Open Charger Port without unlocking?

How are you trying to unlock the charge port? From the app? Pressing and holding the trunk button in your fob? Something else?

 

My 2013 only unlocks the charge port door when the doors are unlocked. You don’t want it to be unlocjable when the car is locked or a stranger could “play” with your charging.

 

There is another scenario that the charge port will unlock when the button on the charger cable is pressed and the car is locked, but I've only noticed this behavior in one scenario, and not always repeatable. The first time was when I drove to my friend's house who had his 3 plugged into his wall charger, and parked I parked next to it. The next morning when he went outside to unplug his car, he pressed the button on the top of the charger cable, and in addition to his car unlocking the cable from the port, my car also opened its charger door. My key was about 30ft away inside, so unlikely a case (but possible?)

The other time I've seen this is where I park for work there are a handful of Telsas parked near a wall charger, when I unplug from it, I'll see another car's charge port open up (~20ft away), but not others. I haven't walked up to the car and pressed on a door handle to see if it's unlocked (because that would be weird), but it is always the same car.

 

My 2014 Model S always opens the charge port door when I push the charge handle button, even if the car is locked. It will not unlock the charge handle if already plugged in, however. So a stranger can plug my car in, but cannot unplug me.

My 2016 X is less predictable. Sometimes the charge port door opens when I am trying to plug in the S, despite the X being locked. Sometimes I want it to open but can’t without unlocking the car. I’m not sure of the expected behavior on that car, and it’s not all that inconvenient so I haven’t spent much time on it.

 

I've experienced the same inconsistent results:

2015 MS85D - with car locked and charge port closed, the first click on the charging cable wakes up the car, second click opens the charge port door to insert the charging cable.
2016 MX75D - with car locked, no amount of clicking on charging cable will open the charge port door.

 

Pressing the trunk button on the key fob for 5 seconds will open the charge port door.

 

Update: I unplugged my car again on lunch and that other Model S opened its charge port and lit up white again. I tried pressing on one of its door handle to see if it was unlocked (for science!). It was not. The 2 other Ses and an X did not react. The mystery continues!

 

I think you are confusing the charge port door opening with the charge port unlocking. Pressing the button will send out a "open the door" signal to all nearby cars, but it won't unlock an already plugged in connector (or J1772 adapter).

 

Mine is the same.

 

In my car I can open the charge door when the car is locked by pushing the button on the charging cable.
I can not unlock the charging cable is car is locked, I have to unlock car first and after unlock charging cable.

 

To sort of push this further.
In my 2013 MS the Slacker song takes off from where it finished when I closed door last.
My 2016 MX restarts the song from the beginning. So strange.

 

You can open the charge port door via the app.

If a cable is plugged in, the app gives you the option to unlock the cable once charging is completed or stopped.

 

All Model S will unlock the charge port when you press the Tesla charge handle, even when the car is locked, HOWEVER, MCU1 (cars per March 2018) opens much, much faster. MCU2 takes a while to wake up if the MCU went to sleep (power saving mode, which you can disable on MCU1 but not MCU2) - unlocking the car helps it wake up faster by the way. The antenna IIRC is under the rear catch window, so you might have to wave the charge handle around a bit and wait for it to open, if you hear the HV contactor click that's a good sign that the car is waking up and you should be able to open the charge door soon. MCU2 is faster and newer, but it's too power hungry to keep it on like MCU1 can. It was worse few months ago, one of the software updates fixed it, but it's nowhere near as fast as the older cars (we have one MCU1 and one MCU2 car, had 2 other MCU1 cars in the past). Newer isn't always better in all respects.

 

@StefanSarzio , which part do you disagree with and why? I'm curious.

 

This should read "...will open the charge port..."

If there is already a cord (or J1772 adapter) locked in the port, pressing the button will not unlock the charge port and allow it to be removed when the car is locked.

 

On my 2017 X the charge port can be opened by simply pressing in on the port. The car does need to be unlocked.

 

This: "All Model S will unlock the charge port when you press the Tesla charge handle, even when the car is locked [...]"

Because it's wrong.

 

Can we just delete this thread, which is so full of confusion?

Even the OP made it confusing: the subject is 'Open Charger Port without unlocking' but then they immediately ask 'unlock charge port without vehicle unlocking'.

Opening the charge port and unlocking the charge port are two different things.

 

In my experience not every model (with doors locked) will open the charge port on command using the handle button. I have trouble definitively saying which vintages don't support this though. Expanding beyond the S models, definitely many X versions do not (my wife's being one of them). With that said, it is certainly a feature of many Model S vehicles. Case in point, there is a Supercharger in Houston that shares the parking lot with the regions service center / delivery center so there's always a ton of Teslas parked around. When you hit the Supercharger handle button, multitudes of charge ports open like little hatchlings waiting for a meal.