Tesla has commenced rolling out its V3 Superchargers in Australia, with at least four new Tesla Supercharger sites now under construction.
Tesla’s presence in Australia is already well-cemented. Tesla electric cars account for about half of all EVs on Australian roads, and its Supercharger and destination charger network is easily the most extensive in the country, with about 250 AC and DC charging sites in total.
But its network, until now, has not included the latest version of its DC Supercharging units, which were introduced by Tesla in 2019.
This is now changing, with sites in Queensland, Victoria and the first Supercharger for Tasmania now in the installation phase.
As The Driven reported in April, the first units were identified at Toombul in Queensland. Although the units have been in Australia since September 2020, this was the first time they were confirmed to be V3 units.
New images shared to the official Tesla Owners Club of Australia facebook page show construction is underway at Toombul, in Brisbane, Corio and Colac in Victoria and East Devonport, Tasmania.
“This mean Model 3 owners will be able to charge at faster speeds (170-250 kW peak, depending on various conditions),” noted Tesla owner Charles Gregory who shared in the images.
But while newer Tesla cars can also use other charging networks such as Chargefox and Evie Networks because they use the CCS2 standard rather than Tesla’s proprietary plug, older vehicles will be limited to using the existing V2 network.
Model S and Model X can pay to have their charging ports upgraded to CCS2, but for a fee. How much that costs depends on when the vehicle was made – units made before May 2019 need to have the internals upgraded in addition to having a new adaptor fitted.
The four sites listed above are just the start. As noted previously by The Driven, Tesla has 22 new Supercharger sites planned for Australia ahead of an imminent opening of orders later this year for the Model Y.
The Devonport site is the first such site for Tasmania and for a large part targets Tesla owners bringing their vehicles over from the Mainland on the Spirit of Tasmania.
Power for Tesla’s Supercharger network is supplied by Infigen, which secured the EV maker as a commercial customer in early 2020. The announcement was made alongside a press event for its Lake Bonney Wind Farm and Battery, which supplies renewable energy to its customers.
“Infigen was recently awarded a retail contract to supply Tesla fast-charging supercharger stations with energy across Australia,” said SA premier van Holst Pellekaan at the time.
“Not only will the Lake Bonney Battery use Tesla batteries to store energy, it will also allow Infigen to fuel electric cars at Tesla Superchargers across Australia.”
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.