Tesla’s navigation has always known exactly where a Supercharger is located. However, up until now, it has only shown a simplified location. Depending on the menu, the Supercharger location may only display the Supercharger's common name, which can be the plaza’s name, the city name, or something else entirely.
If you like to plan out your own route, this could make finding an ideal charging spot difficult. Tesla is now changing this across its vehicles and the Tesla app. A future update will now clearly list the street and city of each Supercharger, in addition to the Supercharger’s common name.
The Changes
Every Supercharger card in the vehicle trip planner will gain a second line below the common name, showing the full street address and the city. The common site name is important as well, as it helps differentiate Superchargers in the same town by names drivers may already know, such as “Tyson’s Corner - Tysons, VA.” Those common names will remain the primary names for the Supercharger locations. The image above shows the new layout of the Supercharger list in the vehicle.
The app has recently been updated to display the common name of Superchargers instead of just the city name, so it better aligns with what’s shown in the vehicle. These additional changes to display the street name and city will arrive in the coming weeks to the in-vehicle software and the Tesla app, according to Tesla.
It’s not clear whether these will be server-side-only changes or if a software update will be required to display the new information, but soon we’ll see the updates in our cars.
Real World Example
A fantastic example is in Kingston, Ontario, where there is a V2 Supercharger and a V3.5 Supercharger - both titled “Kingston” as the common name. Which one you end up at may depend on which direction you take off the highway, as the old V2 site is much more visible with a larger set of signage. The new V3.5 site is behind a shopping complex and not visible from the road.
These two sites are within eyeshot of each other - but have massively different charging speeds and costs. Picking the right one —thanks to the correct address —will ensure you’re charging at the faster speeds of the V3.5 site if you’re in a rush, or at a cheaper rate at the older V2 site if you’re not.
Supercharger Improvements
Tesla has been making a ton of changes to Superchargers recently, including hardware and software improvements. Most recently, they added new accessible handles to Superchargers, but before that, they started advertising some Supercharger locations on highway rest area signs. Tesla also opened up its first 500kW Supercharger site and will soon support Virtual Queues, making it easier for owners to charge at congested Superchargers.
