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Elon Musk Halved the Mobile Connector Price, Almost Nobody's OK With It

Tesla received unexpected backlash from its customers and fans when the decision to make the mobile connector a $400 option was silently taken. As per usual, the American EV maker modified the website data without telling anyone about it. Now people are justifiably angry, even though Musk confirmed the price has been halved.
Elon Musk 6 photos
Photo: Tesla on YouTube
Elon Musk and the 2017 Model 3Elon MuskElon MuskTesla's Mobile ConnectorTesla's Mobile Connector
At first, Twitter users announced that Tesla’s mobile connector was not included as standard anymore. The accessory was priced separately at $400, a move that surprised many. The company and Elon Musk himself said the “usage statistics were super low,” so they deemed offering this product for free to be “wasteful.” Unfortunately for this random fact shared on Twitter, a Teslascope analysis backed by real data revealed that almost 60% of Tesla owners use the connectors.

What Elon Musk didn’t know or probably didn’t want to admit is that, following the social media uproar, the price decreased to $275.

After the mobile connector got a very fast discount, Tesla’s CEO came and said the new price would be $200. Musk also confirmed it’ll be easier again to add it with new orders for one of the carmaker’s vehicles.

Still, many chose to express their dissatisfaction with the American automaker’s move.

“Did Elon reduce the price of the car by $400 today? If not, he is a hypocrite. I guess he got used to this lately. I can’t believe I used to promote this man’s company at a time when it was about to get bankrupt,” said one former customer on the popular forum Reddit.

Another person pointed out these situations appear when people and employees refuse to tell their CEO they might be wrong. “Dude always gets his way and when he doesn’t, he buys the competition and relies on his super fans to defend him. The people who lose in the end are us, the consumers. How the hell am I supposed to recommend this car as a purchase now when features/necessities keep getting pulled?” underlined this Tesla fan.

Given the situation at hand, the news that a judge ruled Elon Musk lied about taking Tesla private got lost in the shuffle. Next month, Tesla’s CEO might be forced by a jury to compensate investors that lost money buying the company’s stock exactly because they thought the social media star would buy back everything.

The mobile connector is useful for charging at home and it is the best solution for those that only drive their car for commuting. It's been regarded as a good option because it never meant any extra costs.

At the end of the day, we must remember carmakers are facing increased costs of production. Batteries need a lot of raw and expensive materials, which are not found in infinite quantities. Add the chip and supply chain crises and you get a recipe for disaster.

Tesla might be looking to cut some costs and improve some profit margins, but they’ll barely do it with the mobile connector not being included in the package with a new car. It’s unpleasant, but it’s the truth.

What is worrying is that Tesla doesn’t publicly announce when it’s making changes to its products. Even the hikes for the cars were just modified by the web developer team and that’s it. Everyone should follow Rivian’s path in this matter, and keep everything transparent. Companies that go this way might lose their customer’s trust.

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About the author: Florin Amariei
Florin Amariei profile photo

Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one.
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