First look at Tesla’s new kind of Supercharger station with design refresh

Tesla announced its new “urban” Supercharger stations today and it updated its map of upcoming new stations around the world.

But two of them are already operational and now we take out first look up close.

The new stations are presented as a weekly charging solution for city dwellers and they feature a new design and architecture to better match its role in Tesla’s charging infrastructure.

The first two stations are in Chicago and Boston:

• Chicago – 10 stalls at 225 North Columbus Drive, Chicago, Illinois United States 60601
• Boston – 8 stalls  at 800 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts United States 02199

Keith Trice went to the one in Chicago and shared a few pictures with us:

The new Supercharger design for the post is much smaller, but the actual cable and connector appear to be the same as the Superchargers for long distance travel.

A smaller design can help Tesla pack them up more easily in smaller lots, like in interior parking lots often found in cities.

Redditor jwardell stopped by the new one in Boston, which features the same Superchargers also in an underground parking lot, but in a different configuration:

He also filmed the boxes that have the chargers inside them and the actual capacity of the charging points:

Whereas Tesla uses chargers with a capacity of 145 kW per box split by two charge points at its Supercharger stations for long-distance travel, the charge points at those new stations don’t slipt the power and all get a dedicated 72 kW of capacity to charge a single vehicle.

The solution is aimed at people living in the city and without the possibility to charge at home. That way, they can simply use those Supercharger stations once or twice a week – much like someone would use a gas station.

The timing of those new stations coming online seems to match the imminent ramp up of Model 3 deliveries. The smaller and less expensive vehicle is more likely to be purchased by city dwellers than Tesla’s previous vehicles and those people could benefit from a new charging alternative.