Tesla Model 3 Tax Credit Expected to be Reduced After Year End

Tesla's Model 3 is expected to lose half of its tax incentive

Tesla

Tesla has sounded the alarm bells once again regarding the potential reduction in the federal tax credit. As the year-end approaches, potential buyers may want to make a decision and possibly save some money, as there may be a significant impact on the final price tag of their electric car.

The December Dilemma

The order page for the Model 3 now states:

All new Model 3 vehicles currently qualify for a federal tax credit for eligible buyers. $7,500 tax credit expected to reduce to $3,750 on Dec 31, pending federal guidance. Take delivery to guarantee full incentive.

Changes to the Tax Credit

The 2024 tax credit's eligibility criteria will tighten. Specifically, the requirement for critical minerals used in batteries, such as those extracted or recycled within the U.S. (or nations with a U.S. free trade agreement), will increase from 40% to 50%. Furthermore, the mandate for battery components will also intensify, with 60% of these components needing domestic manufacturing or production within free trade agreement nations. Vehicles that don't meet these more stringent guidelines will only access half the credit, $3,750 USD.

A Flashback to July's Warning

We've heard the warning before. In July, Tesla made a somewhat ambiguous warning about the impending decrease of the coveted $7,500 tax credit on some of its vehicle models. Back then, while all Model Ys were eligible for the full credit, the base version of the Model 3 faced a restriction due to its use of Chinese battery cells. This particular battery choice made it eligible for just half the credit. The higher-end models, Model S and Model X, didn't qualify because of their premium pricing. In an exciting twist, Tesla announced that even the base Model 3 would be eligible for the full tax credit.

The Highland is Coming

Fast forward to the present, Tesla is again cautioning its consumers. It is worth noting that Tesla plans to roll out the new Model 3 Highland to North America in 2024. While it hasn't reached the U.S. shores yet, this development could be strategic. Clearing out stocks of the older design Model 3s before the Highland's U.S. debut could be why Tesla urges consumers to capitalize on the current tax incentives by taking delivery soon.

Also, Tesla missed its third-quarter projections. There are plenty of valid reasons behind having fewer deliveries. However, the point remains that the numbers were down. If we have learned anything about Elon Musk over the years, he likes to show constant improvement. We saw this late last year when Tesla rolled out some significant price decreases as the end of the year approached.

As we venture into 2024, some pivotal shifts are expected in the electric vehicle federal tax credit framework. The most notable change is the point of access - it will transition from a tax rebate to an immediate discount at the dealership.

Tesla reiterates concerns about the potential tax credit reduction, and prospective buyers must be proactive. The clock is ticking, and decisions made in the next few months could save some cash or be a moot point.

Is Tesla Planning to Add Steam Support to All Vehicles?

Not a Tesla App

Yesterday, we reported that Tesla updated their Steam integration on Model S and Model X vehicles. The update was part of their 2024 Holiday Update, but it looks like there may be more to this than a simple update.

Steam, a video game library app, makes it easy for users to buy or launch games on their computers. However, a couple of years ago, Valve, who created Steam, launched their own standalone device, the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck runs a custom OS based on Linux.

Steam Launch

When Tesla launched the redesigned Model S and Model X, Tesla introduced a dedicated gaming GPU with 16GB of RAM and touted the ability to play top-tier PC games in Tesla vehicles.

In 2022, Tesla finally launched the Steam app for the Model S and Model X as part of its 2022 Holiday Update. The Steam app runs Steam OS, the same OS as the Steam Deck in a virtual environment.

However, earlier this year, Tesla stopped including the GPU and Steam (Beta) in their vehicles, and we haven’t seen any updates to the Steam in quite some time. In fact, we thought Tesla was axing their gaming-on-the-go dreams.

SteamOS Update

The Steam app, which is still in Beta, is getting an interesting update for the Model S and Model X vehicles with the discrete GPU.

Those vehicles received an update to SteamOS 3.6 - the same version of SteamOS that runs on the Steam Deck. While nothing has visually changed, there’s a long list of performance optimizations under the hood to get things running smoother.

Comparing Steam Deck to Tesla Vehicles

Let’s take a look at the Steam Deck - according to Valve, its onboard Zen4 CPU and GPU combined push a total of 2 TFlops of data, which is fairly respectable, but much lower than today’s home consoles. The Steam Deck is capable of 720p gaming fairly seamlessly on low-to-medium settings on the go and is also built on the AMD platform.

AMD-equipped Teslas, including the Model 3 and Model Y, are packing an older Zen+ (Zen 1.5) APU (processor with a combined CPU and GPU). AMD claims that the V1000 - the same embedded chip as on AMD Tesla vehicles (YE1807C3T4MFB), brings up to 3.6 TFLops of processing power with it, including 4K encoding and decoding with the integrated GPU on board.

While that’s not enough for 4K gaming or comparable to a full-blown console or desktop GPU, that’s enough raw horsepower for light gaming and is currently more powerful than the Steam Deck.

The Model S and Model X’s GPU brings that up to about 10TFlops of power - comparable to modern consoles like the Xbox Series X at 12 TFlops.

Steam Gaming for All Vehicles?

The fact that Tesla is updating SteamOS even though the feature is no longer available in any new vehicles could indicate that Tesla is not only bringing Steam back to Teslas but that it’s going to play a much bigger role.

While SteamOS is run in a virtual environment on top of Tesla’s own OS, we could see Tesla bring SteamOS to all of its current vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck. Steam in these vehicles would likely support any game that’s capable of running on the Steam Deck.

We think this Steam update, which includes performance improvements and a variety of fixes, has quietly passed under most people’s radars. This could be a very exciting update for those who enjoy gaming, especially for those who love to do it in their Tesla.

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Tesla Holiday Update Weather Features: All the Small Details

Robert Rosenfeld / YouTube

As part of Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla included two awesome new features - Weather at Destination and the long-awaited Weather Radar Overlay. These two features are big upgrades built upon the weather feature that was added in update 2024.26. The original weather feature added an hourly forecast, as well as the chance of precipitation, UV index, Air Quality Index, and other data.

However, this update also added some smaller weather touches, such as the vehicle alerting you if the weather at the destination will be drastically different from the current weather.

Not a Tesla App

Weather At Destination

When you’re navigating to a destination and viewing the full navigation direction list, the text under the arrival time will show you the expected weather next to your destination. You can also tap this, and the full weather pop-up will show up, showing your destination's full set of weather information.

Note the weather under the arrival time

Not a Tesla App

You can also tap the weather icon at the top of the interface at any time and tap Destination to switch between the weather at your current location and the weather at your destination.

You’re probably considering that the weather at your destination doesn’t matter when you’re three hours away - but that’s all taken into account by the trip planner. It will add in both charge time and travel time and show you the weather at your destination at your expected arrival time.

And if the weather is drastically different or inclement, such as rain or snow, while you’ve got sunshine and rainbows - the weather will be shown above the destination ETA for a few moments before it tucks itself away.

Tesla also recently introduced a new voice command. Asking, “What’s the weather?” or something similar will now bring up Tesla’s weather popup.

The weather pop-up above the ETA

Not a Tesla App

One limitation, though—if you’re planning a long road trip that is more than a day of driving, the weather at destination feature won’t be available until you get closer.

Weather Radar Overlay

As part of the improvements to weather, Tesla has also added a radar overlay for precipitation. You can access the new radar overlay by tapping the map and then tapping the weather icon on the right side of the map. It’ll bring up a radar overlay centered on your vehicle. It’ll animate through the radar data over the last 3 hours so that you can see the direction of the storm, but you can also pause it at any point.

You’re able to scroll around in this view and see the weather anywhere, even if you zoom out. It also works while you’re driving, although it can be a little confusing if you’re trying to pay attention to the navigation system. If you like to have Points of Interest enabled on your map, the weather overlay will hide POIs except for Charging POIs.

Requirements / Data

Unfortunately, you’ll need Premium Connectivity for any of the weather features to work, and being on WiFi or using a hotspot will not be enough to get the data to show up. The data, including the weather radar, is provided by The Weather Channel.

As for supported models, weather and weather at destination are available on all vehicles except for the 2012-2020 Model S and Model X. The weather radar has more strict requirements and requires the newer AMD Ryzen-powered infotainment center available on the 2021+ Model S and Model X and more recent Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

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