Tesla almost seemed to have forgotten its premium electric cars Model S and Model X in Europe. After the refresh presented in early 2021, it took almost half a year for customers to get the first new Model S even in North America, and everywhere else the restart dates were pushed back and forth. At the beginning of August, however, Tesla announced that before the end of the year at least the first Model S and Model X with the new Plaid drive in Europe are to be delivered. And now earlier models surprisingly received a significant increase in maximum charging capacity via a software update.
Tesla update with more charging power
In the USA, the Model S and Model X were updated in June 2020 to the higher level of up to 225 kilowatts and then 250 kilowatts as with the volume models Model 3 and Model Y brought. In Europe, that didn’t happen at first. One problem was that only superchargers and third-party charging stations with CCS plugs deliver more than 150 kilowatts. Model 3 and Model Y for Europe were designed for this from the start. For the Model S and Model X, however, you need an adapter, and initially no power higher than around 140 kilowatts was achieved with it.
However, this has changed with the update to version 2022.24.6 of the Tesla software from last week. It’s not mentioned in the notes about it, but probably first in the German forum Shortly thereafter, the owner of a Model X from 2018 reported to Tesla Drivers and Friends (TFF) that the update had brought a higher charging capacity. This was one of the specimens with the largest battery, but performances of over 170 kilowatts were also reported for Teslas with a 90 battery. Similar reports from customers in other European countries with up to 190 kilowatts followed on Twitter.
2018 model X Moto Rugby – never seen 190kW before!! pic.twitter.com/dj1wlrSqMJ
— Peter Sabberton (@PJ_Sabberton) September 10, 2022
The Model X from teslamag.de has already installed software 2022.24.6 after it has just passed the German main inspection. What’s not nice about it is that she apparently switched off the radar sensor. Like Teslas, which started shipping in the US right away this spring, without radar, the Model X now only uses cameras for the autopilot system. This should pave the way for autonomous driving, but first of all it means that automatic autopilot steering is only possible at up to 140 km/h instead of the previous 150 km/h.
However, a test inspired by the TFF reports showed that the update also brought the higher charging capacity to our already slightly refreshed Model X Raven from 2019. On a V3 supercharger with the CCS adapter, it briefly reached 188 kilowatts (see photo above), reached for a few seconds with a battery level of 26 percent. At 30 percent, the 180 kilowatts were undercut again, and from then on it went down rapidly until at 34 percent the 100 kilowatts fell. However, the Model X stayed just below that until we finished charging at 66 percent. At an outside temperature of around 20 degrees, neither the supercharger connector nor the CCS adapter were hot to the touch.
Model S and Model X upgraded
How much the increased power translates into minutes of saved travel time remains to be seen in further testing, but Model S and Model X owners have been pleased with the upgrade to their EVs already referred to as “legacy” by Tesla after the refresh in early 2021 become, i.e. as a legacy or historical. The adapter can hardly be expected to do more, because Tesla writes in its own online shop that it is designed for a maximum of 142 kilowatts. This problem will no longer arise with the new Model S and Model X, because they are and should be equipped with a CCS charging socket for Europe according to Tesla, as in the USA, with up to 250 kilowatts be able.