Home Assistant: Tesla Charger Release Button

If you own a Tesla EV and don’t have original Tesla charger you might missing one crucial thing that makes your life much easier: Tesla button. It unlocks your active charger when the mobile key is nearby and charger handle button is pressed.

Normally without this specific Tesla button a person needs to open app and unlock the charger from there. Or enter the car and press release button from the main display, not very handy.

I’m one of those who don’t have the original Tesla wall connector, but I own a Wallbox Pulsar Plus instead, so I don’t have access to the charger button either. However, there’s a solution that we can use with Home Assistant and Tesla custom component.

Tesla custom component

Tesla custom component is an unofficial Home Assistant integration of Tesla API. It offers most important entities to Home Assistant directly from Tesla. In the webpage there are nice clear instructions how to set this up (tip: use HACS). Once installed and configured, entity named ‘Charge port unlatch’ can be found. It does exact the same thing as the official Tesla button, but through cloud/internet. And since it’s from the cloud, it’s not as fast as the wall connector button (e.g. instant), but good enough for this purpose!

The integration also provides many other useful entities and services for the Home Assistant, but more about those on other automation posts.

The button

For this it’s possible to use ANY Home Assistant supported button. I’m having bunch of ZigBee powered Ikea Trådfri Shortcut Buttons lying around in the closet so I will be using those. In my environment the connection from the Zigbee Button to Home Assistant is made through Conbee II.

What I like with these shortcut buttons is the removable cover and possibility to place a custom icon inside it. So I just decided to print out the “type 2” charger icon on it using pre-made templates and copy-pasting the “type 2” material design icon on it.

The button is taped indoor space near front entrance. I though that would be the best location for the button so I can easily tap it when going out to the car.

Automation

Again, the automation is just very simple: triggers when button is pressed and action is to unlatch the charger port. This should only work while the car is not at home, since I don’t want anyone press the button when the car is elsewhere. Therefore I’m also adding a condition for Tesla location tracker when not home (location tracker is also provided by the Tesla custom integration).

Here’s the code:

alias: "Car: Unlock charge port"
description: Unlock Tesla charger when button is pressed and car is at home
trigger:
  - device_id: 0d9b728225e65e2786962df407ce57da
    domain: deconz
    platform: device
    type: remote_button_short_press
    subtype: ""
condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: device_tracker.tesla_location_tracker
    state: home
action:
  - device_id: dded8a07c80acc46b2f6a2a1cc0a76b9
    domain: lock
    entity_id: lock.tesla_charge_port_latch
    type: unlock
    enabled: true
mode: single

If you wish to use the code above, make sure to change all the entities to your own system.