A new video shows Tesla’s first Supercharger V4 with a tap and go payment system at work for the first time.
Supercharger V4 has been revealed in construction plans for over a year now. It has been deployed at Supercharger stations in Europe for four months. And yet, Tesla has yet to officially unveil the new charger and reveal its specs.
Instead, we have to get our information from what we see at new stations being deployed and construction plans for new stations.
For example, we recently learned that Tesla Supercharger V4 has a capacity to charge at 350 kW.
Previous sightings also confirmed that the new version of the charging station is bringing a screen and payment system to the Supercharger for the first time.
Tesla didn’t require payment to use Superchargers for years, and when it started to require payment, it handled everything through its app.
It never had a need for a screen or payment system on its Superchargers and even as it now opens the stations to non-Tesla EVs, the automaker made it clear it wanted to still rely on its mobile app.
However, some markets are now requiring new charging stations to have payment systems directly on the stations and Tesla is now complying.
Last month, the payment system was spotted at a station, but now we get to see the Supercharger V4 payment system in action for the first time at a new station in the UK:
Top comment by OV
I'm struggling to understand how being able to walk up to any charger, flash your card at it and walk away is... not the best way to do it? Who wants to set up plug-and-charge on multiple networks?
The only half-decent argument I've seen against it is that they're currently a weak point for reliability. To that I say: a) that hasn't really affected contactless payment terminals on other things and b) if I can't get the card reader to work on any of the Gridserve chargers in the UK, ringing their helpline has led to them remotely enabling the charging session without payment the one or two times that's happened to me. Failing to charge is not (often) card reader problems, it's normally just poor low-voltage engineering, network infrastructure and software.
The payment system is straightforward, but the video is also good to give you an idea of just how much bigger is Supercharger V4 versus the previous generation.
The height and longer cable are expected to be critical as Tesla onboard non-Tesla EVs to the network.
Tesla’s current Supercharger cables are fairly short and designed for the specific location of Tesla’s charge port, which is at the back on the driver’s side for all vehicles.
Other electric vehicles have been, let’s say more creative with their charge port locations and therefore, they need longer cable to reach it without having to park badly.
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