Driving a Tesla, or any electric vehicle, in frigid temperatures can be a pain. Despite the myriad of problems Tesla owners encounter in the cold, from hours-long charging times to not being able to open the door, perhaps the weirdest one is when the charging cable literally gets stuck in the car. Not to worry, though—Tesla is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore.
The company addressed this issue in a recent software update for Model 3 and Model Y owners. In addition to preparing the battery for charging, the new feature automatically starts warming up the car’s charge port inlet to make it easier to pull the charging cable out. The update was first reported by Not a Tesla App.
In case that doesn’t work, Tesla recommends defrosting the car and clearing away ice and other debris from the charging cable connector and charge port. As a last resort, the company says you can pull the manual release in the trunk to disengage the charge port latch.
Besides dealing with frozen charging cables, Tesla also released a new feature that gives owners an estimation of how long it will be until DC fast charging starts. As many Tesla owners discovered last month, fast charging is directly impacted by weather conditions. EV batteries that are too cold charge slower—and also lose range—and may have to heat themselves up before increasing their charging speed.
While these small updates will certainly be welcome to Tesla drivers that are still toughing it out in the cold, their trials are far from over. Drivers still have to deal with frozen charge port latches, which may not lock the charging cable in place to enable fast charging. Some Tesla owners are even having trouble opening their frozen charge port doors and report using creative ways to unstick them, such as punching or karate-chopping them.
Lacking a failsafe solution from Tesla, these drivers claim their methods worked. We would advise caution, though. You already have a frozen Tesla, you don’t need an injured body part on top of that.