Electric car maker Tesla Motors says it will unveil the technology and deployment plans for its super charger next Monday night. As we reported last year, Tesla has been planning to install a “super charger” station somewhere between Los Angeles and San Francisco that can add 150 miles of charge to Tesla cars in 30 minutes.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk joked on a earnings call last year that the station will look a bit like an advanced alien artifact that’s landed in the desert. The station will use fast 90 kW chargers and will enable an electric car driver to drive between Los Angeles and San Francisco with just a short stop for recharging in between.
The biggest barrier for Tesla is the early stage of the electric car market. By building out its own electric car charging infrastructure Tesla can help the overall market, and ultimately its own sales.
The alternative to fast charging stations is speedy battery swapping stations, which can take out a used battery and pop in a fully charged battery. Tesla has said the Model S will have a swappable battery just in case battery-swapping becomes popular.
The unveiling of the super charger tech will take place at Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne, California, and will be streamed online live.
