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The Rolls-Royce Phantom leads this month's list of discounts

Every month, we take a look at vehicle sales data in America to pick out the vehicles with the largest monetary discount. Usually, the list is dominated by high-performance two-door luxury sports cars. This month is different. Much to our surprise, the 2020 Rolls-Royce Phantom stands above all others with an average discount of $18,588 off the price quoted on its window sticker. Now, it bears mentioning that an $18,000-plus discount still only represents 3.46% of its $537,500 average retail price, and that the resulting $518,912 cost to drive off the showroom floor still makes the Phantom an extremely expensive range-topping luxury sedan. Still, even very wealthy people won't snicker at that kind of savings. Up next is another unlikely newcomer to the biggest-discount chart: the 2020 Porsche Taycan. The electric super sedan's average sticker price of $152,250 is cut to $135,707 after a discount of $16,453 is lopped off. That represents a savings of nearly 11%. We can't say how many of the Taycan's buyers over the last month will be able to claim tax rebates due to the Taycan's status as an electric vehicle, but that could potentially represent a further cut off the car's sticker. Rounding out the top three is the 2020 Maserati Quattroporte. Buyers of this Italian luxury sedan are saving an average of $13,839 for an average transaction price of $87,646. We normally only share the top three, but this month's list is interesting enough that we'll share some more. In fourth and fifth place are the 2020 Mercedes-Benz S-Class (with an average $13,239 discount) and the 2021 BMW 7 Series (with an average $12,435 discount) followed by the 2020 Rolls-Royce Wraith — interestingly enough also with a savings of 3.46% — and the 2020 Maserati Levante and Ghibli. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Audi CEO says brand's EVs are almost as profitable as its other cars

After, oh, a hundred years or so of building vehicles primarily powered by internal combustion engines, automakers around the world have been and still are pumping billions of dollars into the development of electric vehicle technology. Everything from platforms and batteries to motors and the software to control it all requires untold hours of development, and that takes time and money. Fortunately, it's not going to take long for that massive investment to start paying off, at least according to Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, who told Reuters in an interview that "The point where we earn as much money with electric cars as with combustion engine cars is now, or ... next year, 2023. They are very even now, the prices." As a brand, Audi contributed more than a quarter of overall profit for the massive Volkswagen Group, which has such powerhouse brands as Volkswagen and Porsche among others. Under the Audi umbrella are Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati, and it seems those high-end branches aren't going anywhere, at least for now. "These brands ... are very valuable very profitable brands, where we can even expand the synergy level in the future," Duesmann said in the interview. "There are no plans whatsoever to get rid of them." Despite the overall profitability of the brand, the ongoing global chip crisis is causing headaches. "We had a very strong first half in 2021. We do expect a much weaker second half," said Duesmann, who added, "We really have trouble." In fact, so serious is the trouble that the brand is forced into "a day-to-day troubleshooting process" to limit the chip-shortage damage. The good news for the automaker is that Audi has been able to boost its profit margin from 8% prior to the pandemic in 2019 to 10.7% in the first half of 2021. The bad news is that various chip shortages aren't expected to get a whole lot better over the rest of the year. Related video:

The exotic '80s: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus and the Porsche 959

There's no secret that we are big fans of the MotorWeek Retro Review series around here. In an automotive world that often focuses on the latest tech and what's coming in the future, it's refreshing to take a look into the past to get a new perspective. That said, the show is really outdoing itself this time by posting a full episode from the '80s to YouTube, complete with the original, jazzy opening. The video is an absolute standout, too, with drives of some of the best supercars that Europe could offer at the time. Among the now classic sportscars that MotorWeek got to drive are the Ferrari 328, Lotus Esprit Turbo, Lamborghini Jalpa and Autokraft AC Mark IV. There's even a preview that sings the praises of the tech in the Porsche 959. The episode is basically a showcase of most of the exotics from young enthusiasts' walls and school folders during the '80s and is not to be missed. News Source: MotorWeek via YouTube Ferrari Lamborghini Lotus Porsche Performance Classics Videos lotus esprit ac