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.

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

Footage circulating online appears to show a woman behind the wheel of a Tesla Model Y traveling along the Trans-Canada Highway between Golden and Revelstoke, all while seemingly fast asleep. If accurate, the episode points to some worrying gaps in the vehicle’s driver-monitoring system.

Fellow Canadian motorist Carleigh King spotted the drowsy driver on Sunday afternoon. In the video, the woman’s head is slumped over, and she appears blissfully unaware that she’s snoozing at approximately 62 mph (100 km/h). It’s a terrifying watch, though far from the only time we’ve come across something like it.

Also: A $10 Ronaldo Doll Head Is Fooling Tesla So Drivers Can Doze Off

The Tesla in question is presumably fitted with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) package, which includes a driver-monitoring system. This setup uses the Model Y’s in-car camera to track the driver’s eye movements and torque sensors in the steering wheel to detect whether the driver is alert. However, as we’ve seen in the past, the camera system can be easily fooled by wearing sunglasses, like this driver did.

She Wasn’t Driving Alone…

Speaking with CBC, King says that, shockingly, the woman wasn’t driving by herself. In fact, there were reportedly two children sitting in the Tesla’s rear seats, meaning their lives were also in danger because of the driver’s slumber. It’s unclear how the driver circumvented the steering wheel’s torque sensors, but we do know that several companies sell cheap accessories to bypass them.

Watch: Viral Video Shows Older Tesla Driver And Passenger Both Asleep At Highway Speed

According to Cpl. Michael McLaughlin from the B.C. Highway Patrol, the driver could face some serious charges for her careless behavior.

“Anything from a simple violation ticket all the way up to criminal charges for dangerous operation of a motor vehicle,” he said. “There could also potentially be criminal charges related to negligence if there are children in the vehicle and those children are put at risk by the driver not supervising as the vehicle is traveling down the highway.”

Lead Image: Castanet News