Tesla arrives at the store

For a long time, Tesla has cooked its own food at loading stations in order to quickly provide a high-performance infrastructure to its customers. The company is now moving to the general CSS standard in Europe.

Nevertheless, the Tesla Model 3 is not available in Europe, but it is getting closer. This week, Tesla invited registered participants to a first screening during which only the American model was presented. A little later, Drew Bennett, Head of Global Charging Infrastructure at Tesla, announced a much bigger news: the European Model 3 will bring the standard CCS connection to the store, an interview revealed.

This is far from being a burden of standards common to new technologies: until now, Tesla relied on its exclusive compressor network for a fast charge, far ahead of all other providers in terms of coverage and rates. charge. At the same time, various consortia are making rapid progress in developing their own infrastructure.

Owner or better by default?

Tesla had to make a difficult decision: continue to use exclusive superchargers, but risk that his car will soon lose the best charging infrastructure available? Without a mbadive additional expansion that would have been necessary with the introduction of the model of volume 3 at the expense of the buyers of the expensive models S and X, which until now had only rarely waited for a free station. The forums on electric cars have in the past overflowed with speculation about the charge port that the model 3 would get in Europe and the way Tesla would continue with its superchargers.

This is now clear and the decision announced by Bennett was apparently well prepared: shortly after the publication of the interview, the new information was also available on the European Tesla information pages. "You can use our Supercharger network to load Model 3, Model S and Model X," he says now. As Bennett has explained, the European superchargers will be upgraded before the marketing of the model 3: besides the own charging cable to Tesla, they get a second, the plug inserts into the CSS plug of model 3.

Without a second move, Model 3 could have used more loading options than the S and X models – Supercharger, as well as all that CCS stations already have and are still under construction. But for owners and future buyers of Model S and X, Bennett had good news: for them, there will soon be a relatively inexpensive and compact Supercharger CSS adapter, so these models can use all third-party stations.

The compressor inventory is increased

In addition, Bennett announced that the Supercharger network was no longer in the current state – 1359 stations with 11,234 pillars, of which about one third in Europe – remain: "We will accelerate the expansion with certainty", a- he announced. create an infrastructure before it's really necessary. "The" absolute "goal of Tesla is to be ahead of the demand, and" by no means ", the inclusion of CSS does not mean that you will invest less in your own network.

Some questions, but let the boss of the compressor open, and also a request from Tesla on these topics have remained unanswered at the beginning: so we do not know how fast the model 3 with the built-in CCS and the model S and X with the adapter for other stations will be able to charge. As emerging CSS stations such as the Ionity consortium are equipped with newer technologies, it is conceivable that charging will be even faster than superchargers, which deliver up to 120kW of power – enough for a big Tesla battery in half a second. -time to recharge more than 50%.

There was no response to the request for Technology Reviewif the European models S and X will soon be equipped with CCS plugs. This would be obvious, because an adapter could be detrimental to performance and would not be very elegant – while model 3 drivers installed in CCS stations can simply plug and unplug the cable, model owners S and X have the adapter of face – or the trunk and plug in between the CCS cable and his car.

Tesla charger for all Stromer?

With the partial switch to CCS at Tesla, it is also more likely that other electric cars can sometimes use the Supercharger network. Tesla's manager, Elon Musk, has always emphasized in the past that the system is open to other brands. In the Superchargern, which owns, the competitors of their car should take over Tesla's complex loading technology. This has fundamentally changed with CSS: all European electronic models announced in the near future are designed in this way.

The charging infrastructure market in Europe seems to have taken the decision of Tesla, marking a big step towards more maturity and standardization, which should benefit the distribution. On the other hand, Tesla would not be Tesla if the company did not go ahead with proprietary developments while it is otherwise too slow.

Whatever the case may be, Musk has already announced a new generation of superchargers that will give the fastest pillars of today's competition a maximum power of 350 kW, as a "supercharger".toys for children".

(Sascha Mattke)