Tesla is working on opening up its service tools and helping owners repair their own cars with replacement parts

The “Right to Repair”, which primarily aims to force electronic manufacturers to sell replacement parts and make their diagnostic and service manuals available to independent repair shops and consumers, is gaining some traction.

It is currently only in place in Massachusetts, which is why it’s the only state where Tesla owners can register to access repair manuals, service documents, wiring diagrams, and part information, but Tesla President Jon McNeill now says that the automaker is working on opening the program.

After McNeill took to the Tesla Motors Club forum earlier this month to announce that the company is walking back all software performance reductions tied to the frequent use of max power, one of the Tesla owners who led the effort to reveal that Tesla was implementing those reductions thank him for the solution but he also brought up another issue to the executive:

I support Tesla, but I do not approve of some of their policies. I’m glad to see Jon McNeill and Tesla stepped up and did the right thing here. Now if we can only get them to allow us to perform our own maintenance, which involves releasing service info and software as well as sell us parts. Also, If you purchase a salvage vehicle they will not sell you parts at all. This will have to change if Tesla hopes to become mass-market.

Interestingly, McNeill responded that he reached out privately to the owner and that such a program is “in the works”.

That will be a welcomed change for the more mechanically inclined Tesla owners. Currently, it’s not cheap to access the information needed to perform repairs from Tesla and again, it’s still only available in Massachusetts unless you get certified as a ‘Tesla Approved Body Shop’:

And as we previously reported, it’s not exactly easy to get approved by Tesla.

We reached out to Tesla to know exactly what they have been working on and if it is pushed by the recent traction of the “Right to Repair”. Representatives didn’t respond to our inquiry, but we will update if it changes.

New“Right to Repair” bills have been introduced in Nebraska, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, and Kansas. While they are mostly aimed at electronic manufacturers, they are modeled after Massachusetts’ Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act. Most automakers agreed to follow the state law nationwide and make their diagnostic codes and repair data available in a common format by the 2018 model year in order to avoid having state-by-state requirements.

While Tesla wasn’t part of the automaker lobbying group that made the deal with the repair shop association, it would have been surprising if the company remained alone in not providing the service.