O come, all ye faithful, and get your hot car news from The Autopian because we’re not slacking off even though we’re only a few days from Christmas and a week from New Year’s Eve. Reading material for your morning constitutional today includes rare discounts on the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, some bad end-of-year news for CarMax, and an update on solid-state batteries at BMW. Let’s ride.
Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
Merry Teslathon? Happy Tesla Days? A Tesla Decemba To Rememba? 
Yeah, we need a better name for Tesla’s very rare end-of-year discount celebration, and I haven’t had enough coffee yet to figure it out. But if you’ve been eyeing a Tesla Model 3 or Model Y this month—or what’s left of this month, I suppose—you’re in luck.
Reuters reports Tesla is offering $7,500 discounts on both of its top-selling EVs this month. That’s an increase from the $3,750 credit Tesla was already offering on those cars. And as we reported yesterday, this new bigger discount comes just weeks before Tesla stands to get its full $7,500 federal EV tax credit back under new rules implemented by the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
(By the way, the new EV tax credit rules for 2023 are extremely confusing; Mercedes wrote a guide that may help you, and so did I; the always-great Consumer Reports has a useful one, too. The point is, forget what you think you’ve known over the past 10 years or so because the full tax credit is aimed at EVs built in North America now, and it gets even more complicated when we start talking about batteries.)
Why is Tesla doing this now, on Dec. 21? Reuters says it’s all about orders and showing those EOY sales/delivery figures; apparently “customers have canceled their orders and held off their purchases until the new credits take effect in January, weighing on Tesla demand.” That’s not going to look good when Tesla already said it would miss its delivery target this year. Basically, offering the $7,500 discount now instead of in January is a way to drive up those numbers a bit.
Here’s more, plus good news for our pals in Canada and China:
“The fact they seem to be cutting price to increase deliveries volumes doesn’t raise confidence, particularly at a time where we see increasing competition,” Craig Irwin, a senior analyst at ROTH Capital Partners, said.
The rare discounts follow a series of price hikes over the past couple of years by the automaker, which blamed supply chain disruption and inflation.
Tesla is also offering $5,000 credit in Canada on Model 3 and Model Y vehicles delivered before the end of the year. The U.S. automaker has also given a discount of 6,000 yuan ($860) on some models in China to the end of 2022.
Anyway, if you were going to buy a Tesla in January, you can do it now instead. Elon could use a little pick-me-up, I’m sure.
CarMax Is Far From Merry This Holiday Season
Photo credit CarMax
I’ll tell you who’s probably very eager for this year to be over: CarMax, everyone’s favorite supplier of unlimited-warranty Land Rovers. America’s entire supply of used cars has been utterly depleted by the supply chain issues that disrupted new car production, as well as rising interest rates and cuts in overall consumer spending.
As a result, CarMax’s quarterly profit is down 86% vs. the previous year. Woof. The company is now even pausing a share buyback
Here’s MarketWatch:
The Richmond, Va., used-car retailer said net profit for the three months ended Nov. 30 was $37.6 million, down from $269.4 million a year earlier.
Earnings were 24 cents a share, compared with $1.63 a share a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting adjusted earnings of 65 cents a share.
Revenue fell 23.7% to $6.51 billion from a year earlier. Analysts were expecting sales of $7.16 billion, according to FactSet.
Combined retail and wholesale unit sales fell by 28%. Retail used car unit sales fell 20.8%, with the company citing “vehicle affordability challenges” that weighed on consumers, who are already challenged by rampant inflation, rising interest rates and low confidence in the economy.
I say again: woof. And it’s hard to see any end in sight to this. My professional opinion remains that it’s kind of a garbage time to buy a car, even while some good deals are to be had here and there.
Solid-State Batteries V: The Phantom Pain
Photo credit BMW
Solid-state batteries—EV batteries that contain a solid material as an electrolyte inside the battery cell instead of the usual liquid—remain the White Whale of the car industry. If anyone’s able to deliver on them, they could in theory promise significantly greater energy density, faster charging times, less real estate in the car and fewer of those pesky fires. They have proven quite elusive to develop thus far.
The last time I talked to a top BMW engineer working on this technology, he said it’s at least 10 years away from viability, and any number of years after that from production and implementation at scale. But BMW and Ford are both invested in Colorado company Solid Power, hoping that company could be the one that makes the breakthrough.
Now, BMW says that it will produce Solid Power batteries on its own lines. Here’s Reuters once more via Automotive News:
Solid Power said it will offer some intellectual property rights related to its solid-state batteries to BMW and allow production of the battery cells at the automaker’s facilities in Germany.
Colorado-based Solid Power will license the cell design and manufacturing processes to BMW, which will pay the company $20 million through June 2024, subject to certain conditions.
BMW intends to duplicate Solid Power’s pilot production lines at its own plant in Germany and produce prototype cells based on Solid Power’s proprietary technology.
“Subject to certain conditions” means meeting certain performance development milestones, but basically if solid-state batteries from this company work out, BMW wants to be at the forefront. “We expect this agreement to accelerate the installation of our solid-state prototype line and our companies’ mutual goal of commercializing this promising cell technology,” BMW management board member Frank Weber said in a statement.
Remember, Henrik Fisker completely gave up on this stuff a year ago. Maybe BMW and Solid Power will have more luck.
The Flush
Are you considering buying an EV next year? Or even before we close out 2022? What would you consider?
I would really love to (though I see myself running a gas car concurrently, at least for a while) but man, the costs are through the roof and the inventory is terrible.
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Top photo credit Tesla
“As a result, CarMax’s quarterly profit is down 86% vs. the previous year. Woof. The company is now even pausing a share buyback”
Nevermind that share buybacks should be illegal in the first place, that’s Carvana levels of bad. But tell me again how Carmax is ‘different’ and ‘better’ than other dealers. Go on. I’ll wait. Oh, the warranty? You mean the same warranty you can buy from nearly any underwriter for the same or less? The inspection that isn’t actually any different from the one dealers do? The massively overpaying for used cars and passing that shitshow onto you with ‘we don’t care if the market’s tanking, you’ll pay above original sticker and like it’ pricing?
Yeah.
The reckoning is coming.
“Colorado-based Solid Power will license the cell design and manufacturing processes to BMW, which will pay the company $20 million through June 2024, subject to certain conditions.”
It’s great work if you can get it. 1) Drum up a slightly novel concept even if it’s not ready or not even feasible 2) license the IP to a desperate company for a shitload of cash 3) cool you can finish the product now, or just disappear.
We’ll see what Solid Power does. Fisker giving up isn’t an indicator of, frankly, anything. They put the exhaust outlet directly under the driver’s window, for fuck’s sake. They are clearly not smart people.
On the other hand, this entire company appears to be largely made up of people from A123 Systems. Which was Fisker’s supplier before going bankrupt and being bought by a Chinese government shell.
You, uh, might wanna take some extra precautions and read the contract real close there, BMW.
The vehicles I want aren’t in production yet. It needs to handle towing a small camper as well. I can deal with the 30% range reduction our popup imposes on our gas tow pig. V2L is also a must. Acting as a battery backup or powering a 5k BTU A/C (600 watts at full power) in the boonies of northern NY would be wonderful.
Still thinking the ID Buzz will be our first electric vehicle, so whenever that is available in the US is when the clock really starts. Unless, Porsche calls me up and offers a Taycan at about 50% off that is.
I just got a Maverick hybrid so I’m not in the market for an EV. Even if gas prices shoot up again, I should be fine. The cost difference between it an EV is so great that I could never make up the cost difference on gas and maintenance savings alone.
Yes Tesla is in trouble. Check out this company that has been advertising heavily on my local radio station. https://www.autonomy.com/ “Take delivery of your Model 3 as soon as tomorrow!” They aren’t billing it as the cheapest way to get into a new Tesla because they are paying full price. They just like Hertz are getting fat fleet discounts because retail demand has softened significantly.
No surprise about Car Max either. YoY still isn’t a great metric. The conditions that gave them fat profit margins in recent times have gone away and they sitting on/trying to sell through inventory that they simply paid too much vs current market value. Throw in the lack of cheap money and yeah sales, margins and profits are way down.
I’m ready to buy an EV, but my budget isn’t, so I’ll wait until I can get a reliable used one.
Probably in a decade or so. 🙁
Sooo in other words they are scaling their profit margin to back where it was at the beginning of the year? What a joke.
I am in no way opposed to an EV, but there are no beat up 15 year old interesting ones yet. So I’m already looking at like 2035 because the Rivians are the first ones that have really piqued my interest. But by that time hopefully we have a sustainable solution figured out because I’d rather not be driving a 7000lb monster around and the longevity and cost of current batteries is going to kill the used market.
Tesla Holiday Options:
Chestnuts roasting over an open fire sales event (because unintended immolation)
Festivus and the airing of grievances (because you bumper fell off in the rain or your roof flew off, etc)
You know things are bad when a company stops buying back it’s own stock to boost share prices; I guess the CEO won’t be getting a big bonus this year. He may only earn 7 figures this year. No more scraps for the beggars and cancel Christmas!
I have no intention of buying a fully electric vehicle in the foreseeable future. Now that Toyota has stopped beating the Prius with an ugly stick, I am very interested in the 2023 Prius Prime PHEV.
I’d like to buy a base Tesla Model 3 (rwd, no autopilot stuff) but they still cost like $65k here. For that money I could buy a much nicer car, even a hybrid to save gas money. EVs are hard to find and the ones that are for sale have crazy price tags.
Didn’t we just have a very similar flush question? I’m not considering an EV yet…although the discounts do make them slightly more appealing. I personally won’t seriously look at a Tesla product until the apartheid emerald mine failson is ousted as CEO….and even then their dated styling, QC issues, and the ridiculous clout culture around them would probably still keep me far away.
The high prices and lack of feasibility for my wife and my needs really keeps them out of consideration for us. Her family is about 300 traffic infested miles away that we drive 2-4 times a year, so an EV really isn’t going to work for that mission…and we often do weekend hiking trips in the mountains and trips to a waterfront place that my folks own out in rural VA where there’s no infrastructure to support them at all.
At the end of the day they don’t work for us right now. We might be willing to suck up some of the inconveniences if the financial benefits were there but when every EV that could conceivably meet our needs is either around 50k or catches on fire (the Bolt) they aren’t….not to mention they’re an even worse investment than a regular car right now because any first gen EV is going to obsolete in the next 2-3 years at the rate technology is improving….AND every local BEV in our area is marked up into the stratosphere because the conspicuous consumption crowd will pay the markups to have the hot new thing. Normies love EVs.
That doesn’t even take the ICE cars we could get for the price of a nice EV into account either. Once we’re in that 50k and up range we could get her a well kitted out XC60 or get me an RS3. I do care about the environment and all but cars are an emotional thing and I’m not sure if either of us could turn either of those options down.
“Are you considering buying an EV next year? Or even before we close out 2022? What would you consider?”
I was thinking about buying a Bolt, especially with the $7500 credit from January until March being available, but it really doesn’t make sense when I already have a cheap car that gets 50mpg. Maybe in the long term it would pay off, since I would still be saving money on “fuel”, but I feel like the break even point is pretty far down the road.
I’ll buy the first EV I can afford that’s a 2 seat or 2+2 coupe with RWD, good steering feel and allows me to do big smoky drifts.
I guess range needs to be at least 100 miles.
I’ve never spent more than £12k on a car, so I expect I’ll be waiting for at least a decade for an EV. I suspect I’ll be running on efuels before I get an EV.
As always, 500 miles of range at 0F, or 5 minute recharge times at the same, plus TCO at or lower than equivalent gas vehicle, and I’m sold.
What if it was 499 miles of range at 2F with a 6 minute recharge time?
Then the deal better be good!
I’d absolutely consider an EV, if only as a commuter if the price was reasonable (or tax credits offset some cost), availability was decent, and reliability was good. Unfortunately, living in the great state of North Dakota, it’s cold AF.
Currently, it’s -17° air temp and -43° with wind chill. It was -22° overnight. It’s been like this the last 7 days and won’t let up until Sunday. And this is probably going to repeat itself several more times before winter’s end. Other EV users in the state have said they lose about 40-50% of stated range, even babying the heat. Not ideal.
This last summer, we saw air temps upwards of 106° (personally, I’ve seen 110° max here in the past. That’s a pretty broad annual temperature range, which presents its own unique challenges to EV use here. Don’t get me started on the range loss due to consistent 15-40 MPH winds.
We’ve been dealing with some changing circumstances and so sold our Miata, used the proceeds to payoff our CX-5 (we’d been paying both ahead and so were very much in the black on both) and leased a Tesla Model 3 Long Range with zero down while they were $3750 off earlier this month. Level 2 charger install is in 10 days; been subsisting on Level 1 and honestly it’s been just fine. It’s the quickest car I’ve ever owned and it’s honestly perfectly capable on our few twisty roads (obviously not a Miata but that car simply didn’t work for us anymore and we couldn’t keep three vehicles).
That’s a great deal on a Model 3. For all my thoughts about Elon (especially lately) I’ve always seriously enjoyed driving the cars. You’re going to have an awesome time in yours.
It’s the Tesla “Oops, People Realize Our CEO’s a Moron” sale!
I’m not buying anything Tesla until Elon’s gone.
I did buy a bunch of their stock over the years and lost most of my gains in the last year because the douchenozzle in chief lost his damned fool mind over the election results.
I think their stock will jump when he’s sacked, so I can hardly wait for him to be ousted. If that never happens, I’ll take my lumps as a lesson learned: get out before the monkey shows his ass.
It’s cute that Tesla thinks their cancelled orders are tax credit-related.
How about the “Hail
MaryElon Pass” Sale?Would I buy an EV? As soon as an affordable and fun-to-drive EV with decent range hits the market I’ll buy one. A Model3 that actually sold for $35K would do, if VW would bring the ID.3 GTX to the US and sell it at a reasonable price that would be appealing too.
The Tesla is no bella, so I’d rather fly a Cessna and get rubella and hear Slayer sing acapella.
Oh I’ve got your Raining Blood acapella covered
DUH DUH DUH DA NAH NUH NUH, NAH NUH NUH, NAH NUH NUH
Now that you’ve given me that thought, I badly want to hear an acapella group cover Slayer.
“Are you considering buying an EV next year? Or even before we close out 2022? What would you consider?”
Not really considering, but if I were looking, I’d be looking for Hyundai/Kia to bring their prices down a little to compensate for the loss of tax benefit. A Bolt is tempting at the price, but I’d rather wait for their upcoming products or future vehicles I haven’t seen yet. I’m more interested in keeping an efficient small hybrid and getting a larger EV SUV or pickup for local hauling than keeping a gas guzzler and getting a small EV.
Deck the halls with desp’rate tactics
Tes-la la la la la, la la la laaaaa
Please ignore our boss’s antics
Tes-la la la la la, la la la laaaaa
We have a reservation for a Chevy Blazer EV for next year, if dealership starts playing markup games, I am out. When I bought our 2021 Chevy Bolt, it was sitting in the dealership for 3 months, the sales guy did a poor job selling it but I knew what I wanted, it was the best decision based on gas prices, all the savings driving an hour to work, until the battery fiasco happened. I can recognize GM customer service its been above and beyond, they gave us a rental until the battery software update was available. Now I am stuck with 80% of battery capacity, still good for my usage but its getting annoying this winter, I am getting 120 miles of range.
In the other hand, I bought a Chrysler Pacifica PHEV, nightmare on wheels, the opposite of GM on customer service and dealership service. One more issue and its going back, I am waiting to get the tax credit from it and start the lemon process. First and last Stellantis vehicle
Oof. I know someone with one of those Pacificas and they seem to love it. I drove it once and it has the worst Regen/normal brake integration of anything I’ve ever driven. In reverse it doesn’t have hill hold so if you treat it like a normal automatic and let off the gas expecting it to hold it just starts rolling back down. Normal driving the pedal seems to just do whatever.
I’m a little surprised to hear that you haven’t got the Bolt battery swapped yet! Maybe you just got unlucky on the order they’re going through the cars, but I got mine done this past summer and it’s been perfect since. Not the most exciting care I’ve ever driven, but it’s a perfect daily, I love it.
I don’t know if Chevy is swapping batteries on any 2020 or 2021 Bolts yet. I have gone for California lemon law buyback with my 2020, because 16 months is too long to wait for repair of a potential defect that can burn down my car and my house! I plan to order a 2023 Bolt after the buyback is done, as long as I can find a dealer who will sell it at MSRP without accessories or other profit padders.
Sadly, I’m not shocked about the Pacifica. When I was renting, everything Chrysler screwed up somehow, including stranding us.
I blame the fall of CarMax on Doug DeMuro and the rise of Cars & Bids Dot Com. Happy Dougcember to Remember, CarMax, hope you don’t choke on your prices!
I had one of the Houston CarMax locations royally screw me over in the early 00s so I loved seeing how much Doug’s Land Rover wrung out of them.
I’m ready to watch all of the used car scalpers burn to the ground. And a big eff you to Ticketmaster since we’re talking about companies that horde shit and make you pay extra for the privilege of not being able to buy in bulk.
I have an order for a Chevrolet Bolt that has a production date of 1/2/2023 meaning it will start production then. Hoping to take delivery in February. I’m using the Bolt as a daily driver car, so when I don’t need my F150 I can park it.