Tesla Kiosk For Those Without An App
Tesla appears to be silently rolling out a significant change to its new V4 Supercharger stations: the removal of individual credit card terminals in favor of a centralized payment hub.
New photos and reports indicate that at select new V4 sites, the individual contactless payment readers, previously a hallmark of the V4 stall design, have been removed. In their place stands a single standalone kiosk that serves the entire cluster of chargers.
For the last year, V4 Superchargers have been rolling out with a small screen and a credit card reader built into every stall. This was a response to government regulations (such as the NEVI program in the US and similar laws in Europe) that require on-site payment options for drivers who don’t want to use an app.
Tesla’s move toward centralized payment kiosks isn’t just a hardware change—it’s a strategic shift to:
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cut costs
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reduce maintenance pain points
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comply with payment rules
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encourage app adoption
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and manage a growing, multi-brand charging ecosystem more cleanly.
Why the pricing + UX combo is a strategy (not an accident)
A user report cited by Not a Tesla App says the kiosk price was about double the existing Tesla rate at that location. Not a Tesla App . That implies Tesla is treating kiosk payment as a premium, walk-up convenience rate Tesla can truthfully say: “We provide walk-up payment,” but by making kiosk payment meaningfully more expensive (reportedly ~2× at least at one site) Tesla:
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satisfies regulatory intent,
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reduces per-stall payment hardware (cost + breakage),
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and steers nearly everyone to the app where the experience is faster and pricing can be better (especially with membership)
- Accessibillity
- ADA
