The more cars at the gas pumps in a filling station the lower the pressure. i.e. unleaded may flow more slowly due to reduced pressure. A Tesla Supercharger station is similar but first — how the Supercharger Station is engineered:
- The utility transformers...
- The 480 Volt disconnect switches and circuit breakers...
- The charge controller cabinets. Each of these is as light beige in color, is about 24 inches wide, and has a large hooded cooling air duct in the back. Each Supercharger Cabinet contains 12, identical, modular chargers that are the same as the one or two chargers in an MS [model S]. The ones being installed currently can put out a total of 120 kW DC, shared between 2 charging stalls…
- The pedestals (arches) at each charging stall.The pedestals at each charging stall are fed by the Supercharger cabinets and are where you find that nice, big cable and connector to plug into your MS. They are usually numbered 1A/1B, 2A/2B, etc. The numbers indicate the Supercharger Cabinet used, and the letters denote the pair of stalls serviced by each cabinet. The usual layout is 1A, 2A, … 1B, 2B, … This means that adjacent stalls are on different Supercharger Cabinets. If you want to make sure that you are getting maximum charging power, try to make sure that the paired stall (e.g. 1A paired with 1B) is not in use. If both charging stalls are in use, then priority is given to the first car to arrive, and the second car to arrive gets what’s left over.
The takeaway here is that the 120kW charge rate is a perfect case situation. If others are on the same Teat your rate of flow will vary [lower].