Ford Pulls An Apple, Cuts Chargers From New Mustang Mach-E Purchases

If you've purchased a new iPhone in the past few years, you might have noticed that a charger and headphones are no longer included as standard. Sigh... That's becoming increasingly common across the automotive industry for electric vehicles. 

Ford Motor Company provided a new update about the 2023.5 Mustang Mach-E. Some of the changes include more range and faster charging due to new battery chemistry, as well as more powerful AWD trims and slightly lower prices. Website Autoblog pointed out that Ford recently pulled an Apple Inc. and no longer provided charging cables as standard equipment with the purchase of a new EV. 

Ford's website shows Mach-E customers can add the charger for $500. This charger was once standard equipment with every new Ford EV, and the move appears to come after Tesla, Inc. ditched its long-standing policy to deliver every vehicle with a mobile charging cable. Tesla charges an extra $400 for level 2 charging and $275 for level 1.

Ford and Tesla's moves are reminiscent of Apple removing chargers and headphones from the box of iPhone 12s in 2020. 

And it's not just Mach-E. Those who purchase the 2023 F-150 Lightning will have to purchase charging cables separately. 

Last year, Elon Musk tweeted about the move to ditch mobile chargers as standard equipment for Teslas. He explained, "Usage statistics were super low, so seemed wasteful." 

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.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2022

Or car companies have found another way to make more money -- just like many of them are finding out how to charge subscriptions for in-car services (read: here & here).