Tesla's v3 Superchargers can charge at more than 1000 miles per hour
The newly built Model Y 4680 battery packs are seeing an impressive and positive (pun intended) charging speed.
According to Twitter user The Kilowatts, they were able to charge their new Model Y from 0% to 97% in just 52 minutes.
The Kilowatts’s Ryan Levenson took delivery of an Austin, Texas-made dual-motor Model Y, which is built with Tesla’s highly anticipated 4680 battery pack.
Levenson rents out electric vehicles he owns on Turo and maintains them. Levenson shared on Twitter that he drove the new Model Y three miles past its 0% state of charge. He noted that there was no effect on the vehicle’s acceleration.
“0% -> 97% in 52 minutes for our MIT (made in Texas) Dual Motor Model Y,” Levenson writes on Twitter.
“Plugged in at 12:25 am with 0 miles of range remaining (actually drove 3 miles beyond 0 with seemingly no impact on acceleration). Unplugged at 1:17 am with 270 miles of range.”
0% -> 97% in 52 minutes for our MIT Dual Motor Model Y
Plugged in at 12:25 am with 0 miles of range remaining (actually drove 3 miles beyond 0 with seemingly no impact on acceleration) Unplugged at 1:17 am with 270 miles of range. ?? pic.twitter.com/q4Yef2uKKe
Levenson noticed that by plugging into a V3 supercharger, the vehicle almost immediately ramped up to the 250kW charging rate, which is much different than Tesla’s current battery packs that take time to ramp up to the 250kW rate.
“For anyone trying to analyze the charge curve here, it seems quick but what I find most interesting is the almost immediate jump to ~250kW unlike the ramp up to 250kW we’re used to and from there it slowly tapers down throughout the charge cycle.”
Tesla’s currently listing the Model Y dual motor configuration to have a total of 279 miles of EPA-rated range.
Being able to drive past 0% state of charge is interesting. Tesla purposely builds in a little buffer to err on the side of caution when estimating the remaining range.
Tesla does software lock the range on its vehicles to prevent them from losing all of their charge and damaging the battery.
In order to meet manufacturing efficiencies, Tesla has previously shipped vehicles with larger batteries and software-locked them if an owner bought a model with a shorter range.
Although the owner can only access the portion of the battery that they paid for, they actually receive a couple of hidden benefits.
The car can be charged to "100%" every day without any ill effects since the battery itself is not charged to 100%, only the portion the owner paid for.
Another advantage of such models is that the owner can buy and unlock the additional range at a later date if they choose to.
In 2019, during Hurricane Dorian in Florida, Tesla remotely extended the ranges on such vehicles so they could escape Dorian’s path.
They also provided Tesla drivers with free supercharger access and force-charged the Powerwall batteries to full power so they would be ready in case of a severe power outage.
Tesla’s battery day event back in September 2020 unveiled some pretty impressive technologies coming, but Tesla has yet to share in-depth data on what we can expect in real-world scenarios.
Tesla recently launched software update 2025.8.3, which included a bunch of “minor updates.” Nestled away in the release notes are a couple of interesting features - including some major changes to the Energy App.
We’re not quite sure we’d call these minor updates, so let’s take a bit of an exploration of the revitalized Energy App.
The Energy App has received some new categorization features in the Consumption tab. You can once again limit the graph by distance. As part of the 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla redesigned the consumption tab and brought it to the new Model S and Model X for the first time. However, with the redesign, Tesla removed the ability to choose the distance shown in the graph, instead providing a static display of the last 200 miles (300km).
The first part of the improved Energy App is bringing back this distance filter. You can now choose between showing the last 10, 100, or 200 miles (15, 150, or 300 km). This differs from the previous available distances of 5, 15 and 30 miles, but brings back the ability for the driver to choose a distance that may be more applicable to how they’re driving.
We’d love for Tesla to introduce custom distances by pinching and zooming the graph or simply add the ability to choose “This Drive Only” to the list of available distances.
Reset Energy App History
@EV3_Model3 on X
Sadly, the “Instant Range” button that was available in the Energy App before is still not available, but Tesla introduced a new feature that may be even better. You can now clear your driving history so that the graph only reflects your current driving style.
This is a little hidden, but if you tap the little info icon at the top near your average Wh/mi, you’ll now be presented with a dialog that lets you clear your history.
This could be useful if you’ve just come from some hard driving on a track or off-road, where energy consumption could be exaggerated. It could also be useful if you just started towing or a different type of driving that is drastically different from your current driving.
Other Changes
In addition, it looks like future predictions of the Energy app now take into account your driving history and apply that in addition to expected vehicle consumption, weather, altitude, and the multitude of other factors that your Tesla constantly takes into account while calculating your expected range.
While these are smaller improvements to the Energy app, they added some important functionality, as it helps users better understand their vehicle consumption and display data that is more applicable to the current driving style.
This is a great example of Tesla listening to its customers and bringing back features they had previously been removed. Check out the video below by akide on the updated Energy app in update 2025.8.3.
Sandy Munro once again had the opportunity to chat (video below) with Lars Moravy, Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, as well as Franz Von Holzhausen, Tesla’s Chief of Vehicle Design. This time, rather than focusing on the improvements to the refreshed Model Y and all the new engineering behind it, the focus was on Tesla’s autonomous ambitions.
In this case, the Cybercab and Robovan were the key highlights, with a distinct focus on the Cybercab. With that all said, let’s dig into all the fun new stuff. You can check out the entire video at the end of the article.
Cybercab Unboxed Process
The Cybercab will be the first of Tesla’s vehicles to use their new unboxed assembly process, which builds vehicles in parallel sections, and then brings them together all at once for final assembly. Traditionally, vehicles are assembled from the ground up, and sometimes even disassembled for parts of production to take place.
This innovative method involves using a big rear and front casting, brought together by a structural battery pack on the floor. The door rings are hot-stamped and laser-welded to form the side shell of the Cybercab, resulting in a very rigid structure that can also absorb crash impacts due to its unique manufacturing.
Paint-Free Panels
We’ve already talked about the Cybercab’s unique paint-free panels, but we’ve never heard until now exactly how Tesla intends to manufacture them. Tesla will inject colored PU plastic onto the backside of another plastic part (formed from various processes) and then ultrasonically weld that entire piece to an inner part.
That essentially combines multiple parts into one smooth piece that is easy to repair - because all you have to do is remove the entire panel - it just comes off as the interior fasteners are removed. There is no subframe holding it together - instead, the subframe is part of the panel.
The only area of the vehicle that will have any paint will be the hot-stamped door rings - which will be painted to improve corrosion resistance to protect the steel.
Aerodynamics
Aerodynamically, the Cybercab boasts the largest aero-cover-to-wheel ratio of any Tesla vehicle. This updated aero cover improves efficiency, even with the Cybercab’s relatively large tires—chosen to reduce rolling resistance. Interestingly, the impact of unsprung weight on efficiency is minimal compared to the benefits of improved rolling resistance and aerodynamics.
Another key to the aerodynamics is the teardrop shape of the Cybercab itself. With its low profile and smooth shape, it is extremely aerodynamically efficient. While neither Sandy nor Lars delved into drag coefficients, we expect it will likely be more efficient than the Model 3’s already fantastic Cd of 0.219.
Range and Battery Pack
Tesla currently has prototypes undergoing real-world testing at Giga Texas to evaluate range and efficiency. The goal is to ensure the vehicle can operate throughout an entire day in the city before returning to charge.
Tesla is targeting a battery pack under 50kWh, delivering close to 300 miles of real-world range—an impressive efficiency of around 166Wh/mi, even outperforming the Model 3’s lowest at 181Wh/mi.
When Does It Arrive?
So, with all that new knowledge - when does the Cybercab arrive? Well - the prototypes for the June Robotaxi network deployment in Austin are getting prepared now - but Tesla expects to begin production and sales sometime in the first half of 2026.