I have a Tesla Model Y Long Range - a Right Hand Drive model (I live in the UK) made in China and delivered in March 2022. One thing missing from recent Model Y’s is USB data in the centre console between the driver and the front passenger seat. There are two USB-C ports inside the console, however these have shipped as power only for Tesla Model Y’s and 3’s since November 2021. This leaves you with a single USB-A data port in the glovebox if you’d like to plug in a USB drive for Sentry Mode, music on a USB drive, or plug in a game controller for playing some of the games that are available on the entertainment system.

In order to restore data capability to the console ports, I ordered a TParts Console Data Module from AliExpress, which is a replacement module for the one that comes in the car.

The installation was relatively straightforward for my car, and was essentially the same as that outlined in the TParts install video on YouTube and all of the required tools were included.

I also grabbed a TParts Console USB Hub for the console as well in order to get a more useful set of ports than just the two USB-C ports.

Some things to note:

  • It was significantly harder than shown in the video to get the panel off with the tool provided. In fact I managed to bend the tool doing this before I got it off
  • The console cover in my car kept on closing while I was doing the install. You may want to tape this back or similar to keep this out of the way
  • In my car (delivered March 2022) the data cable was still present (as shown in the video). In more recent cars the data cable is not present and you will need to pull off additional panels in order to route a replacement USB cable. This cable and tools needed are also provided, but thankfully I didn’t need it
  • I’ve kept my original Tesla USB module. I’ll probably put the original module back in if I end up trading in the car at some point in the future.

Finally, here is some evidence of me running Cuphead using the PowerA Wired Controller that I purchased for playing the odd game while charging.

Playing Cuphead