Tesla brings first V4 Superchargers in China online

Tesla has installed its first V4 Superchargers in China. They are available at seven sites across Shanghai, Zhejiang, Gansu and Chongqing and can also be used by electric cars from other brands.

The company announced at the start of 2025 that it would roll out the V4 generation of its Superchargers in China over the course of the year. As Tesla now reveals in a video on its Weibo account, V4 Superchargers have gone into operation at the first seven sites in four cities. Further stations are set to follow gradually, including in other Chinese provinces, says Tesla. The EV maker did not name any specific expansion targets.

Globally, Tesla recently surpassed the mark of 70,000 Superchargers installed, just around nine months after opening its 60,000th Supercharger. In China, there are currently more than 2,100 Supercharger locations with 11,600 stalls – so far, however, predominantly older V3 Superchargers.

The V4 Supercharger celebrated its world premiere in March 2023 in Harderwijk in the Netherlands, where a total of 16 of these fast-charging stations went into operation. The main distinguishing feature of the V4 Supercharger, alongside its taller housing, is a longer charging cable designed to make charging easier for electric cars from other manufacturers. In terms of charging power, the first V4 Superchargers were still limited to 250 kW, as they were combined with a V3 switchboard in the background. However, when a V4 switchboard is used, charging outputs of up to 500 kW are possible.

The new generation of Tesla charging columns arrives in China at an interesting time: while there were already niche models in China a few years ago capable of achieving extremely high charging powers at proprietary charging stations, widely sold volume models long remained limited to significantly lower charging powers compared to European models. Meanwhile, Chinese cell manufacturers are bringing increasingly powerful batteries to market, enabling vehicles to achieve much shorter charging times. As a result, the charging infrastructure market is seeing significant momentum.

For example, BYD unveiled its first megawatt charging stations for electric cars (not electric trucks) in March, which are claimed to recharge 400 kilometres of range (according to the Chinese CLTC standard test) in just five minutes. Initially, 4,000 of these chargers were announced for China, later followed by plans for 15,000 megawatt chargers in cooperation with partners, although BYD has not provided a timeline. However, BYD has confirmed that it will also bring its megawatt chargers to Europe.

cnevpost.com