Tesla Opened Its First V4 Supercharger In The UK
Tesla officially launched the first V4 Supercharging site in the United Kingdom, which is also the seventh European station with the new dispensers.
The V4 Superchargers were installed at the company’s Tottenham Service Centre in Tottenham, about which we heard earlier this month.
The deployment of new dispensers is one thing, but even more interesting is the addition of a card payment method, which is already available and was demonstrated by EVA England (@EVAEOfficial / X) in a short video below.
As we can see, the user can charge a non-Tesla electric car simply by connecting it (CCS2 charging connector) and using a contactless bank card reader (the display shows a cost of 0.50 GBP/min, which is about $0.63 USD). According to the test with an electric Kia, Tesla locks in a certain price and, after the session, the difference is returned to the user’s account.
There is no necessity to use the Tesla app, however, this solution is also available as far as we know. In other words, there are now three methods:
- Tesla EVs: simply connect to a Supercharger
- non-Tesla EVs:
– Tesla app (scan QR code at a particular dispenser)
– bank card reader/display (V4 stalls)
Here are a few images of the new stalls and the display, shared by Esther Kokkelmans (@EstherKokkelman).
According to previous reports, another V4 Supercharging site in the UK might be located in Swindon and is reportedly equipped with 16 350-kilowatt stalls.
Currently, there are seven known publicly available V4 Supercharging sites, and an additional few are under construction. We heard that the first V4 dispensers are already installed in Norway and in Spain.
The number of known, publicly available V4 Supercharging sites:
- Austria: 1
- France: 3
- Germany: 1
- Netherlands: 1
- UK: 1
- Total (known): 7
- Under construction: 1 in Norway, 1 in Spain
The rollout of V4 Superchargers in Europe will help to open the network to non-Tesla EVs because the new dispensers have longer cables. There is no issue with the charging standard, as both new Tesla and non-Tesla EVs are equipped with CCS2 charging inlets.
The V4 Superchargers are expected to be introduced also in North America, bringing a longer cable length to handle various non-Tesla electric vehicles as well. However, there is a compatibility issue, which must be solved first. Tesla is solving this through Magic Dock built-in CCS1 adapters first and then stand-alone NACS-to-CCS1 adapters (the first will be available in 2024). Lastly, the switch from CCS1 to NACS on the vehicle level is the final solution. This will start in 2025.
