Tesla Adds Centralized Payment Kiosks to New V4 Supercharger Sites

Tesla is making a quiet but meaningful tweak to its newest Supercharger sites. At select V4 locations, the company is moving away from individual payment terminals on each charging stall and replacing them with a single, centralized payment kiosk.

The change was first spotted at a new Supercharger location in Redwood City, California, where a Tesla owner shared photos on Reddit showing a standalone, Tesla-branded touchscreen kiosk. The screen walks drivers through payment for charging sessions and also displays which vehicles are currently charging at the site.

Early V4 Superchargers were expected to feature card readers integrated directly into each charging post, especially as Tesla opened the network to non-Tesla EVs. At this location, those individual terminals appear to be gone. In their place is a single shared kiosk serving the entire charging cluster.

From a practical standpoint, the move is easy to understand. A single kiosk dramatically reduces the amount of hardware spread across a charging site. Fewer screens and card readers mean simpler maintenance, lower installation costs, and fewer components exposed to weather, wear, or vandalism. At scale, that kind of simplification matters as Tesla continues expanding V4 Superchargers across North America.

The kiosk also reflects Tesla’s ongoing preference for app-based charging. On-screen messaging encourages drivers to use the Tesla app for faster access and a smoother experience. The kiosk fulfills regulatory requirements, but the app remains the primary interface Tesla wants drivers to use.

For Tesla owners, very little changes. Charging still happens automatically through the vehicle and app. For non-Tesla drivers, the centralized kiosk offers a compliant payment option without adding complexity to every stall. It keeps the site functional while avoiding a hardware-heavy layout.

As Tesla continues rolling out V4 Superchargers and opening the network to more EVs, design choices like this show how the company balances compliance with scale. Simplified hardware and software-first interactions remain core to how Tesla approaches charging infrastructure.

Source: DriveTesla
Photo credit: Mrwhatsadrone