Tesla Fleet Telemetry FAQ

What is fleet telemetry?

Fleet telemetry is a mechanism for obtaining data from Tesla vehicles where the vehicles send data directly to Charge HQ's servers instead of via Tesla's servers. It is part of Tesla's Fleet API service.

It replaces the polling mechanism which was previously used by Charge HQ and is still used by the Tesla app.

During January 2025 Charge HQ is progressively migrating all vehicles to use fleet telemetry instead of polling.

Why is Charge HQ changing to use fleet telemetry?

Remote access to Tesla vehicles by third-party apps such as Charge HQ has, until recently, been free. Beginning in February 2025 there is a cost associated with such access. These costs have been set in a way that effectively requires third-party apps to use fleet telemetry instead of polling, as the cost of polling is many times higher.

There are also significant benefits of fleet telemetry compared to polling:

• lower delays. Eg when you plug your vehicle in, Charge HQ will react within 5 seconds instead of the 30 to 60 seconds when using polling.
• less load on Charge HQ servers, allowing us to keep costs lower
• less load on Tesla servers, allowing them to keep costs lower
• less network and data centre load overall, which saves electricity and water

Do I need to take action?

For most users no action is required. Fleet telemetry will be enabled on your vehicle (if supported) and Charge HQ will continue to operate as normal.

If your vehicle is running software older than version 2024.38, you will need to update your vehicle's software before February 2025 to continue to use Charge HQ. The Charge HQ app should display a notice if you need to take action. This requirement does not apply to pre-2021 Model S & X.

Once enabled, you may notice the following minor changes:

• Charge HQ will react faster when you plug your vehicle in
• the location tracking icon will no longer appear every minute or so on the vehicle screen

Does it work with all vehicles?

Fleet telemetry works with all vehicles except pre-2021 Model S & X. Tesla is currently working on adding support for these older vehicles.

For now, Charge HQ will continue to use polling for these older vehicles, as Tesla is giving a discounted price for polling vehicles that don't yet support fleet telemetry.

How does fleet telemetry work?

For your vehicle to start sending telemetry directly to Charge HQ, the following is done:

• Your Tesla account grants access to the Charge HQ app (already in place for existing Charge HQ users)
• The Charge HQ virtual key is installed on your vehicle (already in place for existing Charge HQ users)
• Charge HQ sends a telemetry configuration to your vehicle. This is done automatically by Charge HQ.

Once configured, your vehicle will start streaming data to Charge HQ.

Only data which has been requested in the configuration by Charge HQ is sent, and values are only sent when they change. This is one reason why fleet telemetry is more efficient than polling.

What data is sent to Charge HQ?

Charge HQ only requests data which is required for its operation. It includes:

• charging state: power, voltage, current, energy, battery level, etc
• vehicle name
• whether to display km or miles
• whether your vehicle is at home or not (in future)

Charge HQ will also request your vehicle location when it is plugged in so it can ensure that it doesn't interfere with charging away from home.