Making your first electric vehicle purchase can feel like quite a rigmarole to some, particularly when it comes to the business of charging your car at home. Brands typically include a handy charging cable for home trickle charging as standard. But, this could be about to change.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced on Twitter that future Tesla products won’t include a charging cable as standard, stating that “usage statistics were super low, so seemed wasteful”.
Those who want a cable for charging their Tesla via a home power socket now have to option one, with American websites claiming a price of US$200. On the plus side, Musk says the cable will now come with more different connector options.
It is not yet known when this change will be implemented by Tesla’s local arm.
The chief executive links the low user uptake to customers typically favouring purchasing a more powerful wallbox system or the Tesla Supercharger network, each of which coming with its own cable.
Tesla isn’t the first brand to make charging cables an optional extra. Kia has done the same in some markets with its new EV6. More brands are likely to follow suit in the future.
The move mirrors a similar shift in the mobile phone industry. Apple, Samsung and others have started selling their phones without charging equipment for more than a year.
Having previously cited that the decision has reduced each brand’s respective carbon footprint, it’s also been reported that the decision has led to brands reducing the size of their packaging. It’s theorised that this allows each brand to ship more units more often.
