Exclusive: Tesla to Re-Enable 12V Power Sockets With New 'Accessory Power' Option

Jun 13, 2025

Several months ago, Tesla infamously started turning off power to its 12V sockets in its vehicles when someone wasn’t in the vehicle. This affected all vehicles, including the ever-popular Model Y. The reason provided for the removal was inappropriate modification of vehicles to use high-power devices, which could potentially cause dangerous situations.

This left many accessories, such as vehicle fridges, inoperable since they relied on power staying with Sentry Mode.

In its current state, your vehicle disables the rear 12V cigarette lighter-style sockets inside the center console and USB ports, when no one is detected inside the vehicle. The only current workaround to keeping these outlets with power is to use Camp Mode, but this has disadvantages such as the climate system staying on and walk-away locks being turned off.

This change also impacted USB power provided over any of the vehicle’s USB ports. This made it difficult for users to run sub-trunk fridges or other accessories that would continuously draw power, as Camp Mode consumes quite a bit of energy to maintain the vehicle’s internal temperature.

Update: Both the Model Y and Model X include a 12V socket in the rear left pillar of the vehicle, which is located under a flap, alongside a 12V socket in the front of the vehicle. The Model S and Model 3 only include USB ports and a 12V socket in the front.

The Cybertruck is Tesla’s only vehicle with 110V sockets at this time.

Now, in a surprise move, Tesla is restoring access to the 12V sockets when the vehicle is powered off if users enable a new option called “Accessory Power.”

Tesla states that power is available whenever the vehicle detects a user is available or when the Keep Accessory Power On is enabled.

Turning on this new option will enable power across the entire vehicle, including the 12V socket, 12V (max 16A) rear plug (if equipped), and the vehicle’s USB ports. This will let users charge devices or use vehicle accessories, even when they’re not in the vehicle.

This is actually an improvement over the original way to keep these plugs powered without a user present, which required leaving Sentry Mode enabled, which uses a significant portion of energy itself.

The new Accessory Power option will be able to be turned on in your vehicle under Controls > Charging > Keep Accessory Power On.

Similar to Sentry Mode and other features, accessory power is only enabled while the option is on and the vehicle’s battery remains above 20%, at which point, it’ll be turned off.

Tesla also warns that keeping the new accessory option on will cause the vehicle to consume additional energy, even if devices are not plugged into any of the outlets, so this should be an option that should be used selectively, when needed.

It looks like this feature was supposed to make it out in the 2025.8 update, but to our knowledge, it hasn’t been enabled in any vehicles yet. Our best guess is that it’ll be enabled in a future 2025.8 update, or in the upcoming Spring Update, which will likely add other exciting features — at least if it’s anything like Tesla’s 2024 Spring Update.

We reported back in October that Tesla was looking for alternatives to keep accessories powered on without users present, so we’re super happy to hear this news, as it really shows that Tesla listens to its customers. It’s exciting to see Tesla restore a feature that had a lot of user support behind it, and we’re sure users will be thrilled to be able to use their fridges and accessories again.

If you’re a major user of accessory power, tell us what your primary use case is. Is it charging a laptop while you’re away from your vehicle, or is it running a sub-trunk fridge during your road trips?

We’d love to see some additional input on how Tesla can continue to improve this feature, so let us know in our forums or social media.

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