Standard range Model Y can now charge much faster when cold as Tesla brings direct LFP battery heating to Superchargers

Tesla is introducing a battery heating option at its V3 and V4 Supercharger stations that will allow the standard range Model 3 and Model Y RWD versions with LFP batteries to charge up to four times faster than before in the winter.

In general, LFP cells like the ones in portable power stations perform slightly worse when charging in the cold, which might explain why Tesla is providing the Supercharger battery heating option first for the standard range Model Y or Model 3.

The new heating service is different from the typical preconditioning routine that Tesla vehicle batteries are subjected to when navigating to a Supercharger station. Instead of gradually warming the battery pack, the Supercharger sends ripple AC current through the individual LFP battery cells to heat them up directly in cold weather.

"This is possible through Tesla's vertical integration and some of our incredible engineers," tips Tesla's Max de Zegher, indicating that this innovation may stay exclusive to its vehicles with CATL LFP batteries.

Still, the Supercharger battery heating option can send a standard range Model Y back on the road up to 4x faster than before, he advises, dealing with the Achilles heel of LFP batteries. Here is how Elon Musk once explained the charging speed disadvantages of Teslas with LFP batteries in extreme circumstances:

LFP batteries charge more slowly in cold weather than NCA batteries and their range decreases somewhat more than NCA batteries in cold weather. Keep in mind that both NCA and LFP do worse in cold weather. It's just that LFP batteries get more of a cold weather effect than NCA batteries. When you're on a road trip and navigating to a Supercharger, your car will prewarm its batteries. That will alleviate the slower charging problem to some extent, but you'll be at the Supercharger six or seven minutes longer in winter with LFP batteries. That will be a problem if you plan to use your car in such a way as to need to do lots of cold weather supercharging. It won't matter at all if you're just going to charge your car overnight in your garage.

Tesla's LFP battery supplier CATL now has new LFP cells whose charging doesn't slow in cold weather, but those are not the ones that Tesla has installed in the standard range Model 3 or Model Y. In the US, it currently sells only long range options anyway, as its vehicles with Chinese LFP cells don't qualify for federal tax credits.