Tesla China announced the new program in a post on its official Weibo account.

Discount details:

• With the recently announced discount in place, Tesla China has implemented an RMB 10,000 reduction on the final payment for existing Model Y vehicles. 
• The discount is effective from 8 am Beijing time on December 24, 2024. 
• Eligible models are the Model Y Rear Wheel Drive and Model Y Long Range All Wheel Drive.
• Inventory and showroom cars are included in the promotion. 
• Customized vehicles, test drive units, or official second-hand cars are not included in the program. 

Financing deal extension:

• Tesla China’s 5-year, zero-interest financing has been extended to January 31, 2025 as well. 
• The financing deal is available for the Model Y RWD, Model Y Long Range AWD, Model 3 RWD, and Model 3 Long Range AWD. 
• Customers who wish to take advantage of the 5-year, zero-interest financing are required to place a down payment of at least RMB 79,900. 

Context: 

• Tesla China’s recent sales push is an update from a similar offer announced in November, which was due to end by December 31, 2024. 
• The previous offer also included orders for customized vehicles, though the program had a strict delivery deadline of December 31, 2024.

Why it matters: 

• These adjustments come amid reports that Tesla would be ramping up the initial production of an updated Model Y at its Shanghai factory in January 2025. 
• The promotions may then be a way for the company to clear inventory before the updated Model Y hits the market.

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BY THE NUMBERS:

• During the week ending December 22, Tesla China saw 17,600 new vehicle registrations, down 4.86% from the previous week’s 18,500.
• Tesla’s registrations in China are so far up 7.5% year-to-date compared to 2023. 
• Tesla doesn’t report its weekly sales figures, but the company’s general performance can be inferred through new vehicle registration data.
• Thankfully, China’s vehicle registration data is closely tracked by industry watchers. Some automakers, such as Li Auto, have also made it a point to share vehicle registration data on platforms such as Weibo.

China reports 17.6k Tesla registrations for the week of December 16-22.

The quarter is +12.0% QoQ, +13.2% YoY. YTD is at +7.5% YoY. pic.twitter.com/V2XF2Ard1V

— Roland Pircher (@piloly) December 24, 2024

PREVIOUS RESULTS: 

The previous weeks were quite impressive for Tesla China this December. The following are Tesla China’s registrations from this month so far:

• Week of December 2-8: 21,900 registrations
• Week of December 9-15: 18,500 registrations
• Week of December 16-22: 17,600 registrations

$TSLA
BREAKING: Tesla China insured units

< Dec 2024 >
2-8 : 21,900
9-15 : 18,452
16-22 : 17,600 pic.twitter.com/aUkxlo9vxi

— Tsla Chan (@Tslachan) December 24, 2024

IMPORTANT BACKGROUND:

• With just over one week left in December, Tesla China will likely engage in a strong vehicle delivery push in the month’s final days as it attempts to help the company achieve CEO Elon Musk’s delivery targets for 2024. 
• Elon Musk has set an ambitious goal of matching Tesla’s global vehicle delivery results from 2023. To achieve this, Tesla would have to deliver about 515,000 vehicles this Q4 2024.
• China is one of Tesla’s most important markets, though the country is also home to the world’s most competitive EV segment. So far, however, the Tesla Model Y and Model 3 are performing quite well in the domestic Chinese market.

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The company’s charging account posted about the news on X, noting that its winners for the Q4 Supercharger voting round had been named and added to the company’s website. Tesla has also opened its latest three-month round of voting, and you can cast your vote on previously proposed sites on the company’s website here.

The top-voted site in Q4 was in Warsaw, Poland, along with a handful of others that are now indicated on Tesla’s Find Us page with a gold trophy icon and the term “in development” for said sites. Tesla announced its Q3 Supercharger voting round winners in September, after initially launching these vote cycles in 2022.

Credit: Tesla

Tesla Supercharger voting winners in the U.S. for Q4 2024

• Hot Springs, Arkansas, U.S.
• Clermont, Florida, U.S.
• Taos, New Mexico, U.S.
• Johnson City, Tennessee, U.S.
• Cody, Wyoming, U.S.

Tesla Supercharger voting winners in Canada for Q4 2024

• Ucluelet, British Columbia, Canada
• Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada
• Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
• Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada

Tesla Supercharger voting winners in Europe for Q4 2024

• Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Liberec, Czech Republic
• Taranto, Italy
• Warsaw South, Poland

Tesla Supercharger voting winners in Asia-Pacific for Q4 2024

• Braidwood, New South Wales, Australia
• Hakuba Village, Japan
• Gwacheon, Seoul, South Korea

Tesla’s Supercharger improvements rolling out, NACS access

Tesla has been rolling out improvements to the Supercharger network throughout this year, and North American Charging Director Max de Zegher recently outlined some of the company’s specific goals in doing so as access rolls out to non-Tesla electric vehicles (EVs). These include making stall availability even more accurate, boosting the number of long Supercharging cables, modifying stations to help non-Tesla EVs avoid blocking stalls, and encouraging manufacturers to put their charging ports on the rear left or front right of their upcoming vehicles.

On Monday, Tesla and Hyundai also announced that the 2025 Ioniq 5 will become the first EV to be able to charge at the Superchargers with a native NACS charging port, while the company’s existing vehicles with the CCS charger are set to get an adapter in early 2025. Owners of Nissan’s Ariya EV also gained access to the charging network earlier this month, as Tesla slowly opens its chargers to automakers across the industry.

What are your thoughts? Did I miss any of the Q4 Supercharger winners? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

Tesla exec highlights advantages of prefabricated Superchargers

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According to a Reuters Breakingviews prediction report on Monday, Trump’s moves to minimize regulations surrounding autonomous vehicles and create a federal framework for the technology are expected to supercharge the industry—as increased competition emerges in the U.S. and beyond.

With Tesla CEO Elon Musk also set to play a large role in Trump’s administration, heading up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the company’s own developments in the sector could also stand to benefit substantially. Reuters also predicts that self-driving pilots could expand under the administration, especially as developers aim to increase the amount of data used to train their systems.

READ MORE ON SELF-DRIVING REGULATIONS: U.S. agency proposes rules for self-driving vehicle incident reporting

Last month, the Trump transition team said that it was already aiming to create a federal self-driving vehicle framework. Additionally, the team earlier this month was reported to be ditching federal requirements on automated driving tech crash reporting, coming as one example of the administration’s aims to streamline regulatory processes in the industry.

Internationally, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) categorizes vehicle automation into five automation levels, which are generally adopted in conversations about robotaxis in the U.S. market as well. You can see these categories below, with Level 3 and above generally considered to be full automation, at least at times, while Level 2 and below are considered partial automation.

Credit: SAE International

According to the data firm Canalys, just 5.5 percent of vehicles sold this year have included Level 2 or more assistance features, such as cruise control and automated lane changes. By 2025, however, Citi research has suggested that models in China below 200,000 yuan (about $28,000) will have these features, playing a major role in consumer demand.

In China, at least 19 companies are currently testing fully autonomous vehicles, and Goldman Sachs expects the country to see as many as 90 percent of consumer sales to have features of Level 3 autonomy or greaterby 2040, compared to just 65 percent in the U.S.

While these technologies are emerging, McKinsey predicts that self-driving could become a $400 billion industry by 2035. Google parent company Alphabet runs Waymo, a Level 4 driverless ride-hailing service that already offers paid rides, while others, including Pony AI and Baidu also offer rentable self-driving vehicles in select areas.

BYD has invested $14 billion into self-driving, Toyota has around 1.7 trillion yen ($11.3 billion) going toward software, while Volkswagen has invested $700 million into China’s Xpeng Motors. Li Auto and Xiami are also considered potential competitors in these spaces, and 2025 could prove a big year for commercial self-driving hopefuls.

Tesla’s Supervised FSD program, Cybercab unveiled

Meanwhile, Tesla isn’t yet operating a paid ride-hailing service, though it gathers data through owner use of its Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. Tesla has touted the potential scalability of its Supervised FSD in the past, given that it’s available at least in some form in all of the company’s vehicles.

Musk has also regularly talked about a future in which owners of its vehicles could use an Unsupervised FSD to generate money by giving robotaxi rides while not normally in use.

On that theme, Tesla unveiled the Cybercab in October, a fully autonomous, two-seat vehicle with no pedals, set to eventually make it to the market as a driverless ride-hailing vehicle. It’s also set to be equipped with wireless charging and make use of an automated cleaning robot, offering top-to-bottom autonomy for owners.

MORE ON FSD SUPERVISED: Watch Tesla’s FSD v13.2 navigate away from park in a tricky situation

Tesla skeptics, Waymo’s driverless ride-hails, GM’s Cruise drives into the sunset

Despite the unveiling, some have shared skepticism around how long the vehicles could take to reach the market, especially given that production isn’t set to begin until 2026 with commercial deliveries aiming for “before 2027,” according to Musk during the October 10 “We, Robot” unveiling event.

On Monday, analyst Gary Black also predicted that fewer than 50 percent of Tesla owners would join the company’s robotaxi fleet, while a Guggenheim researcher in October said Tesla was “extremely unlikely” to reveal a credible path to robotaxi commercialization in the next 12 to 24 months.

Others like Waymo are some of the first companies operating paid driverless ride-hails, and the Google-run firm said in August that its robotaxis were already giving 100,000 paid self-driving rides per week. Meanwhile, General Motors (GM) announced this month that it will officially end funding for its commercial self-driving arm Cruise, after one of the company’s driverless vehicles last year ran over and pinned a pedestrian in San Francisco.

ALSO RELATED:

• Tesla China FSD approval expected by end of 2024: Musk
• Waymo to test self-driving vehicles in another country in 2025

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California regulators add new reporting requirements for self-driving cars

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The sighting:

• The recent Model Y “Juniper” prototype sighting was reported in California. 
• Similar to past sightings, the vehicle was spotted in the wild, and it featured a front and rear end that were completely camouflaged.
• The apparent Model Y “Juniper” prototype was also fitted with heavily tinted windows.

Tesla Refresh Model Y “Juniper” prototype spotted testing again in California

It might be closer than we actually think. LFG $TSLA https://t.co/UNICEmYAhG pic.twitter.com/SRQWGYhhkx

— Herbert Ong (@herbertong) December 22, 2024

Tesla China reports:

• A report from LatePost in China claimed that the upgraded Tesla Model Y would start production in January 2025.
• LatePost’s report suggested that the Model Y’s upcoming upgrade will be quite similar to the Model 3 Highland, which included updates to the all-electric sedan’s exterior, interior, battery, and powertrain.
• The report also claimed that Tesla China will start producing a six-seat version of the updated Model Y in Q4 2025.
• Previous leaked images of the alleged Model Y “Juniper” hinted at a red light bar in the vehicle’s rear.
• Other rumored features for the Model Y “Juniper” include a grille-less front, a 15.4-inch tilting infotainment system, and newly developed fourth-generation drive units.

The Model Y in context: 

• The Model Y is Tesla’s best-selling vehicle, and in 2023, it became the world’s best-selling car by volume.
• An upgrade to the Model Y will likely prove popular among consumers considering that the vehicle is still selling well today. This is despite the Model Y still sporting an older design compared to its sedan sibling, the Model 3.

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Black predicts that less than 50% of Tesla owners will join the company’s robotaxi fleet. The main argument against including a personal vehicle in Tesla’s robotaxi fleet is that owners will be uncomfortable lending their cars to strangers.

What % of Tesla owners would accept a stream of payouts from Tesla for deploying their cars in a TSLA robotaxi network to move people/luggage around every day? At 25 trips/day x 6 miles/trip x $1/mile x 75% payout, let’s assume a TSLA owner could make $40K per year by renting…

— Gary Black (@garyblack00) December 22, 2024

Elon Musk has compared Tesla’s robotaxi fleet to a combination of Uber and AirBnB. While Black’s point could be valid, it might not be a major concern for Tesla. Musk has also stated that Tesla will independently add vehicles to the robotaxi fleet, separate from individual car owners. 

So, there should be enough vehicles in the robotaxi fleet to accommodate customers, even if less than 50% of Tesla owners join the robotaxi fleet initially. Plus, some Tesla owners have argued that they would not enroll their personal vehicles into the robotaxi fleet, but a secondary car instead. 

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In order to accommodate the increase in travel, Tesla has launched four Megapack Chargers in heavily traveled areas of the U.S., offering a mobile Megapack unit along with pre-fabricated Supercharger units. These mobile chargers have been deployed in Bakersfield, California, Primm, Nevada, El Centro, California, and Cambridge, Ohio, and can now be seen on Tesla’s Supercharger map.

Credit: Tesla Charging | X

Credit: Tesla Charging | X

Credit: Tesla Charging | X

Credit: Tesla Charging | X

READ MORE ON SUPERCHARGERS: Tesla set to launch new V4 Cabinet enabling fastest Supercharging speeds yet

While the Bakersfield and Primm mobile charger locations appear to have been added to existing Superchargers, the El Centro and Cambridge sites seem to be standalone sites with eight and 10 stalls, respectively, according to Tesla’s website. The mobile units also seem to offer up to 150kW charging speeds, as detailed on the listings for the latter two chargers.

Tesla has deployed similar mobile Superchargers in the past, recently doing so in October in areas of Florida hit by Hurricane Milton. Other mobile chargers have been spotted as far back as 2019, though the latest units appear to also have benefitted from Tesla’s increasing deployment of pre-fabricated Supercharger units, which the company builds at its Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York.

You can see a diagram of the pre-fab Superchargers below, as shared in recent weeks by Tesla’s North America Director of Charging Max de Zegher. On the left, you can see all the materials needed to build a traditional Supercharging station with four stalls, including the stalls themselves, the charging cabinet, and all the structural items needed. On the right, you’ll see Tesla’s pre-fabricated units, which streamline the installation process and feature a built-in cabinet, stalls, and structure.

Credit: Max de Zegher | X

Tesla reached 60,000 Supercharger stalls worldwide in October, and the company is also readying its rollout of the V4 Supercharging cabinet in 2025, which will enable charging speeds of up to 500 kW for the Cybertruck and up to 1.2 MW for the electric Semi.

The company has also been aiming to make improvements to the existing Supercharger network, with goals to build more stations with pull-through, towing-friendly stalls, and to increase the length of charging cables to help accommodate wider access to the chargers for non-Tesla electric vehicles (EVs).

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Nissan Ariya to gain access to NACS-compatible Tesla Superchargers starting Dec 10

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On Saturday evening, users began reporting that Tesla’s software update version 2024.45.25.5 had started rolling out, and it’s expected to make its way to those with FSD Supervised first before rolling out more widely throughout this week. The update also includes FSD Supervised v13.2.2 for those with Tesla’s AI4 computer, while those with AI3 (HW3) are expected to receive a “much-updated” FSD Supervised v12.6 before the end of the year, according to a statement last week from Vice President of AI Ashok Elluswamy.

You can see a couple of early experiences with Tesla’s FSD v13.2.2 below, courtesy of Whole Mars Catalog and Chuck Cook.

Tesla posts a large holiday update every year, typically featuring a combination of improvements and fun features that are either holiday-themed or just plain funny.

This year’s Tesla holiday update is no different, bringing with it a handful of features, both with improvements and with items that are simply fun. For example, Tesla has added the Cybertruck Santa Mode for those with the unique electric pickup, letting you change your in-vehicle avatar to Santa’s sleigh, complete with reindeer, elves, and other decorations.

The update has also added custom Cybertruck avatar wraps, which are also expected to roll out to the rest of Tesla’s lineup down the road. It also offers the ability to use the rear screen on vehicles that have it to play arcade games, even while driving.

Other features geared toward functionality include the addition of a Tesla Apple Watch app, the ability to set a preferred battery charge level for arrival, the ability to search along a navigation route and receive estimated detour times, precipitation map and destination weather, and a handful of other useful features.

Other updates launched with the massive suite of features include the fart on contact setting, TuneIn radio and SiriusXM streaming, alerts to rear cross traffic, the ability to save dashcam and Sentry Mode clips to your phone, lightshow scheduling, and still other features.

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Watch Tesla’s FSD v13.2 navigate away from park in a tricky situation

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The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) announced on Friday that it has been awarded $19.9 million to purchase and deploy 70 electric school buses and to construct additional electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, as detailed in a press release. The funding comes from the IRA’s Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program, allowing the state to deploy replace retired internal combustion engine (ICE) buses with electric versions across nine Illinois school districts.

In addition to deploying the electric buses under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant, the state plans to use the funding to help build charging stations for the electric vehicles (EVs), along with providing workforce training to help service and support the tech as it rolls out. Additionally, the ISBE will be able to hire two full-time staff members to help support the implementation of the grant and to work with school districts on additional clean energy programming.

RELATED: Michigan gets funding for electric school buses in eight districts

“With this funding, we’re building on our progress toward a more sustainable future by providing nine school districts with the resources to advance our clean energy goals,” says Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. “Through the Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Duty Grant program, these districts will receive electric school buses, charging infrastructure, and workforce training — reducing harmful emissions and improving air quality. Thanks to our federal and local partners, we’re creating healthier and cleaner environments for students and communities across the state.”

The release also details that the EPA reports as many as 3 million Class 6 and Class 7 vehicles are currently being used in the U.S., many of which emit high levels of a combination of greenhouse gases, fine particulates, nitrogen oxides, and other harmful gases.

“Clean transportation solutions not only create healthier living and learning environments for our students but also save money for our school districts and taxpayers,” writes Dr. Tony Sanders, State Superintendent of Education. “I am proud of our staff here at the Illinois State Board of Education for winning this competitive grant and securing this valuable investment in Illinois’ clean energy future.”

The first Illinois school districts to get electric buses

• Forest Park School District 91: 5 school buses
• Franklin Park School District 84: 3 school buses
• Hazel Crest School District 152.5: 1 school bus
• Joliet Township High School District 204: 10 school buses
• Lincolnshire-Prairie View District 103: 4 school buses
• Marengo Union Elementary CSD 165: 2 school buses
• Township High School District 113 (Highland Park): 3 school buses
• Troy Community Consolidated School District 30-C: 32 school buses
• Zion-Benton Township High School District 126: 10 school buses

Along with the nine districts getting funding through the ISBE grant, three other Illinois school districts were awarded direct funding through the EPA’s Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program, according to the release. These include Grayslake Community Consolidated School District 46, North Chicago CUSD 187, and Zion Elementary School District 6.

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California EV adoption driving steady decline in emissions: study

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On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a press release detailing a proposal for rules on a voluntary national framework for automated driving systems (ADS), coming as the first such program to be proposed. The rules would also effectively accelerate the process of gaining exemptions from current limitations to allow companies to deploy ADS-equipped vehicles more quickly and at a greater volume.

Dubbed the ADS-equipped Vehicle Safety, Transparency, and Evaluation Program (AV STEP), the program would be open to any companies that operate or plan to operate compliant self-driving automobiles on public roads, and aiming to increase transparency into self-driving vehicles.

“AV STEP would provide a valuable national framework at a pivotal time in the development of ADS technology. Safe, transparent, and responsible development is critical for this technology to be trusted by the public and reach its full potential. This proposal lays the foundation for those goals and supports NHTSA’s safety mission,” NHTSA Chief Counsel Adam Raviv said. “We encourage everyone to comment on our proposed program.”

The agency formally issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for such a framework. If passed, the regulations would both increase the amount of publicly available info for self-driving vehicles in the U.S., and it would focus on offering vehicle manufacturers, operators, and municipalities more data on public awareness of the technology and incidents related to vehicles equipped with ADS systems.

READ MORE ON SELF-DRIVING VEHICLES: California regulators add new reporting requirements for self-driving cars

AV STEP would also create two new exemption processes for ADS systems to be deployed, offering increased regulatory flexibility for companies aiming to launch commercial services. The agency also says that it will provide a period for public comment upon the publication of the rules, under docket No. NHTSA-2024-0100.

You can see one version of the full NHTSA proposal below, which the agency says is not the official version but has been prepared for internet circulation.

President-elect Donald Trump plans for self-driving vehicles

President-elect Donald Trump was reportedly looking to eliminate existing rules surrounding automated driving crash reports, largely expected to help streamline automated vehicle development for Tesla—especially with CEO Elon Musk set to serve in Trump’s administration.

Last month, a report from Bloomberg said that Trump’s transition team was working on a federal framework for self-driving vehicles, and to make automated driving a top priority during his upcoming term. Under current NHTSA rules, self-driving vehicles without a steering wheel or accelerator pedals aren’t permitted to be deployed at volume, which would obviously need to be changed in order to accommodate Tesla’s Cybercab and other similar vehicle platforms.

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Tesla named ‘most-trusted’ brand developing fully-autonomous vehicles

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