GM kills wireless charging in Suburban, Tahoe and Denali over chip shortage
Buyers are getting a $75 credit as compensation, but it's not the first feature to have gotten the axe.
The global semiconductor shortage has caused all kinds of problems worldwide, and the automotive industry has certainly seen its share. There have been production stoppages and subsequent inventory shortages, and now feature removals, according to a report Monday by The Drive.
The feature in question is wireless device charging, which, while far from ubiquitous, has been a pretty common feature in luxury vehicles like GM's full-size SUVs. According to the Drive's report, the Chevy
Tahoe
and
Suburban
and the
GMC Denali
are all now being built without wireless charging, and purchasers are being issued a $75 credit in compensation.
While getting a brand-new SUV without a nice-to-have feature like wireless charging is kind of a bummer, it's definitely way less of a downer than the truck being forced to pause production completely over a component shortage, as has been the case with the Ford Bronco.
GM has done this feature-kill thing before, too, like when it pulled HD Radio out of the 2021 and 2022 Sierra and Silverado models earlier this year. It also removed the auto stop/start system from V8 models of those same trucks, which is likely to have a negative impact on their emissions and fuel economy.
It's unclear when these features will be reinstated, given that we don't really have a clear endpoint for the silicon shortage, but it seems likely that they'll eventually come back once the chip supply normalizes.
We asked GM for comment but didn't hear back in time for publication.
