Why some Superchargers are still Tesla-only

Updated 2026-09-20

999 of 3,537 Supercharger sites in the US and Canada (28%) cannot charge a non-Tesla today. Almost all of them are V2 hardware from 2013 to 2019. Here is what that means, how to recognize one, and why the number keeps falling.

What V2 is

Tesla built its first two Supercharger generations, V1 and V2, around a proprietary connector and a cabinet that shares up to 150 kW between two stalls (the “A/B” pairs). The posts have a short cable with no card reader, and the power electronics talk only to Tesla vehicles. There is no software switch that opens them to other brands; the authentication and the plug-side handshake are different.

What V3 and V4 changed

V3 (2019 onward) moved to 250 kW per stall with liquid-cooled cables and a new controller that can run the industry-standard CCS handshake over the NACS plug. That is the hardware Tesla opened to other brands from 2024. Some V3 sites got Magic Dock, a built-in CCS1 adapter. V4 (2023 onward) adds longer cables, a card reader and, with V4 cabinets, up to 1,000 volts and 500 kW. Every V3 and V4 site can be opened; nearly all in the US and Canada already are.

How to recognize a Tesla-only site

  • On ChargeMap it is grey once you pick a non-Tesla car, and the site card says “Tesla-only hardware (older V2 stalls)”.
  • In person V2 posts are the original slim white pillars with a red-lit Tesla logo and a thin cable; the cabinets behind them are grouped in pairs labeled 1A/1B. V3 and V4 posts are stockier with a thicker cable; V4 has a screen and card reader.
  • In the Tesla app a site simply will not appear in the Charge Your Non-Tesla list.
Where the Tesla-only sites are: California (204), Texas (59), New York (50), Florida (47), Ontario (31), Washington (30), Pennsylvania (27), Illinois (26). Older, denser markets have the most V2 hardware because they were built out first.

Are they going away?

Slowly. Tesla is expanding busy V2 sites with V3 or V4 stalls next to the old ones, which turns a grey site into a mixed one, and it has retired a small number of V2 sites outright. It has not announced a program to swap every V2 post. Expect the Tesla-only share to shrink by a few points a year rather than disappear. ChargeMap refreshes twice a day, so a site that gets new stalls turns green or amber for you within hours.

What to do instead

Filter them out. On the map, tap the grey dot button on the right to hide Tesla-only sites and plan with what is left. On a long trip, the corridor pages list only the open sites in order along the highway.