Happy Friday, and welcome to Critical Materials, your source for the biggest stories shaping the future of the auto industry.

Every Friday, we break down the week’s biggest EV news, keep you up to speed on the cars we’re testing, and recap must-read stories from around the web on driverless cars, batteries, charging, and more.

– Today’s email was written by Rob Stumpf, Suvrat Kothari, and Tim Levin.

Back around 2021, it was a wild time to be covering cars. And a wilder time to actually try to buy one. The pandemic had snarled supply chains, shut down car factories, and squeezed the supply of chips. It all meant that used cars were suddenly worth their weight in gold. (Almost.)

I remember stories of lightly used cars going for more than the MSRP of a new model. That was just because the new models were nowhere to be found. Things eventually rightsized themselves, but now we’re dealing with some similarly odd dynamics in the EV world.

Used EVs are all of a sudden getting more expensive, rather than following the predictable value decline of depreciation. I, for one, am pretty pissed that a few-year-old Chevy Bolt apparently now costs over $20,000. Seems like I missed the boat on all the screaming deals.

What makes all of this even more striking is that EVs in particular have always been dogged by terrible depreciation. So what gives? And why does this matter?

High gas prices may have something to do with it. Plus people (not just people who read this website, that is) may simply be getting hip to the idea that used EVs are good buys. There are more different kinds of them—good ones—available than ever. Used EV sales are positively through the roof, hitting new records while the new EV market struggles to bounce back.

But what’s more interesting to me is how this ties in with the ongoing recovery of the new EV market. A boom in used electric car sales is obviously great for getting people out of gas cars. But it also could be hampering growth on the new side of things, where we’re already seeing carmakers retreat and cancel models that had sold perfectly nicely. (Goodbye, Honda Prologue.)

Part of the reason we’re seeing used EV prices and demand increase probably has to do with the end of the new EV tax credit. Over the past couple of years, getting into an EV lease, or even buying one, could be surprisingly affordable. So a lot of people on a budget were able to skip used options and jump into a new car. Now with the incentives gone, that’s changed completely.

People getting out of those leases now—like our own Mack Hogan—are now faced with the decision of leasing again, often with a far higher monthly payment, or just buying used. It’s easy to see why people would choose the latter.

I do wonder what this means for new EVs. Great used options are definitely competing hard with new cars. So the EV-leasing bonanza of the last couple of years could actually make it harder for automakers to sell new models. And that feeds into the downturn the whole EV world (in America at least) is grappling with right now. Just another trend to watch out for as the EV industry charts a course through this mess.

(By the way, Mack Hogan and I discussed all of this on this week’s Plugged-In Podcast. If you want to hear more, listen on your preferred platform!)

-Tim Levin

Get up to speed on the news that caught our eye this week:

Ford is teaming up with China's Geely to build electric SUVs in Spain.

Subaru's upcoming electric three-row SUV, the Getaway, has been delayed by a little while. It was originally slated to go into production by the end of the year, but now Subaru says that it needs more time for final adjustments. (Not super surprising, since the same thing happened to the closely related Toyota Highlander EV.)

Range Rover has revealed its upcoming electric model, and it looks nothing like you’d expect. Our man Suvrat Kothari went to England to see it in person.

Tesla tried to fight back when the feds called its super bright headlights illegal. Now, NHTSA is ordering the automaker to fix them—but that's just the start of what a new proposed bill could require from headlights in the future.

Volkswagen's cheap EVs are a hit. The automaker says that its family of tiny urban commuters are "significantly exceeding expectations" with more than 70,000 orders so far.

The Volvo EX60 was already shaping up to be a range monster. Now the EPA figures are in and they’re even better than expected.

A new study shows that EV chargers in Canada sit idle 90% of the time. Experts fear that the numbers could threaten the expansion of Canada's fast charging network.

Buick's Electra L7 can charge up with 280 miles of range in just 10 minutes, but you won't be able to buy it in America.

Remember Tesla's iconic diner? It turns out that it was delivered more electricity than any other Supercharger station in the world during its first year of operation: over 1,600 sessions per day on average.

Sure it’s tough out there for EVs. But a company called Sila developing silicon-carbon anodes managed to raise $300 million.

Autonomous trucking company Aurora is deploying its second-generation driverless trucks. The driverless hardware powering its brains are designed to last a whopping one million miles.

Ford has been a big proponent of keeping Apple CarPlay in its vehicles. Now the automaker says that its $30,000 EV will be the first vehicle in its lineup to get Apple Maps. Apple Maps info will help with Ford’s development of next-gen BlueCruise too.

A new bill just progressed in the Senate that takes aim at foreign tech in cars sold in the States. It also threatens to shut brands out of the market that have significant Chinese ownership, including Mercedes-Benz.

-Rob Stumpf

Tesla burned through more cash than it brought in during the second quarter, according to its Q2 earnings report released this week. The company hauled in $4.7 billion in operating cash but also spent $5.8 billion on big-ticket investments like AI data centers, battery materials, and production of the Optimus humanoid and the Cybercab. That left Tesla with a negative free cash flow of $1.1 billion—the first time that’s happened in two years.

The shortfall comes even though Tesla's vehicle sales actually held up pretty well. Global deliveries roared back in Q2, helped in part by the war in Iran pushing gas prices higher and nudging more buyers toward EVs. Revenue hit $28.2 billion, a 26% increase from the same period last year. But those stronger sales didn't translate into a healthier bottom line. Tesla’s average selling price per vehicle dropped as it grapples with the end of the EV tax credit in the U.S., Chinese competition abroad, and an aging lineup.

Tesla says its future is in AI and robotaxis, and that it’s racing full-speed ahead there. But the picture there was mixed too. Tesla’s Robotaxis didn’t actually drive any more miles in the second quarter than they did in the first. That’s despite announcements that the network was entering new cities.

It's a sharp contrast to Musk's earlier assertion that the service would reach half the U.S. population by the end of 2025. Instead, the rollout has been far more measured, with the service available in the San Francisco Bay Area (with drivers) and a handful of cities in Texas and Florida. It looks like Elon Musk’s promise of a robotaxi-filled future, like many of his other visions, may take longer than expected to actually pan out.

-Suvrat Kothari

This is actually awesome. The new Porsche Cayenne has something I haven’t seen in a car: curb rash protection. When you turn too close to the curb, the wheel that’s about to get scraped gets highlighted in red in the car’s 360-degree camera view.

As our friend Kyle says in the video above, I’ve seen a lot of parked Teslas that could’ve used this capability.

Thanks for reading Critical Materials. See you next week!

-Tim Levin