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I am curious what cybertruck will charge like at existing superchargers that max out at 400V. GM's clever solution is to present the battery pack as 2 400V pac

I am curious what cybertruck will charge like at existing superchargers that max out at 400V. GM's clever solution is to present the battery pack as 2 400V packs. It does pose some very tricky pack balancing requirements though. Other 800V cars charge quite poorly on 400V stations, usually with a hard cap at much lower than the potential max charge due to inverter limits.

solidr53 3y ago
E-GMP (EV6, Ioniq5) actually charges quite fast on 400V as they run it through the motor/inverter which already pumps out more than 100kW I think no one else is doing that at the moment.
- bdamm 3y ago
  Wait, what? They're converting their motor controller into a 400V-800V DC transformer?
  - p1mrx 3y ago
    yes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm4VDfdKUm0&t=719s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm4VDfdKUm0&t=719s
- theluketaylor 3y ago
  The E-GMP solution is also a clever one. I believe the inverter is limited to about 150 kW sustained (I think it can peak a little higher to the motors). 150 kW isn't bad but it's also a fair ways away from the 230 kW E-GMP will do on 800V.
stetrain 3y ago
Cybertruck does the pack splitting thing like the GM Ultium vehicles: https://twitter.com/baglino/status/1730391023799386480 https://twitter.com/baglino/status/1730391023799386480 It will be interesting to see Tesla's rollout of 800V stations, so far they don't have any within their own network.
- _ea1k 3y ago
  IIUC, Ultium is 400V in operation and only switches to 800V while charging on 800V units. This sounds a little different. It operates at 800V and switches to 400V for charging. I think that will simplify things and hopefully avoid Ultium's weird glitches during charging.
  - stetrain 3y ago
    Presumably it can charge either at 400V or 800V depending on the charger it's plugged into. But I think you're right, Ultium is still a 400V drive architecture versus this being an 800V drive architecture.
    - _ea1k 3y ago
      True, I left out that part. :) TBH, I'm really looking forward to seeing the Tesla tested on 800V CCS chargers via the adapter. It seems like it is at least possible that it might charge faster on those than on the current 400V superchargers. Of course, that would change if Tesla starts enabling 800V support on V3/V4.
      - stetrain 3y ago
        In the Top Gear interview they confirmed the truck can do 350kW charging on a V4 charger, 15-85% in 18-20 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uefydJUbRhc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uefydJUbRhc @ 34min
        _ea1k 3y ago
        Yeah, I saw that, but tbh, I'm taking it with a grain of salt at this point. We've already seen one screenshot of the charge rate at ~70% and it wasn't great. It was showing ~10 minutes remaining to get to 80% too. That was on a slower charger, but the charge rate was less than 80 KW. Considering how bad the 4680 Model Y was, I'm not optimistic.

solidr53 3y ago

E-GMP (EV6, Ioniq5) actually charges quite fast on 400V as they run it through the motor/inverter which already pumps out more than 100kW I think no one else is doing that at the moment.

bdamm 3y ago
Wait, what? They're converting their motor controller into a 400V-800V DC transformer?
- p1mrx 3y ago
  yes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm4VDfdKUm0&t=719s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm4VDfdKUm0&t=719s
theluketaylor 3y ago
The E-GMP solution is also a clever one. I believe the inverter is limited to about 150 kW sustained (I think it can peak a little higher to the motors). 150 kW isn't bad but it's also a fair ways away from the 230 kW E-GMP will do on 800V.

stetrain 3y ago

Cybertruck does the pack splitting thing like the GM Ultium vehicles: https://twitter.com/baglino/status/1730391023799386480 https://twitter.com/baglino/status/1730391023799386480 It will be interesting to see Tesla's rollout of 800V stations, so far they don't have any within their own network.

_ea1k 3y ago
IIUC, Ultium is 400V in operation and only switches to 800V while charging on 800V units. This sounds a little different. It operates at 800V and switches to 400V for charging. I think that will simplify things and hopefully avoid Ultium's weird glitches during charging.
- stetrain 3y ago
  Presumably it can charge either at 400V or 800V depending on the charger it's plugged into. But I think you're right, Ultium is still a 400V drive architecture versus this being an 800V drive architecture.
  - _ea1k 3y ago
    True, I left out that part. :) TBH, I'm really looking forward to seeing the Tesla tested on 800V CCS chargers via the adapter. It seems like it is at least possible that it might charge faster on those than on the current 400V superchargers. Of course, that would change if Tesla starts enabling 800V support on V3/V4.
    - stetrain 3y ago
      In the Top Gear interview they confirmed the truck can do 350kW charging on a V4 charger, 15-85% in 18-20 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uefydJUbRhc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uefydJUbRhc @ 34min
      - _ea1k 3y ago
        Yeah, I saw that, but tbh, I'm taking it with a grain of salt at this point. We've already seen one screenshot of the charge rate at ~70% and it wasn't great. It was showing ~10 minutes remaining to get to 80% too. That was on a slower charger, but the charge rate was less than 80 KW. Considering how bad the 4680 Model Y was, I'm not optimistic.