Supply 12V to Towing Connector

Description

Supply power to the towing connector.

Competitive/Pricing/Notes

Currently, all newer (2021-) Model X & Y vehicles with the 16V Lithium-ion low voltage battery and towing package installed do not supply power to the 12V Auxiliary pin. This is pin #4 on the 7-way connector.

This makes towing any trailer weighing more than about 1,000 lbs dangerous since most brake controllers compatible with a Tesla (like the Tekonsha RF) won’t work.

Probably, Tesla stopped supplying power to this pin because sending 16V directly to the 12V Aux would fry it. But this is no excuse because the 7-way towing connector is an industry standard.

Tesla should engineer a solution to step down the 15V to 12V and power the Auxiliary pin. Otherwise, the $2,000 towing package is mostly useless.

Reference here.

Status

Tesla has promised a retrofit to add this functionality, but it is unclear when it may be avaiable.  This issue does not affect a trailers brake and turn signals.