Tesla Pauses New Californian Superchargers After Losing $6.4 Million In Funding

According to a letter seen by Drive Tesla Canada, Tesla is walking away from a public funding deal for new Superchargers in California that would have been worth $6.4 million due to "unnecessarily cumbersome payment infrastructure requirements."

Tesla was set to build four new Supercharger stations in California, collectively housing 420 individual stalls. One of these would have been the world's biggest at 164 stalls, and each of the four projects would have availed Tesla of $1.6 million from the California Clean Energy Commission (CEC) for a total of $6.4 million.

But Tesla has chosen to walk away, as the CEC's requirements include that publicly funded chargers must have "multiple point-of-sale methods," including credit and debit cards, as well as payment via mobile apps.

The letter we refer to at the outset was from Tesla's Policy and Business Development Lead for California, Jennifer Cohen. As per Drive Tesla, an excerpt from the letter reads as follows:

"The California Clean Energy Commission (CEC) has been a great visionary in the expansion of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in California. Unfortunately, due to unnecessarily cumbersome payment infrastructure requirements, we are unable to utilize this award."

Tesla's Superchargers are sleek, modern-looking pieces of design, but neither the current versions or the next-gen V4 Superchargers incorporate screens, thereby making multiple payment methods impossible without a redesign for future Superchargers. It appears that $6.4 million in funding is too little for Tesla to redevelop its Superchargers, but this does not necessarily mean the chargers will not be built.