I guess it was unavoidable. I really liked that you didn’t need that complexity added to the charger but that was possible with a closed ecosystem. Now with so many 3rd parties joining the network, even if those 3rd parties are supposed to automatically work, I would guess Tesla is hedging that a backup payment method is required. Probably a good choice based on the software capability of legacy manufacturers, which can be pretty awful. This will prevent the supercharger for being blamed for 3rd party incompetence, or when the 3rd party has no backend infrastructure.

This is good. Hopefully Ford, GM and Rivian ensure their vehicle software can access the supercharger API though, but this will be good for the others that don’t get API access.

Also, from my couple of weeks renting a Model 3 in the UK, the best 3rd party charger had this set up instead of an app. I could just tap my credit card and charge. Whereas the ones that insisted on an app gave real issues. Because my Apple ID is in the US, I couldn’t even download their app, so I had to go onto their website. Then I had to manually enter my card details and load £25 on there and then it didn’t recognize that I had funds, and it took another £25 away.

If they’re setting up a system where you don’t need an account with Tesla or some other charging network and can just use a credit card, that would be great.

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