Tesla adds direct charge port defrosting option just in time for winter
During Model 3’s first winter in 2018, we reported that the electric car had some issues with the cold weather, and Tesla said they were investigating the situation.
Several owners in cold weather regions were experiencing difficulties entering their vehicles because the door handles wouldn’t open, the windows, which need to go down about an inch to open the doors, would jam, and even the charge port would freeze shut.
A week later, Tesla released a software update to help with some of these issues.
Later, they also released a new software update to use climate control to help thaw the charge port when it gets frozen.
However, the real solution to the freezing charge port was a heater dedicated to it, which Tesla started putting in its vehicles in late 2020.
While charge port heaters have been in vehicles for years, Tesla never really gave the option to owners to specifically defrost their charge ports. Instead, it would activate when turning on the overall or rear defrosting functions of the vehicles.
This is now changing.
Not A Tesla App, which tracks Tesla software updates, is nothing that some Tesla vehicles are now getting the specific option to activate the charge port heater with the latest software update:
Tesla has finally added a solution to this problem. You can now manually turn on the charge port heater by going to Controls > Service > Charge Port Heater. However, the feature is not available on all vehicles. It’s only appearing in the release notes for a very small segment of vehicles. We’ve confirmed that it is showing up on a 2024 Model X and some 2023 Model Ys on Tesla software update 2024.44.3.1.
The change is coming right in time for the cold weather, and it should enable owners to target the charge port when needed – increasing efficiency.
Electrek’s Take
To be honest, I haven’t heard many issues about frozen charge ports since the first winter with the Model 3. I had this issue myself during the first winter.
There were a few reports about it the next two winters, but Tesla did help a lot simply with a software update to better manage the airflow toward the charge port area. Then, when the heater was introduced, it seemed to have basically eliminated the issue.
I still like to have a direct option to activate the specific charge port heater. It makes sense.