Tesla has unveiled its new folding supercharger units, which would speed up the rollout of reliable charging sites globally.
In a video shared by Tesla Charging on X, the company unveiled its latest version of the V4 superchargers, called “Folding Unit Superchargers”.
These units are pre-assembled before heading to the site and are unfolded into 8 units when on site, all powered by the company’s latest 500 kW V4 supercharger cabinets.
According to the company, the latest setup will help deliver better charging sites both faster and cheaper.
The new layout ensures that up to 16 supercharger stalls can be transported on the back a truck before being unfolded on site, with cabling unfolding as the charger units are.
This added transportation advantage means that 33% more stalls can be loaded on the back of the truck, ensuring fewer trips to the site.
On top of that, this new method would enable 20% lower cost while allowing for 2 times faster installation times on site
Fast charging sites traditionally take many months of planning, acquisition of hardware and construction before they are ready to be commissioned for use by EV drivers.
Tesla leads the way in reliable fast-charging infrastructure across Australia and many other parts of the world, and in recent years has focused on technologies that not only increase the speed of charging but also how these units are commissioned on-site.
Back in April 2024, the company showcased how it’s helping roll out charging sites faster, with as little as 4 days from the delivery of charging hardware to the site, to then the site opening to the public.
That was part of Tesla’s pre-assembly method that it used for the V3 and V4 supercharger stalls that are mounted onto a pre-fabricated concrete slab at its US-based Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York.
That slab included the conduit for cabling supplying power from the powerstack units, which were also mounted on concrete slabs.
This method was used in Australia in late 2024 for the first Australian supercharger site, which took only days to install on-site rather than weeks.
It was a 4-stall Tesla V4 Supercharger site that had opened in Bordertown, South Australia, with a prefabricated setup that arrived on the back of a truck.
At that time, Thom Drew, Tesla’s country manager, shared the significance of this site: “New Tesla Supercharger: Bordertown, SA (4 stalls). This is the first pre-fab site in APAC, which reduced hardware installation time from weeks to days!”
With Tesla already using pre-fab site construction in recent years in Australia, the latest foldable supercharger commissioning could be heading our way in the coming years, making the rollout of bigger, reliable and cost-effective fast charging sites even easier.
This, of course, will help thousands of EV drivers across the country as EV adoption hits an all-time high.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.