Tesla Premium Connectivity Wifi Hotspot [Fully Explained]

All Tesla vehicles include Tesla Premium Connectivity Wifi Hotspot, which improves the driving experience by giving access to functions that require data usage, such as streaming music and video, real-time traffic visualization, and more.

Every Tesla vehicle has access to Standard Connectivity by default. For eight years, starting on the first day your vehicle was delivered as new by Tesla or the first day it is put into service (for instance, used as a demonstrator or service vehicle), whichever comes first, Standard Connectivity is included in your car at no extra cost.

You will be informed how long your used car will have access to standard connectivity if you buy it.

With Standard Connectivity, you get access to basic maps and navigation and music streaming through Bluetooth® in addition to most connectivity options over wifi.

Tesla Premium Connectivity Wifi Hotspot

For the most user-friendly and enjoyable ownership experience, Premium Connectivity offers the ability to access all connectivity functions using cellular in addition to wifi. The current price for Premium Connectivity is $9.99 per month plus applicable tax or $99 per year plus applicable tax.

You can purchase it at any time from the touchscreen of your car or the Tesla app. Model S, Model Y, Model X, and Model 3 orders will all be delivered with a Premium Connectivity trial.

If you own a Tesla for personal use, you can sign up for Premium Connectivity from your car’s touchscreen or the Tesla app. For more information, contact your vehicle supplier if you use a business vehicle.

Standard Connectivity Without The Premium Option

No matter the level of premium connectivity, all Teslas have Standard Connectivity as standard. As a result, the cars can get some software updates over the air, though it’s usually recommended to connect to your home wifi for the quickest upgrades.

The navigation features are identical to those with premium connectivity, except for the absence of traffic visualizations and satellite imagery.

Additionally available are features like Bluetooth connectivity for your phone, Radio (not internet radio), and MP3 music since these are unrelated to connectivity.

Additionally, you can connect to the automobile remotely using an app. Aside from the navigation visualizations, the main functionality needed is related to media services like stream visualizations.

Enhanced Premium Connectivity

With premium connectivity, you can access real traffic visualization and satellite imagery on the map. Depending on the country, there are other streaming radio services like TuneIn and media services like Spotify or Deezer.

Services like Caraoke are available for vehicles with the required hardware (such as M3 and MS and MX with MCU2).

Every service not required for the car’s fundamental driving functions is only available over the air if premium connectivity is chosen or the car is linked to wifi.

Wireless Hotspot

Tesla claims everything is accessible over wifi, including mobile phone hotspots, except Live traffic visualization, satellite-view maps, and remote sentry viewer.

You can access these services if you tie your car to your phone’s wifi, but the traffic and satellite view symbols won’t be there on the map.

Since 2022.24, Spotify also required premium connectivity and didn’t function via a wifi hotspot. One of the problems with internet tethering is that the automobile would automatically disconnect the internet as soon as it was put into drive.

This was partially because automobiles were often connected to home wifi, which took time to fail over as you left your house in the morning. I wanted something else.

Tesla now offers the choice of whether or not you want the car to disconnect from the wifi, which fixes this issue automatically.

Although the automobile won’t immediately connect, iPhones can offer Wi-Fi. This is an IoS constraint, and the wifi connection must be authorized using the phone each time.

Who Pays, And Who Gets It As Standard?

• Before June 30, 2018, all orders for MS and MX vehicles will receive complimentary premium connectivity. It becomes a subscription service after this day.
• Orders placed on or before June 30, 2018, for M3 vehicles with the premium interior (often LR and Performance variants) are eligible for free premium connectivity. It becomes a subscription service after this day.
• For M3 vehicles with part-premium interiors, a subscription service is necessary.
• Every MY needs a subscription service.
• After January 9, 2020, all MS, MX, and M3 devices sold new, including those that formerly had free connectivity, switched to a subscription service. This is anticipated to include used Tesla vehicles, including those that were traded in and showed up at dealers.
• All new cars come with a free 1- or 12-month trial period, depending on the model.

How Much Is It?

The length of the free trial period that comes with new cars varies depending on the model. Following that, it’s roughly $10. Tesla offers a yearly charge in several nations, around 10% less expensive than the corresponding monthly price.

Why Don’t Tesla Model 3s Come With A Hotspot?

Unlike numerous automakers, Tesla does not offer hotspot functionality as an optional extra. This is possible because the car already has so many extra gadgets. Adding a mobile data package for Tesla users would probably result in high data usage. This would make running a Tesla too expensive.

Mercedes, BMW, and Audi all sell vehicles with hotspot functionality. To keep operating expenses low for owners of Tesla vehicles, likely, the company needs to offer hot spot functionality.

Already, Teslas are infamously costly. Customers keep the cost of operating a Tesla as low as possible by leaving their data consumption with their cell provider rather than internalizing it into their Tesla package.

Tesla charges any additional car data capabilities beyond basic maps and navigation to your credit card via the Premium connectivity package.

You would have to pay for using data on a device connected to the Tesla and using its data (with the Tesla serving as a hotspot).

It wouldn’t make much sense to pay for a second data package on your Tesla, given that you already have to pay for one on your mobile phone.

Thus, adding more data to your mobile device and utilizing it as a hotspot makes more sense. Wireless charging is available in many modern cars, notably the Tesla Model 3. Turn on the hotspot feature on your phone and place it on the wireless charger. Essentially, your Tesla Model 3 has become a wireless hotspot.

How Much Does Tesla Connectivity Cost?

Tesla offers a standard data package for its vehicles that includes maps and navigation. Owners can upgrade to Premium Connectivity for an extra $9.99 per month or $99.0 per year.

You can get Live Traffic Visualization, Sentry Mode (View Live Camera), Satellite-View Maps, Video Streaming Karaoke, Music Streaming, an Internet Browser, and other features with Premium connectivity.

Having a web browser in the car may be very alluring. However, the Tesla browser can be demanding and challenging for some drivers.

Owners are requesting the car’s capacity to function as a hotspot for various reasons. By doing this, they might connect their smartphones or tablets to the car.

Conclusion

Depending on the model chosen, Tesla offers several trial periods for Tesla Premium Connectivity Wifi Hotspot. For existing stock and new orders placed on or after July 1, 2018, the top-tier Model S and Model X are qualified for a 12-month trial of Premium Connectivity.

For new orders and inventory orders placed on or after October 15, 2021, the less expensive Model 3 and Model Y are eligible for a much shorter 30-day trial period.

The bottom line is that you should be able to decide whether or not you want this function after your trial period experience. Consider whether all of the supplementary features were beneficial or whether you scarcely used them during the trial period.

Frequently Asked Questions