Tesla Just Made EV Ownership a Little Harder
Tesla just made EV ownership more of a hassle by not including mobile chargers with the purchase of its new vehicles.
Written by Andrew Kidd
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
In a questionable move,
Tesla
has made it a little more difficult to own a new electric vehicle by no longer including charging equipment with its new vehicles.As InsideEVs reports, Tesla has ceased its previously sensible policy of including home charging equipment with the sale of its new electric vehicles. This leaves customers without a way to charge their EVs at home right out of the box.
Elon Musk says including a charger ‘seemed wasteful’
Musk, who recently purchased Twitter for about $44 billion, tweeted earlier in April that usage stats for the included charging kits were low and that it’s a cost-savings strategy to no longer include them with the vehicles.
He said to compensate, the company will start including plug adapters with the mobile connector kit, which is currently out of stock on the company website.
He also noted that Tesla will reduce the price of the 120-volt mobile connector to $200 from $275, though that change has yet to be reflected on the website.
If customers do want the previously-included charging kit, they’ll have to shell out $400 on the automaker’s shop for the 240-volt NEMA 14-50 unit.
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Not the first time, not the last
The move to nix the included charger in the box isn’t without precedent; as
InsideEVs
notes, the Kia EV6 launched without an included charger, which made it the first EV in North America that left customers on their own when it came to charging.Perhaps the most high-profile manufacturer to no longer include chargers with its products up until now was Apple, which started shipping its iPhone 12 without a charger and EarPods in 2020. It’s a move the company states is intended to reduce e-waste and carbon emissions since there are so many extant lightning cables and charging bricks currently in customers’ hands.
As any iPhone owner can tell you, Apple’s lightning cables tend to be pretty fragile and not including them in the box when a user upgrades could lead to more accessory sales on Apple’s part.
It’s likely what Tesla is doing in the case of its car chargers: why include it for free when the company can make customers buy it separately?
Will it deter customers from buying a new Tesla?
Possibly in the short-term, though eventually the cost of buying a separate EV charger might just be considered part of the EV ownership experience. If customers even need them, that is—second- and third-time EV buyers might already have an abundance of charging options on hand.
The company offers two versions of its mobile chargers (120-volt and 240-volt), as well as a wall unit that retails for $495 (plus $750-$1,500 installation by an electrician) and charges at a rate of 44 miles of range per hour.
That higher voltage makes a difference; from a standard 120-volt source, Tesla’s vehicles will only charge at a rate of 3-5 miles of range per hour. As InsideEVs writes, that could work for new EV customers as they suss out a longer-term solution to their EV-charging needs.
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