Tesla has shown its first Accordion Supercharger, a preassembled 16-stall unit shipped on one truck and designed for 20% lower installation costs and commissioning without a technician. It could help address slower network growth as BYD expands fast charging in China.
The unit folds out between parking spaces, avoiding much of the trenching, conduit and permitting associated with behind-the-curb installations and potentially opening urban and retail lots. Tesla previously touted prefabricated Supercharger builds taking eight days in 2022 and four days from delivery to online in 2024, citing 15% deployment savings. The article says network growth had exceeded 35% annually before CEO Elon Musk fired the Supercharger team and is now roughly half its 2024 rate.
BYD installed 10,000 of its 1,500-kW flash-charging stations between their March launch and late August, reaching more than 320 Chinese cities; it hopes to double the count by year-end. With two charging points per station, doubling would mean about 40,000 points this year, roughly half Tesla’s global stall count. BYD’s stations are about three times as powerful as Tesla’s V4 cabinets, which peak at 500 kW.
