While Unveiling Tesla Semi in 2017, Tesla released its plan to deploy Mega chargers which are more powerful than their existing supercharger network to charge its electric trucks. The idea was pioneering.
After the statement by the company, everyone thought that Tesla was planning a charging station that delivers over 1 MW of power. Just about 3 years later, the company has yet to install its mega chargers.
BREAKING: Tesla Semi Megachargers currently being installed at Giga Nevada. pic.twitter.com/bWXlo0EVkT
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) October 12, 2021
They said that they wanted a new charging station that is even more powerful than the current one that could add 400 miles (643 km) of range in just 30 minutes and also not consume more electricity at the stations. Tesla was working to deploy these mega-chargers rapidly as the major corporations who had all-pre ordered these trucks wanted the mega chargers at least at their facilities, if not in a public place.
Recently, reports have emerged that the Mega charger was being deployed at the Giga factory in Nevada. With the increase in the usage of electric vehicles, the company had to design a charger that can give more durability to travel long distances than gas-powered vehicles. And also with the difficulties of the current supercharger network in charging Tesla’s semi-trucks, they need a bigger charger. As per Musk’s statement during the unveiling of the Semi, the mega chargers will be powered by solar energy but not by fossil fuels. The world has held its breath to see how Tesla manages to cast out its plan.
Tesla’s electric truck prototypes are relying on Supercharger stations to charge with a device that connects to multiple supercharger stalls which would significantly sabotage Tesla’s supercharger network as they cannot sustain to charge the fleet of electric trucks.
Regarding this, Tesla’s President of Automotive and in charge of the Megacharger program, Jerome Guillen addressed the following during the conference call yesterday. Guillen said “We continue the development of the Semi. And in particular, Megachargers, we realized that the 350-kW or so that we are looking for cars is not going to be enough for Semi. So we’re looking for something much more powerful than that, that can achieve essentially charging the Semi during a break, between your driving time so that you can drive until the next break. So there is no usable or efficient time wasted for charging the Semi.”
He continued adding that they are working with the third parties to come up with the solution, but he was undetermined about it. “We’re working with other parties to make sure that there is a standard infrastructure that will be able to be deployed for all customers. Yes. That’s probably all I can say at this point. Just we’re not working in isolation. We have to invent it because it doesn’t exist. But we’re trying to invent something that could be helpful for everybody” The executive implied that Tesla is working on charging the bigger vehicles at high power.
As he said, the company is in coordination with third parties to launch a fully functional and completed Megacharger. Besides Tesla, Electrify America, ABB, paXos, and Staubli are the five companies that submitted designs for the Megacharger models.
Tesla submitted their Megachager design for the electric trucks within CharIN [ A global association that promoting interoperability based on the combined charging system (CSS)]. It was known that CharIN has already chosen the design and currently working on it.