First seen Cybertruck charging curve disappoints, however is that the entire story?

The Tesla Cybertruck, Tesla’s first automobile to totally make the most of its bigger 4680-format cell, has been out for a couple of month now. However with solely restricted portions on the street within the public’s palms, there have nonetheless been lots of questions concerning the automobile.

Now we’ve bought a solution to one of the vital questions: cost price. It’s not nice – however that may not be the entire story.

Peak charging pace, measured in kilowatts or kW, is among the most vital stats on an EV – arguably a lot extra vital than vary. The upper the cost price the faster you will get again on the street throughout a charging session. Older EVs have DC cost charges round 50kW, which is kind of sluggish in comparison with right now’s requirements, the place EVs are normally able to 150kW+, with some fashions able to as much as 350kW. Tesla’s V3 superchargers can ship as much as 250kW of energy, which is loads quick, although the new V4s are even quicker at 350kW.

However one other vital facet of charging is cost curve, or how rapidly a automobile “tapers” off of the height cost price to a decrease one. EVs can’t maintain peak cost charges endlessly, so will normally solely maintain on to the height price for a sure time frame earlier than decreasing to a slower price. That is why EVs normally state their DC cost time “to 80%,” as a result of charging previous 80% at a excessive price is usually dangerous for battery sturdiness.

Till now, this was an open query for the Cybertruck, particularly since it’s Tesla’s first automobile to totally make the most of the 4680-format cells which have been famous to have considerably worse charging efficiency than the earlier 2170 format cells.

Video of Cybertruck’s charging curve

However in a video posted by Our Cyber Life, a brand new youtube channel fashioned by a pair who took supply of their Cybertruck two weeks in the past, we now know what the Cybertruck’s cost curve appears like. The channel’s movies thus far have absolutely targeted on the Cybertruck possession expertise, from a pair who’ve by no means owned a Tesla earlier than (however one in every of them, however, appears to be a Tesla worker – which explains the early Cybertruck supply).

The video absolutely paperwork a Cybertruck cost on the Tesla supercharger in Mesa, Arizona, a V3 Supercharger able to 250kW peak energy supply. Many of the video is only a 5x pace timelapse of the display throughout the charging session, although Our Cyber Life helpfully included graphs exhibiting cost price for many who are “not enthusiastic about watching paint dry.”

As we are able to see within the video and accompanying graphs, the Cybertruck appears to have a comparatively poor cost curve, a minimum of for this charging session at a busy V3 Supercharger. The automobile begins at 14% state of cost, after about 20 minutes of preconditioning (an automated course of to boost battery temperature to simply accept increased cost charges).

It instantly jumps to a peak cost price of 255kW, however begins to taper fairly quickly, with cost price step by step lowering beginning at 20% SOC. By 40% SOC the automobile is right down to 150kW, 100kW at 60% SOC, and reaches a plateau of 75-80kW at about 66% SOC, which it holds till round 90% – when the Youtuber’s digital camera died and the Cybertruck headed out.

All in all, it was a 50 minute cost session from 14-90%, including 94kWh value of power into the Cybertruck’s 123kWh battery. Or, utilizing the usual 80% cutoff, 14-80% took 40 minutes.

Temporary comparability with different automobiles

Tesla automobiles do are likely to taper somewhat early, however make up for it with excessive peak cost charges. It’s normally higher to do extra frequent, shorter cost classes to reap the benefits of increased cost charges at low SOC, somewhat than to cost all the way in which as much as 90 or 100%. Plus, busy Superchargers will penalize you for sticking round too lengthy whereas others are ready for a cost.

That is nonetheless a fairly fast cost price, particularly when in comparison with the early days of EV charging or in comparison with AC cost instances which run within the hours, not minutes.

However given the Cybertruck’s enormous 123kWh battery, we anticipated faster charging than this. A bigger battery can normally maintain the next cost price for longer (this idea is named “C-rate,” or cost price divided by whole capability). A Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary has a peak C-rate of three and common C-rate of 1.4 when charging from 0-100%, however on this take a look at, the Cybertruck confirmed a peak C-rate of simply over 2 and common of about .9.

Measured in “miles of cost added per minute,” which is an much more vital metric for sensible driving functions, the image will get considerably worse for the Cybertruck. The Mannequin 3 is rated at 333 miles of vary, and from 14-80% can add about 220 miles of vary in 31 minutes. By the identical metric, from 14-80%, the Cybertruck added 206 miles in 40 minutes – much less vary in an extended time frame.

All of those are considerably slower than the present charging champions, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and its cousin the Kia EV6, which regardless of a barely decrease peak cost price of round 230kW, have an impressively broad charging curve that may maintain speeds of 170-180kW all the way in which as much as 70-80%.

And in comparison with a similar-ish automobile, the Rivian R1T, the R1T tapers a bit of bit later, however not by an amazing quantity. The R1T wins right here, however by a small margin (a margin which turns into bigger when considering Rivian’s increased effectivity and Tesla’s conventional, uh, “optimistic” vary estimates).

However that’s not the entire story

Nonetheless, we have to warning that this is just one take a look at in a single set of circumstances – and the circumstances are lower than superb for the Cybertruck in query.

First, the Cybertruck’s charging system is constructed with the flexibility to change between 800-volt and 400-volt charging. V3 Superchargers are 400V, so it’s doable that the Cybertruck will be capable of cost higher from an 800V charger – if Tesla will get round to putting in them. The V4 Supercharger is meant to be able to 800V charging, however thus far we’ve solely seen 400V installs, exhibiting how Tesla’s charging community isn’t prepared for Cybertruck – and that’s true in additional methods than one.

Second, it was a busy Supercharger, and on busy Superchargers generally Tesla limits charging pace. A Supercharger station received’t essentially be constructed with the flexibility to present most 250kW energy to each stall on the similar time, since you’re not often going to have each stall full with a automobile at 0% SOC calling for optimum cost price. So a 10-stall, 250kW charger might need a complete 1-1.5MW capability, as an alternative of the two.5MW you’d anticipate from the nameplate 250kW cost price. It’s doable the Cybertruck was given max cost price at low SOC, after which the station itself tapered off energy supply as a way to prioritize lower-SOC automobiles on the station.

Lastly, this can be a brand-new automobile and Tesla could also be ready for extra knowledge on battery well being whereas charging, as a way to probably improve cost charges sooner or later. Tesla is keen on providing over-the-air updates to enhance automobile capabilities, and to permit early homeowners to behave as beta testers. On this case, the proprietor in query can be a Tesla worker, and Tesla is much more prepared to make use of staff as guinea pigs on new automobiles. So it’s totally doable that cost charges may improve in a future software program replace – as occurred with Rivian as nicely.