Tesla reportedly delivering cars with missing USB ports due to microchip shortage

The microchip shortage has been wreaking havoc for the better part of this year and the problems are unlikely to go away until the second half of 2022 at the earliest. Many automakers had no other way but to temporarily stop the production of some cars due to the missing semiconductors. Others decided to take out some features and reduce the asking price in order to avoid halting the assembly line.

As with most car manufacturers, Tesla hasn’t been immune to these issues and had to constantly adapt its operations to keep production going as much as possible. That being said, it’s the first time we’re hearing cars are allegedly being shipped to some owners without informing them beforehand about missing equipment. Not only that, but customers paid full price for their electric vehicles rather than getting a discount to make up for the lost features. However, nothing is official at this point.

Model 3 and Model Y buyers took to Reddit to express their frustrations about their new EVs missing the essential USB-C ports, specifically those mounted on the center console. To make matters worse, wireless charging doesn’t seem to be working on these cars while some of the other vehicles are missing the USB ports for the rear passengers.

The first reports emerged on November 11, but not all cars delivered in recent days have this problem, so it all comes down to how lucky you are. It’s worth mentioning that while some of the owners learned about the missing ports before taking delivery, others discovered the glaring omissions only after driving home in their new Model 3 or Model Y.

The silver lining is Tesla can fix this post-purchase as someone who bought a Model Y Performance was told he would have to make an appointment to get the missing ports. It’s going to take approximately 10 minutes and will obviously be free of charge since customers have already paid for the USBs and wireless charging.

Even though the problem is fixable, it’s still frustrating to pay increasingly more money (given the many price hikes in 2021) for a Model 3 or a Model Y without some of the USB ports. We haven’t heard anything so far about the Model S and Model X being affected by this issue, so perhaps Tesla is saving the few microchips it has for the more expensive cars since these have higher profit margins.

Source: Reddit