Charging Stopped — Equipment Communication Lost
The TESLA-CP_A046 (Tesla Charge Port (CP)) EV fault code means: Charging Stopped — Equipment Communication Lost. This is a minor severity code.
- Keep driving?
- Yes, but fix soon
- DIY difficulty
- easy
- Estimated cost
- $0 in the common case (restore equipment power or use different equipment); electrician work billed by the job for home-wiring faults.
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Common Symptoms
- Alert on the touchscreen: "Charging equipment communication lost — Check power source and charging equipment"
- A charging session stops before the target charge level
- The charging equipment may show no status lights
- Driving is unaffected
Probable Causes (Ranked by Likelihood)
- Communication between the vehicle and the external charging equipment was interrupted mid-session — per Tesla, usually the equipment or its power source Likely
- The charging equipment lost power (tripped breaker, station fault) Possible
Frequently Asked Questions
What does CP_a046 mean on a Tesla?
Tesla's official meaning: charging stopped because communication between the vehicle and the external charging equipment was interrupted. It's usually the equipment or its power source, not the vehicle.
How do I fix CP_a046?
Check the equipment's status lights. If it has no power, restore its power source (station operator for public chargers, breaker/electrician at home). If it's powered, try different equipment — the vehicle charging elsewhere confirms the original equipment was at fault.
Mechanics Guide Step-by-step diagnosis
Step-by-Step Diagnostic Procedure
Check whether the charging equipment is powered — look for status lights, displays, or other indicators.
If it's not powered: at a public station, contact the station operator; at home, restore power (breaker) or contact an electrician per Tesla's official guidance.
If it is powered, try different charging equipment. If the vehicle then charges, the original equipment was at fault; if not, the issue may be with the vehicle.
A Tesla Supercharger or Destination Charger is a good fallback and known-good test.
Sources 4
This page is built from documented references. Verify against your own service info before repair work.
- Tesla Model 3 Owner's ManualTroubleshooting Alerts (official Tesla alert text for CP_a046; verified against the official Model 3 manual PDF, software 2026.20)
- Tesla Model Y Owner's ManualTroubleshooting Alerts (confirms CP_a046 is documented across models)
- Tesla firmware alert reference (core-hacked/tesla-alerts-dictionary): cp_a046community-maintained dictionary, not an official manufacturer document
- Tessie Tesla alert statisticsthird-party Tesla alert reference with owner-telemetry frequency — not an official Tesla document
Commonly Affected Vehicles
- Tesla Model 3
- Tesla Model Y
- Tesla Model S
- Tesla Model X
- Tesla Cybertruck
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