Tap-to-pay and chip cards all use the same standard, EMV. Most of the problems with chip cards in the US are because of incredibly slow terminals or applications on the smart card themselves. Since the terminals are much faster dealing with tap-to-pay I'm guessing their either just take forever to initialize the smart card, or it's the latter issue (application on the card itself).

I'm curious as to the experience of people taking EMV cards from the US to Europe, is it any faster than in the states on the same terminal hardware?