Tesla drivers — big news. Ashburn is getting its first Supercharger stations. It will be only the second location in Loudoun County, according to Tesla.com.
The Burn has confirmed that eight Tesla Superchargers are in the works for the new Harris Teeter Fuel gas station in the Broadlands. The station is currently under construction in front of the Harris Teeter at Southern Walk Plaza.
In this photo, you can see the cement pedestals where the Superchargers will be installed.
If you’re not a Tesla owner, you may not be aware of Superchargers. Here’s the rough gist:
- Tesla cars are powered by super batteries.
- The batteries have to be recharged.
- There are slow charging chargers — called Destination Chargers — sprinkled around. There are roughly five public Destination Charger stations in Loudoun. These are also similar to the type of chargers Tesla owners have at their homes.
- Then there are Superchargers. These are super-fast chargers that recharge a Tesla battery quickly. Think of it sort of like an electric gas station for Teslas.
- (We’re sure some hardcore Tesla aficionados are going to beat us up for our description, but so be it.)
The only Superchargers in Loudoun County currently are 10 chargers at the Village at Leesburg center, in one of their parking garages. (See our early report on them here.) The eight additional ones in Ashburn will bring the county total to 18.
We’re told the new gas station should open in mid to late January, and the Superchargers should be ready to go at the same time.
(Image at top: Tesla)
That is really surprising as it’s not shown on the Tesla map of future supercharger locations and we have one just about 8 miles away the Village of Leesburg. My guess is they are now branching out to areas with a high demand for Teslas where there are many townhomes/apartments where people cannot as easily charge at home.
The one thing I am not sure of is who pays for the superchargers, is it the location (in this case Harris Teeter) or Tesla or some combination.
That is really surprising as it’s not shown on the Tesla map of future supercharger locations and we have one just about 8 miles away the Village of Leesburg. My guess is they are now branching out to areas with a high demand for Teslas where there are many townhomes/apartments where people cannot as easily charge at home.
The one thing I am not sure of is who pays for the superchargers, is it the location (in this case Harris Teeter) or Tesla or some combination.
Just curious… What is the normal charging time as compared to these new superchargers? Is it something you would plug in and go shopping or is it something that would take a few minutes?
TL;DR:
Normal charging, Model 3, YMMV
a standard outlet (110V, 10-12Amps): 1-3 miles per hour
30A, 220V charger (i.e. like your electric dryer) ~ 20-22 miles per hour
48A 220V (i.e. tesla home charger) ~40-44 miles per hour
Supercharger 120kW: anywhere from 200-500 miles per hour depending on SOC (closer to 0%, the faster you recharge, closer to 100%, the slower you go.) Also, Superchargers have A and B “sides” where if someone is parked next to you, you both share max power, if it’s a model S or X, well, in your model 3 you be “done” faster.
While it may seem weird when you first read it, it’s best to describe charging in “miles per hour” — that is, how many miles of range can you get in 1 hour of charge. The chargers report other units (kW) and the battery has a SoC% (State of Charge). I laugh every time I say “my tesla is so fast that it charges @ 44 mph and no one can see it move” 🙂
Driving EV is a little different than your gas power internal combustion engine (ICE) car; you don’t typically fill it up all of the way and you don’t run it down all of the way. In superchargers, it is faster to charge from SoC 20% to 60% than it is from 60% to 100%. On a long trip, the “sweet spot” is to stay between 20% and 70% which can take 15-30 minutes to recharge on a trip depending on how much SOC i needed for the “next” station on our trip. We did a 2400+ mile trip when I first bought our car and its faster overall to charge enough to get to the next station 2-3 hours drive away than it was to charge up to 100% (and it was better for the battery). If you stop at a gas station to use the facilities and get a quick snack, you’ll find that 15-20 minutes is how long you took which is the same amount of time to charge to get going. If you eat in the car, you probably stop for gas in 5-10 minutes, do a drive through (5-10 minutes) and get moving. For us, 15-20 minutes flew by while recharging. The longest we took on our trip to charge was when the wife wanted to shop so I charged to 100% from 20%. Took about an hour. Car was done before we were done shopping 🙂
Three types of Superchargers:
Urban Superchargers: max 72kW
Normal Superchargers: max 125kW
New V3 Superchargers: max 250kW
TL;DR:
Normal charging, Model 3, YMMV
a standard outlet (110V, 10-12Amps): 1-3 miles per hour
30A, 220V charger (i.e. like your electric dryer) ~ 20-22 miles per hour
48A 220V (i.e. tesla home charger) ~40-44 miles per hour
Supercharger 120kW: anywhere from 200-500 miles per hour depending on SOC (closer to 0%, the faster you recharge, closer to 100%, the slower you go.) Also, Superchargers have A and B “sides” where if someone is parked next to you, you both share max power, if it’s a model S or X, well, in your model 3 you be “done” faster.
While it may seem weird when you first read it, it’s best to describe charging in “miles per hour” — that is, how many miles of range can you get in 1 hour of charge. The chargers report other units (kW) and the battery has a SoC% (State of Charge). I laugh every time I say “my tesla is so fast that it charges @ 44 mph and no one can see it move” 🙂
Driving EV is a little different than your gas power internal combustion engine (ICE) car; you don’t typically fill it up all of the way and you don’t run it down all of the way. In superchargers, it is faster to charge from SoC 20% to 60% than it is from 60% to 100%. On a long trip, the “sweet spot” is to stay between 20% and 70% which can take 15-30 minutes to recharge on a trip depending on how much SOC i needed for the “next” station on our trip. We did a 2400+ mile trip when I first bought our car and its faster overall to charge enough to get to the next station 2-3 hours drive away than it was to charge up to 100% (and it was better for the battery). If you stop at a gas station to use the facilities and get a quick snack, you’ll find that 15-20 minutes is how long you took which is the same amount of time to charge to get going. If you eat in the car, you probably stop for gas in 5-10 minutes, do a drive through (5-10 minutes) and get moving. For us, 15-20 minutes flew by while recharging. The longest we took on our trip to charge was when the wife wanted to shop so I charged to 100% from 20%. Took about an hour. Car was done before we were done shopping 🙂
Three types of Superchargers:
Urban Superchargers: max 72kW
Normal Superchargers: max 125kW
New V3 Superchargers: max 250kW
This is exciting that you will have Tesla super chargers in Ashburn! Over the Thanksgiving break I visited my long time friend who lives in Broadlands. On my return trip home to NJ (near NYC) I started the trip with only 60% of my battery charged in my Tesla Model 3 Because I was using his 110 V outlet to recharge overnight which helped but was too slow. With the supercharger I will be able to recharge quickly in about 10 to 15 minutes giving me a full charge on my 250 mile trip home.
Also good job with your description of the different types of charging for teslas!
This is exciting that you will have Tesla super chargers in Ashburn! Over the Thanksgiving break I visited my long time friend who lives in Broadlands. On my return trip home to NJ (near NYC) I started the trip with only 60% of my battery charged in my Tesla Model 3 Because I was using his 110 V outlet to recharge overnight which helped but was too slow. With the supercharger I will be able to recharge quickly in about 10 to 15 minutes giving me a full charge on my 250 mile trip home.
Also good job with your description of the different types of charging for teslas!
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