Lifting Teslas safely is a different job than putting a Camry or an F-150 up on a rack, and every shop that’s rolled a Model 3 or Model Y onto their bay in the last few years has figured that out fast. The battery pack runs the entire length of the underbody, the jack points are narrow and unforgiving, and a wrong lift arm placement can mean a punctured cell, a warped skid plate, or a very expensive conversation with a customer. We’re Auto Lift Services, based in Ames, Iowa, and we install and service lifts for shops all over the state that are seeing more EVs roll through the door every month. Here’s what we tell every customer about lifting a Tesla the right way.
Browse two-post and four-post lifts rated for heavier EV curb weights, with the arm reach and capacity to handle Tesla service work safely.
Why Lifting Teslas Safely Is Harder Than It Looks
A Model S or Model X can weigh well over 5,000 pounds once you account for the battery pack, and that weight isn’t distributed the way it is in a gas vehicle. Most of the mass sits low and flat, spread across the floor pan instead of concentrated at the engine and transmission. That changes how a lift needs to grab the car. Standard frame-contact pads that work fine on a pickup can end up pressing directly against battery housing on a Tesla if a technician isn’t careful about placement, and that’s the fastest way to turn a routine tire rotation into a warranty claim nobody wants to file.
Lifting Teslas safely starts with knowing exactly where Tesla specifies its jack points and lift pucks. These are reinforced sections built into the pinch welds and structural rails, designed to spread load without touching the battery enclosure. The problem is that these points are tighter and less forgiving than the wide frame rails techs are used to on domestic trucks and SUVs, so a lift with generous arm reach and adjustable pads isn’t optional anymore — it’s the baseline requirement for any shop that wants to do this work without incident.
The Right Lift Equipment for EV Service Bays
Not every lift on a shop floor is built for this job. A two-post lift with adjustable arms and the correct rubber or urethane pucks is what most independent shops end up choosing for Tesla work, because the arms can be swung and extended to reach the factory lift points without guesswork. Capacity matters too — a lift rated for a light sedan can get uncomfortably close to its limit once you factor in a loaded Model X with a full battery, so we generally push customers toward a higher-capacity two-post over anything rated at the bare minimum.
Four-post lifts have their place as well, especially in shops doing alignments or general service where the vehicle just needs to sit level and stable without anyone hunting for precise contact points. For mobile techs or shops without a permanent bay dedicated to EVs, mobile column lifts give the flexibility to lift a Tesla safely without committing floor space to a single-purpose rack, and they scale well if a shop is easing into EV work gradually rather than diving in all at once.
Locating Factory Jack Points Before You Lift
Every Tesla model has published lift point diagrams, and the smartest habit a shop can build is pulling that reference before the vehicle ever leaves the ground. The pinch weld locations are marked, often with a small notch or indent in the rocker panel, and they’re consistent within a model year but can shift between refreshes. Skipping this step and eyeballing arm placement based on experience with other EVs is exactly how technicians end up denting a rocker or worse, pressing into the edge of the battery pack.
We recommend keeping a laminated reference sheet or a tablet mount near the lift bay showing the current Model 3, Model Y, Model S, and Model X points side by side, since techs juggling multiple brands in one day can easily mix up spacing. A few extra seconds double-checking placement before the lift comes up is a small price compared to the alternative, and it’s a habit that carries over well when the next EV brand with unfamiliar geometry rolls into the shop.
Battery Pack Awareness and Pad Selection
The battery pack sits as a sealed structural component under most of the passenger compartment, and it is not designed to bear point loads from a standard rubber block. Using the wrong pad, or letting an arm creep even an inch off the marked pinch weld, risks contact with the pack housing. Puck-style adapters designed specifically for EV lift points spread the load correctly and are worth the investment for any shop planning to service Teslas regularly rather than as an occasional job.
Pad height also matters more here than on a typical sedan, since ground clearance on these vehicles is tighter than it looks. We’ve seen shops get caught off guard trying to get standard-height pads under the pinch weld without first raising the arms just enough to clear underbody trim. Taking it slow on the initial lift, watching contact points the entire way up, and stopping immediately if something doesn’t sit flush are basics that apply to lifting teslas safely just as much as they do to any vehicle with hidden trouble spots underneath.
Training Your Techs on EV-Specific Procedures
Even a shop with the right lift and the right pads can run into trouble if the person running the controls hasn’t been walked through the differences. Lifting teslas safely isn’t intuitive for a tech who’s spent fifteen years on domestic trucks, and assuming the process transfers automatically is a mistake we see shops make. A short, repeatable walkthrough — locate the points, position the arms, confirm pad contact, raise slowly to a few inches and check again before going higher — takes minutes to teach and prevents most of the mistakes that cause damage.
This is also a good spot to talk about high-voltage awareness generally, since EV service touches more than just the lift. Techs should know where the service disconnect is and understand that the battery pack itself is a sealed, high-voltage component that isn’t something to be casual around during any lift-related work. Building that awareness into onboarding for new techs pays off well beyond just Tesla service, since more EV brands with similar underbody layouts are showing up on Iowa roads every year.
Comparing Tesla Service to Other EVs and Classics
If your shop is also working on other electric vehicles, a lot of the same caution applies — we cover the broader picture in our article on lifting electric vehicles safely, which walks through battery placement differences across brands beyond Tesla. It’s worth reading alongside this guide if your bay sees a mix of EVs rather than Teslas exclusively, since jack point conventions aren’t universal yet across manufacturers.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, shops that also handle vintage or classic restorations know that unusual underbody geometry isn’t new — our piece on lifting classic cars safely covers similar principles around identifying non-standard structural points. And for shops without a dedicated bay, our guide on mobile column setups, including the one we wrote covering a Helena, MT installation, shows how a flexible mobile column lift for sale can handle EVs and classics alike without a permanent rack commitment.
Getting Your Shop Set Up the Right Way
Lifting teslas safely isn’t about buying one special piece of equipment and calling it done — it’s a combination of the right lift capacity, correctly chosen pads, accurate reference points, and technicians who’ve actually been walked through the process at least once before doing it solo. Shops that treat it as a one-time setup rather than an ongoing habit tend to be the ones that eventually run into a costly mistake.
We help Iowa shops spec out lifts for exactly this kind of work, factoring in capacity, arm reach, and pad compatibility before anything gets installed. If your shop is seeing more EVs come through the door and you want a setup that handles lifting teslas safely alongside your regular fleet of vehicles, we’re glad to walk through options that fit your bay and your budget.
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