Few things grate more than driving at night while an oncoming car’s headlights sear your retinas. Usually that’s just the price of the powerful LEDs bolted to most new cars, but on certain Model 3s and Model Ys, Tesla has admitted the low beams genuinely exceed the maximum intensity allowed in the US, which is what triggered the recall.

The recall impacts 2017-2023 Tesla Model 3s and thousands of 2020-2023 Tesla Model Ys. According to Tesla, the headlights, sourced from Marelli Automotive Lighting, exceed the permitted intensity in the outer upper-right and outer upper-left areas. As Tesla’s recall notice rightly points out, this could reduce visibility for the driver and other road users, increasing the risk of a crash.

Read: Over 150 Complaints Of Teslas Losing Front Suspension Just Put 1.2 Million Under Probe

Interestingly, while the recall impacts Model 3 and Model Y vehicles from several different model years, surprisingly few vehicles are impacted. In the case of the Model 3, 1,614 examples are being recalled, all of which were manufactured from July 24, 2017, to December 2, 2023.

As for the Model Y, a total of 18,735 need to be repaired. These were built between February 11, 2020, and December 24, 2023.

An Issue Uncovered In Canada

Tesla became aware of a potential issue on January 16, 2024, several months after Transport Canada’s annual compliance program found the low beam headlights of a 2019 Tesla Model 3 failed to comply with local safety standards. The automaker first announced a recall related to the fault on March 9, 2024, and a few weeks later, petitioned the NHTSA for an exemption, claiming the fault was inconsequential to motor vehicle safety. The NHTSA denied this petition three weeks ago.

Most of the Model 3s and Model Ys impacted by this latest recall are the same as those originally covered by the 2024 recall. However, Tesla has added 432 vehicles to the list after discovering non-compliant headlights continued to be used in service longer than it had originally thought. Tesla is still working on a fix.

China keeps tightening its grip as the world’s largest new car exporter, and a big part of meeting the extraordinary global appetite for its vehicles comes down to the enormous car-carrying ships now being built on home soil. One of the newest of them, the Glovis Nova, swallows enough cars to cover 9.5 football fields.

Read: China’s EV Giant BYD Now Exports Cars In Its Own Purpose-Built Mega-Ship

On Sunday, the Malta-flagged vessel was loaded with 7,738 electric vehicles at Shanghai’s South Port Terminal and set off for Zeebrugge in Belgium, where the cars will be distributed across Europe. The trip set a new Chinese record for the number of electric vehicles shipped from a domestic port on a single ship.

A Tesla-Only Cargo

Instead of hauling a mix of EVs and plug-in hybrids from several brands, the Glovis Nova carried nothing but Tesla Model 3s and Model Ys built in Shanghai. Sticking to passenger cars also squeezed the most out of its capacity, since bulkier loads like buses and engineering equipment eat up far more deck space.

A report from the South China Morning Post notes that the Glovis Nova can carry up to 10,800 vehicles at once and runs on a liquefied natural gas dual-fuel power system. It left port at the same time as the Panama-flagged Glovis Leader, another Chinese-built carrier with the same enormous capacity, which was bound for Busan, South Korea. Both came out of Guangzhou Shipyard International, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation and one of the largest shipbuilding groups on the planet.

The record haul owed a lot to the Glovis Nova’s optimized deck layout. Lined up bumper to bumper, those 7,738 cars would stretch about 36km (22 miles) and cover roughly 67,600 square meters.

Why Tesla?

Tesla’s factory in Shanghai is perfectly positioned to make use of these new ships. The South Port Terminal in Shanghai, located just 6 miles away, serves as a roll-on, roll-off vehicle export hub, and it’s possible for newly built vehicles to leave Tesla’s factories and arrive on ships in just a matter of hours.

Of course, it’s not just Tesla that is benefiting from China’s expertise in building massive cargo ships. BYD operates its own fleet of car carriers, introducing the first of them, known as the Explorer No. 1, in early 2024. It has since added seven other ships to its fleet, allowing it to send thousands of its electrified vehicles to markets around the world.

In early June, almost 5,000 plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles were exported from China to Australia on the BYD Zhengzhou ship thanks to a surge in demand for the brand’s models in part due to the war in Iran and surging oil prices.

Leasing a Tesla Model 3 in the US has just gotten more expensive, so anyone hoping to get behind the wheel of a new one may find that paying cash makes more sense than signing a lease, at least in some cases.

Lease prices have crept up quietly across the entire Model 3 family, and the increases start with the base Rear-Wheel Drive model, which now runs $379 per month over 36 months with an annual mileage cap of 10,000 miles. That figure looks reasonable enough on its own, but it leaves out the $4,075 due at delivery, a sum made up of a $3,000 down payment, the first monthly payment, and an acquisition fee.

Read: Tesla’s First Model Y Price Hike In Two Years Skips The Cheapest Version

After factoring this in, you get an effective rate of $481 per month, which is roughly 12 percent higher than earlier this year. As recently as last week, the EV was offered at $329 per month with a lower $4,024 fee due at signing.

Lease prices have also increased for other Model 3 variants. For example, the Premium Rear-Wheel Drive commands $399 per month over 36 months, excluding the $4,094 fee that’s due up front. Add that into the equation, and you’re looking at an effective rate of $501. The Premium All-Wheel Drive is more expensive at $479 per month with a higher fee of $4,174, meaning it works out to $581 per month over the life of the lease.

Then there’s the Model 3 Performance. It has a monthly lease of $629 plus the $4,324, which is due at delivery. Do the math, and it works out to $731 per month for 36 months.

While this is roughly 4.3 percent higher than previously, it’s not necessarily a bad deal. Earlier this year, Hyundai was offering the Ioniq 5 N for $699 per month over 36 months with $3,999 due at signing, working out to $810 per month.

For the past few years, buying a used EV has been a waiting game, with would-be buyers often waiting for prices to fall a little further. That strategy may no longer be paying off. Used electric vehicle prices are climbing rapidly while the rest of the used car market continues to drift in the opposite direction, making dream cars like the Porsche 911 more affordable.

New data from iSeeCars suggests the turnaround isn’t a one-month anomaly, either. Used EV prices have now posted three straight months of year-over-year gains, moving from a 2.7 percent increase in April to 5.2 percent in May before reaching 7.4 percent in June.

Related: This Is How Much A 17K-Mile EV From A Dead Brand Sells For After 3 Years

That pushed the average price of a one- to five-year-old used EV to $33,305 in June. Compared with the same month last year, that’s an increase of $2,308. Meanwhile, the average used vehicle price fell by 1.3 percent year over year, highlighting just how differently the EV segment is behaving.

Rising fuel costs may have helped trigger the shift, iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer logically suggests. Gasoline prices rose sharply during the Iran conflict earlier this year, but it took several weeks before buyers adjusted their shopping habits and begin gravitating back toward EVs.

Average 1-5 YO EV Prices

Tesla was the biggest beneficiary of the trend. All four of the brand’s core models landed among the 10 used vehicles with the largest year-over-year price increases. The Model X led the entire market, jumping 17.5 percent to an average price of $60,950.

The Model 3 wasn’t far behind with a 13.5 percent increase, while the Model S climbed 13.1 percent and the Model Y gained 12.0 percent. “Tesla makes up nearly half of the top 10 used models with the highest price increase,” Brauer noted.

Perhaps just as telling is what didn’t appear in the rankings. Not a single EV showed up among the 20 used vehicles with the steepest price declines. Instead, that list was populated by a mix of luxury vehicles, pickups, SUVs, hybrids, and conventional gasoline-powered models. The Lincoln Corsair posted the biggest percentage value drop (-14.7 %), but the Porsche 911 was right behind it (-10.6 %), and reminds us that there’s a silver lining to every cloud.

Used Cars With The Biggest Price Increases

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Used Cars With The Biggest Price Drops

iSeeCars