Tesla’s Supercharger expansion is in full swing ahead of Model 3 production

Tesla wasn’t kidding when it announced a major expansion of its Supercharger network in April.

Electrek has learned that the automaker started construction or acquired permits for over 40 more stations since having made the announcement less than 2 months ago.

Model 3 production is only about 1 month away at this point and it is expected to put a significant additional strain on the fast-charging network, which is already under pressure from Tesla’s growing Model S and Model X fleet.

Tesla’s early expansion announced in April is being concentrated in the US for the constructions by the end of the year since it is where the Model 3 will be deployed first.

They added a lot of planned stations (left) and now we learn that they already have several stations under construction and several more with permitting underway (right via supercharge.info):

They are not only adding stations, but they are also adding more stalls per station – especially to existing stations.

Tesla’s Supercharger stations had an average of 6 stalls per station and the biggest ones had between 8 and 12 stalls. A few had up to 20 stations, but now Tesla is planning stations with dozens of Superchargers – even some with between 50 and 100 stalls.

A good example is the Birmingham-Hopwood Park Supercharger, which currently has 6 stalls and Tesla is tripling the number with 12 more stalls.

They received the new Superchargers at the site this week (pictures by Woody):

It’s one example among many existing stations currently being expanded with more stalls. Tesla is able to use its fleet data to know the busiest stations that often create wait lines and add stalls when necessaries.

Tesla is clearly taking this expansion seriously ahead of Model 3.

The company also updated its Supercharger policy recently to maintain that all new vehicles, including Model 3, will be under a pay-per-use model unless it’s for a new Model S or X being purchased by an existing Tesla owner or someone being referred by one.

All these moves are likely to help control the inevitable increase in charging needs of Tesla’s fleet.