We received another clue about Tesla’s Model 3 charging infrastructure, which again, we believe could become the most influential for the future of electric vehicles.
Two Tesla Model 3 release candidates were spotted at a CCS/CHAdeMO public charging station in San Francisco yesterday.
Model 3 vehicles have been spotted at Superchargers before and more recently, we even got a look at the charge port which at least confirmed that a release candidate had the same Tesla proprietary connector as the Model S or Model X, which was to be expected.
But there are still a lot to learn about the Model 3’s charging capability – both with the onboard charger and its DC fast-charging capacity.
Yesterday, two Model 3 release candidates were spotted by Nick Baum on Lombard Street in San Francisco. Later on, the same two vehicles were spotted by Addison Conzet at a CCS/CHAdeMO public charging station (pictures by Addison Conzet):
While it resulted in some of the best shots of the Model 3 release candidates so far, Conzet couldn’t get one of the vehicles charging, but it begs the question “why would they park there if not to charge?”
Tesla’s current vehicles can charge at CHAdeMO chargers using a $450 adapter, but they cannot charge using the CCS standard.. yet. As we previously reported, the automaker also quietly joined the CharIN organization as a core member to promote the CCS standard last year.
To be fair, the station also features regular level 2 chargers, which Tesla’s current vehicles can also use with a standard adapter.
Before anyone asks about interior pictures since the vehicles were parked and easily accessible, the Tesla engineers respectfully asked people not to take pictures of the interior of the vehicle.
We recently got a few good glimpses of the interior in recent sightings:
- Tesla Model 3: new pictures of release candidate shows interior wood trims
- Watch new Tesla Model 3 release candidate during highway testing
But we are likely going to have to wait for the official production vehicle unveiling in July for a good in-depth look at the Model 3’s interior.
It’s not clear what they are trying to keep secret since the Model 3’s interior is expected to be fairly minimalist and similar to what was shown in pre-alpha prototypes. Interior options are also expected to be limited since Tesla recently confirmed that Model 3 will have fewer than 100 configurations compared to Model S’ more than 1,500 possible configurations.
The user interface on the center display could be what they are trying to hide. What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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