Tesla strips home charging cable from standard equipment list and removes refundable order fee

Tesla is stripping back the standard equipment shipped with its most popular models, with its Mobile Connector home charging cable no longer included.

Discovered by Twitter user @dwhes, Wheels has confirmed Tesla no longer equips its Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles with the entry-level charger as standard, now asking $550 for the charger which is compatible with three-pin, 240V outlets.

Pricing for Tesla's locally-delivered models won't change, despite the charger being omitted, coming less than a month after the list prices of the Model 3 and Model Y were increased – now starting at $65,500 and $72,300 before on-road costs respectively.

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It's understood all orders made before the end of last week will continue to be shipped with the Mobile Connector, while those places from Saturday won't be – forcing buyers to either fork out for the charger through Tesla's store or to install a faster-charging wallbox for an at-home solution.

The decision to remove the charger as a free piece of equipment comes just under three months since Telsa's US operation did the same thing, backed up by CEO Elon Musk saying the decision was driven by low usage.

"Usage statistics were super low, so seemed wasteful. On the (minor) plus side, we will be including more plug adapters with the mobile connector kit," Musk tweeted.

"Based on feedback received, we will drop the mobile connector price to [US]$200 and make it easy to order with car.

"Note, mobile connector is not needed if you have a Tesla wall connector or to use Superchargers. [We] recommend installing a Tesla wall connector well before the car arrives."

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On top of this, Tesla has also removed the ability for buyers to get a refund on their order fee when purchasing a vehicle online.

While the charge was previously refundable, the website now clearly states the $350 down payment required to buy a Model 3 or Model Y can't be returned if a customer decides to cancel their purchase.

It's also worth noting the order fee is not then absorbed by the purchase price of the vehicle, meaning Tesla's prices incur an additional $350 premium for placing the order.