Last updated 03-Jan-2023
Once you have bought your Tesla there are a number of essential accessories that may be prudent to buy, including those to deal with punctures, charging, security and maintaining the car. We list them here together with the reason why, alternatives if there are any and a handy link to where you can get them.
Your Tesla will not come with a spare tire/tyre, nor does it come with run flat tires/tyres, so if you get a puncture you are potentially stuck. Tesla offer a service where they will tow you up to 50 miles and possibly bring you a replacement wheel if you're near a service centre, but this has a couple of problems. Firstly, you may be over 50 miles from anywhere you know, and secondly, tire places close overnight which is when you most want to get somewhere safely. And if the puncture is a slow one, all you may really need is a 5 mins of an air compressor to top up the pressure. Tesla also don't eben provide a compressor to help inflate the tires if needed.
Unfortunately Tesla are increasingly shipping acoustic tyres which have a foam lining and this prevents the goo found in some tire repair systems getting to the hole. We therefore recommend a compressor only like the Kensun Portable Air Compressor . This can be used at home or from the car 12c system and if you do get a flat, in many cases this will top the air up enough to get you home.
Even a slow flat can be a pain if you are a long way from home and many recovery companies use a kit like the Dynaplug tire puncture repair kit. With this you can push an repair into the tire to fill the leak and and slow down the loss or pressure. In some instance it can fix the tire completely although it is worth getting it checked out when convenient.
When lifting the car with a trolly jack, care needs to be taken to not damage the battery. It can be done without jack pads, but many carry a set of Tesla Jack Pad Pucks to make it a little easier, especially for people not familiar with working on Teslas.
Tesla don't supply a spare wheel, and they don't even supply a tire compressor. We therefore recommend either a portable air compressor to blow up tires after a flat or a Complete Compact Spare Tire Kit. This one fits the Model Y but you can also get ones for the other Tesla models.
Your car means a lot to you and for many owners a Tesla represents the most expensive car they may have purchased, so keeping it clean and protected seems a natural thing to do. We've written a guide to how we do it that balances looking after the car and making it reasonably efficient, and these are the products we recommend.
You've spent a lot of money on you Tesla and you want to keep it look its best. MEGUIAR'S have been making car care protects for years and for the home enthusiast we recommend the MEGUIAR'S G55032SP Complete Car Care Kit as a great way to start. Ideal to treat yourself or it makes a great gift. The products can also be bought individually.
A decent power wash is pretty much essential to getting a clean car and as Teslas are pretty long, a long hose comes in handy. We recommend the AIPER Electric Pressure Washer with Long, Hose Reel, Adjustable Nozzle and Spray, Orange as a good example of a power wash for home use.
Its not just the inside of the car that needs looking after. Whether its dirty boots or pets, here are some ideas.
The Tesla Model 3 SR+ with the semi premium interior does not come with floor mats. You could of course buy the Tesla official mats or you can buy these Heavy Duty & Flexible Eco-Friendly All Season Model 3 floor mats. They come well rated and being rubber can take pretty tough use.
We all put rubbish in the trunk from time to time, well this 3D MAXpider Custom Fit All-Weather Cargo Liner maybe just the thing to keep it clean and protect the carpet from getting wet. Other sizes are available for other models of Tesla.
A cheaper alternative to the 3D Maxspider is the Tesla Model 3 Trunk Mats Custom Cargo Liner All Weather Trunk Protection Mat. Its not as well finished as the 3D Maxspider but for occasional use it may be all you need.
Tesla only offer the Model 3 and model Y with a limited interior choice which is not to everybody's taste. However the simple shape of the interior makes applying a Tesla Model 3 Model Y Dashboard Cover Wrap pretty easy. You can also get wraps for the centre console to match.
The screen in the Model 3 and Model Y doesn't have a protector or matte coating resulting in potential damage and glare. This Tempered Glass Screen protector provides both protection and a matte coating. You can also buy versions which are not glass and a little cheaper, although for the few extra bucks, we think it's worth it for the extra protection this version gives.
The standard fit Tesla interior and door lights are not the brightest and one of the common upgrades owners make is to replace these lights. These Upgraded Tesla LED Puddle Lights are significantly brighter than the Tesla ones and fit most Teslas.
Tesla security is pretty good with pin to drive and the ability to track your car from the phone app, however it is not fool proof and additional security measures may be worth taking. Cars equipped with sentry mode also need a suitable storage device as many cheap memory sticks are just not up to the job.
When using sentry mode or the dash cam, the car requires a storage device of some form to keep the video clips. These devices get a lot of writes and rewrites and a traditional memory stick will typically be either too slow or fail over time with the repeated use. Better devices are those used for either constant writes and rewrites such as Solid state hard drives or memory cars designed for video recording. A popular solid state drive is the Samsung T7 Portable Solid State Drive which has taken over from the previous favourite, the T5. You can alsp partition this to have MP3s including Boombox files on the same physical device. If you would prefer something smaller, then a memory car such as the SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC Memory Card with a write speed of up to 90MB/s coupled with a quality USB memory card reader is a far better choice than a dedicated USB memory stick.
A simple security upgrade to act as a deterrent is to add Sentry mode warning stickers. Sentry mode is great, but capturing something happen is still a problem to sort out, whereas prevention is better than cure and warning people to stay away might just mean the damage or break in attempt don't happen in the first place.
Tracking your car not using the Tesla system has just got even easier if you are an iPhone user. The Apple AirTag is a really clever bit of tech that uses nearby apple mobile phones to silently transmit its location back to you. This will keep you informed if your car is stolen or if you've left it with a garage and they put the car in service mode.
Your car will come with pretty much everything you need to charger the car, but there are occasions when you may need a helping hand. The most typical is when using the universal mobiles charger or UMC and you need a longer reach to get to a socket. Here are some suggestions.
The Tesla wall charger is designed to charge your Tesla, and has a button which opens the Tesla charge flap for you making life easier.
The EVCONN CCS1 to Tesla adapter is designed for Tesla Model Y, 3, X, S vehicles that support CCS. To check if your Tesla supports CCS, go to Controls > Software > Additional Vehicle Information, and ensure that the CCS Adapter Support is enabled. If it does, with this adapter you can access many extra DC charge stations.
And finally here are a few more items that you might just like. Whether its gifts for people or accessories we just couldn't place in one of our other categories! We trust you find them useful suggestions:
If you enjoy playing games in your car while charging, then you really need a game controller like the Logitech F310 Wired Gamepad. Not only are the controls easier to access, it also stops your front tires being warn away through frantic turning of the steering wheel.
The Model 3 and Model Y no longer come with USB data ports other than in the glovebox. This makes life annoying if you want to plug in a sentry/dashcam data storage device, a media device, a gamespad and a USB disk of lightshow programmes. While some of these things can be comobined onto a SSD with multiple partions, you can also use a USB Data Hub. This one from Anker is slim and works well.
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