Oliver Haslam·

Tesla Is Now Charging $250 For Its Yoke Steering Wheel

When Tesla first launched the current Model S it sold it with the new yoke steering wheel. It has since offered a round steering wheel as an option, before switching to making that the default and allowing people to choose the yoke at now extra cost. Now, that’s all changed.

Electrek reports that a change overnight means that while the yoke option is still there it is no longer free. Instead, Tesla has started to charge a $250 premium for an option that is arguably worse than the free version.

The yoke doesn’t have any stalks which means that all of the usual stalk controls are now handled by touch controls on the face of the wheel or via the big screen in the dashboard.

Electrek also points to the steering ratio being problematic for yike drivers as well.

As for the former, we thought that the automaker wouldn’t risk bringing the controversial yoke steering wheel to market without a nonlinear steering curve enabled by a steer-by-wire system – especially knowing that Tesla has been developing a steer-by-wire system.

However, as Tesla started deliveries of the new Model S Plaid last year, we were surprised to see that the wheel had a normal 14.0:1 steering ratio, and it is proving to be impractical at lower speeds.

Now, it’ll be very interesting to see how many people choose to go the way of the yoke, especially considering the fact that they will have to pay an extra $250 to get it. Still, with Tesla prices falling as they are they might still be paying less than they would have recently.

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