it needs to take on more energy to travel the same distance. This announcement eliminates those fears (at least when able to use V.4 Superchargers).
Yes, you might have 7-minute Supercharger stops in certain situations, but no, it's not going to charge from 0-100% (or even from 10-90%) in 7 minutes. It doesn't need to do that to make it better than fuelling with gasoline or diesel. Remember, when fuelling with gasoline, you stand at the pump the entire time and it seems like it takes forever. When Supercharging, you plug in and walk away. It's done before you come back in most cases and it's a much better experience.
Yes, it's not technically needed, but it's undeniable that much faster charging would be a huge win. There is also the percentage of the population without access to easy overnight charging. Being able to "fuel up" like a gas car would address a big concern for those people.
It could be in the end that the new architecture and V4 super chargers will simply keep the CT at parity with the 3 and Y, that will be a win for sure. Wouldn't mind if it's better than that though!
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