By Lennon Cihak
It’s rumored that Apple CarPlay will soon support paying for gas directly from the CarPlay interface. According to MacRumors, the feature was first mentioned in a developer session at WWDC earlier this month.
“Entering payment credentials in the iPhone app ahead of time will allow users to activate a pump and quickly purchase fuel directly from the CarPlay UI,” writes MacRumors.
Gas firm HF Sinclair will be jumping on board with this new technology.
“We are excited by the idea that consumers could navigate to a Sinclair station and purchase fuel from their vehicle navigation screen,” Jack Barger, HF Sinclair’s senior vice president of marketing, told Reuters.
With numerous EV chargers popping up such as ChargePoint and Electrify America, Tesla should consider adding a way to pay for third-party chargers directly from the vehicle.
Tesla owners are already afforded the luxury of easy payment at Superchargers because their payment information is stored in their Tesla account.
This functionality could save consumers a lot of time and hassle. In its current form, the only way to use a specific charging station, say, ChargePoint, is to download their application, create an account, enter your payment information, and begin.
But this approach isn’t entirely ideal because if you’re in an area that doesn’t have cellular reception/internet connection then you won’t be able to create an account to charge your vehicle.
If Tesla worked with other charging companies, like ChargePoint, Volta, and Electrify America, there could be a seamless integration for charging infrastructure.
Ideally, this integration would have to be easy to use. For example, I should be able to search in my vehicle for a non-Tesla charging location, add it as a destination so Tesla preconditions the battery before arriving, and upon arrival, it informs you which stall you’re going to charge at. If there’s a wait, it will notify you of how long you’ll be waiting and estimate what this charging stop will cost.
By Kevin Armstrong
Tesla’s used car division is transforming how people buy vehicles, and they are not resorting to “wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men” to do so. Tesla’s Director of Sales and Delivery Operations, Jimmy Douglas, told Electrek that he doesn’t need the attention-grabbing inflatables to beat the online used car giants.
Tesla seemingly stumbled into a brilliant plan to sell its used cars. In 2019, the electric vehicle trailblazer announced that it would not allow people who leased their Model 3s to sell them after; instead, the vehicle must be returned to the dealership. The original plan was to retrofit these previously loved cars to become the RoboTaxi. The RoboTaxi program, a fully autonomous vehicle that would take over the ridesharing sector, is still under development, so now Tesla has thousands of cars coming back to the lot.
The timing could not be more ideal. The demand for EVs has never been higher. However, some prospective buyers get sticker shock when shopping for electric vehicles, including the biggest name in the sector. A simple solution is to buy used. Used vehicle sales topped 40 million in the United States alone in 2021, compared to 15 million new vehicles.
Nevertheless, there is still the longstanding stereotype of the sleazy, used car salesperson pushing a shiny lemon at unsuspecting shoppers. That is certainly not the case with Tesla. Instead, the used car sales run similarly to the new car buying experience.
Douglas said to Electrek, “Most people don’t realize that Tesla runs its own vertically-integrated, nationwide online used car retailer. It’s as big as some publicly traded used car retailers you’ve definitely heard of, despite no Super Bowl commercials.” It can only be assumed he is referring to Carvana, which launched its Over Sharing Mom commercial during the 2022 Super Bowl. The used car company is valued at $4.69 billion.
Tesla does not have a line item showing how much its used car division is worth. That section of the company falls under Services and Other; on the most recent filing with the SEC, that number is $1.4 billion.
While it is not Carvana’s value, it is still a big chunk of change, especially because Tesla has recently stopped lessees from selling any of its products at the end of the term. That means a never-ending supply of used cars will be returned to the dealership.
In addition, the company is preparing for growth in this division. A recently posted job at Tesla reads: “Would you like to be part of a team transforming the way people buy a car?” Douglas is hiring an associate manager of used car quality. The posting continues, “As a leader in Tesla’s Used Car business, you are responsible for the development of the refurbishment process and managing daily refurbishment operations.”
Perhaps the used car division will get more respect in the future at Tesla and not be lumped into the ‘other’ category. That category has grown by 50 percent since last year. At this pace, used cars deserve a line of their own.
By Kevin Armstrong
Tesla wants everyone on its payroll to pitch in and help with a frantic end-of-quarter push. An internal email leaked to Electrek indicates that employees, even those not tasked with sales and delivery, to assist in getting as many vehicles out the door as possible. The email says there is “a very high volume of vehicles,” and management requests additional support.
This push should come as no surprise after a disappointing second quarter. The company delivered 18 percent fewer vehicles than in the previous reporting period. Tesla delivered 254,695 compared to 310,048 just three months prior. The decline broke a two-year streak in which the company continued to break its delivery record. The drop in numbers was not due to failures at Tesla, but due to COVID-related shutdowns at its Gigafactory in Shanghai, China.
Nevertheless, Tesla is adamant about righting the ship immediately. This quarter, like no other before, has seen significant competition enter the electric vehicle space and challenge the king of the sector. As a result, Tesla would like nothing more than to get back on track with another record-breaking delivery of its highly sought-after vehicles.
According to Electrek, the company-wide email stated: We will be delivering a very high volume of vehicles to eagerly waiting customers during the final days of Q3. To help ensure we can delight as many customers as possible, the delivery team is requesting additional support with key delivery-execution tasks.
For weeks Tesla’s careers page has listed dozens of Seasonal Advisor positions. The postings say these positions are “essential support at the end of the quarter, operating alongside our Sales and Delivery team to execute record-breaking delivery results.” The jobs were expected to last for two to three weeks.
Analysts predict that Tesla will get back on track and deliver more than 310,000 cars this quarter. In fact, one analyst has gone much further than that. Trip Chowdhry with Global Equities Research has publicly stated that he forecasts the carmaker will exceed 500,000 deliveries in the fourth quarter. In addition, he estimates that the time to produce a Tesla has decreased by 10 percent, and he notes other factors like the Semi coming online and increased capacity at factories worldwide.
Tesla is expected to report its quarterly earnings in mid-October.
