Supercharging. Explain it to me like I'm five years old

[tmwong]

You have a Touring; that's why. It has a smaller, 92kWh battery, so there are fewer battery cells. Each battery cell can only accept energy at a particular maximum rate due to the underlying chemistry, and they are charged in parallel.

Pure and Touring trims max out at 250kW.
GT, GT-P, DE, Air Sapphire max out at 350kW.
Gravity maxes out at 400kW.

Huh? I have an AGT.

Let me fix my profile.

- T

 

[borski]

Huh? I have an AGT.

Let me fix my profile.

- T

Oh! Then I have no idea. lol

 

[TonyLieske]

There is more to the charging world than EA and Tesla. In NJ (central and southern) there are several EVGO station and a couple of ChargeSmart all of which offer over 150kW speeds.

I live in South Jersey and have only us EVGo. I was pretty happy with it, only need a credit card (no app or subscription needed). As you say it only charged ~100-150kW (fluctuated during the session) but that seemed fine for me at the time.

 

[Miami_Lucid_Man]

Keep in mind that you will only get 45 to 50kW so it will not a a fast charge up. In addition, it can be difficult to get the cord to reach the Lucid Air charge port.

To be clear, is the 45-50 kw max for a magic dock supercharger only or is that what we can expect when all of the superchargers are opened to us (with our own adaptors)?

 

[DeaneG]

To be clear, is the 45-50 kw max for a magic dock supercharger only or is that what we can expect when all of the superchargers are opened to us (with our own adaptors)?

The Air is limited to 40-50kW on 450V V3 Superchargers. It'll be able to pull its normal full power (200-300kW) on Superchargers that are supplied by 1000V V4 power cabinets. Few of these exist currently.
Gravity can pull about 225kW on a V3 Supercharger and 400kW on a V4 Supercharger.

 

[borski]

To be clear, is the 45-50 kw max for a magic dock supercharger only or is that what we can expect when all of the superchargers are opened to us (with our own adaptors)?

Yes. The reason is because when Air launched / was designed, the future looked bright and everyone was moving to 800V-1000V architecture, *including* Tesla (see: cybertruck)

Then the switch to NACS happened seemingly overnight, and suddenly everyone has to deal with the 400V problem that presented.

The “Magic Dock” is great, but is still limited by the cabinets that power the chargers; those cabinets are outdated and run at 400V. Over time, they will eventually change it.

Other vehicles that were designed *after* knowing they’d have to deal with 400V (aka “old”) architecture developed clever solutions to boost the voltage; this includes Gravity, which will charge at those 400V cabinets at speeds of 225kW, which is the max. At 1000V cabinet, it’ll charge at 400kW, which is even faster than any Tesla.

But for the Air they never expected to have to deal with 400V chargers all that often.

Before someone starts complaining about excuses, this is an explanation, not an excuse. I’m sure they’ll fix it in a future iteration, and eventually it will be moot as Tesla catches up to the 1000V bandwagon.

 

[Miami_Lucid_Man]

Yes. The reason is because when Air launched / was designed, the future looked bright and everyone was moving to 800V-1000V architecture, *including* Tesla (see: cybertruck)

Then the switch to NACS happened seemingly overnight, and suddenly everyone has to deal with the 400V problem that presented.

The “Magic Dock” is great, but is still limited by the cabinets that power the chargers; those cabinets are outdated and run at 400V. Over time, they will eventually change it.

Other vehicles that were designed *after* knowing they’d have to deal with 400V (aka “old”) architecture developed clever solutions to boost the voltage; this includes Gravity, which will charge at those 400V cabinets at speeds of 225kW, which is the max. At 1000V cabinet, it’ll charge at 400kW, which is even faster than any Tesla.

But for the Air they never expected to have to deal with 400V chargers all that often.

Before someone starts complaining about excuses, this is an explanation, not an excuse. I’m sure they’ll fix it in a future iteration, and eventually it will be moot as Tesla catches up to the 1000V bandwagon.

Okay thanks for clearly describing this. Sort of an underwhelming thing to have supercharger access then isnt it? I doubt Tesla will be converting V3 stations installed in the last few years to V4 anytime soon. Bummer.

 

[illopp00]

You have a Touring; that's why. It has a smaller, 92kWh battery, so there are fewer battery cells. Each battery cell can only accept energy at a particular maximum rate due to the underlying chemistry, and they are charged in parallel.

Pure and Touring trims max out at 250kW.
GT, GT-P, DE, Air Sapphire max out at 350kW.
Gravity maxes out at 400kW.

Although I have gotten 274 KW peak for a 20 secs on EVGO when everything is warm and no other cars in the station. My last charge session blasted in the kwrs, 17.7 kwhr in 5 mins. I was just testing something to shake out the car before sending it to annual service.

 

[borski]

Okay thanks for clearly describing this. Sort of an underwhelming thing to have supercharger access then isnt it?

Yes. Many of us pointed this out then. Some folks were in a rush for NACS. Others were more skeptical, for reasons like this.

Newer vehicles (Gravity) and hopefully future Airs will make better use of them, but for existing vehicles it’s just useful in an emergency.

I doubt Tesla will be converting V3 stations installed in the last few years to V4 anytime soon. Bummer.

No idea. I hope they do. It’s one of their only major profit centers now, so maybe.

 

[Sandvinsd]

Because of the speed issues, I have been in no hurry to get SC access, but will welcome an adaptor so I can have it for “just in case”. I do welcome all the other vehicles getting access as that will push the demand off the EA charger network as people migrate to Tesla SCs. For me, that will make my charging experiences much better on trips. Perhaps in the distant future when the SCs are on the 1000v architecture, then I will be drawn to them.

 

[DeaneG]

Because of the speed issues, I have been in no hurry to get SC access, but will welcome an adaptor so I can have it for “just in case”. I do welcome all the other vehicles getting access as that will push the demand off the EA charger network as people migrate to Tesla SCs. For me, that will make my charging experiences much better on trips. Perhaps in the distant future when the SCs are on the 1000v architecture, then I will be drawn to them.

I've been charging our Volvo at Superchargers on a few road trips in recent months. Usually we're the only non-Tesla EV there. Maybe most EV owners aren't interested, don't want to buy an adapter, or ??