Intel Report: The Weekly Mobility News That Matters

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | Apr 6 2026 | VIEW ONLINE

The second episode of our Automotive Ventures podcast:

hear from Kinetic CEO/Co-Founder Nikhil Naikal on how they're building an incredible company in the automotive aftermarket.

Available on:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube

What We're Reading:

🚗

Automotive

Amazon Autos is growing. The company announced that KIA Motors, Subaru of America and Mazda Motor Corporation will begin selling new cars on the site — in “select” unnamed locations in the U.S. Hyundai Motor Company launched sales on Amazon Autos as its original OEM in 2024. Ford Motor Company joined last year, so this brings the number of participating manufacturers to five. In addition, Hertz Auto Sales began selling its used cars on Amazon Autos last August. | AIM Group ($)

New vehicle sales in the U.S. are expected to fall in the first quarter of 2026, as economic uncertainty, high borrowing costs and vehicle prices keep buyers on the sidelines. Industry expert Cox Automotive expects first-quarter sales to drop 6.5% from a year earlier and ‌annual sales to drop 2.6%. "The loss of EV tax credits, coupled with ongoing elevated interest rates and vehicle prices will lead to a slower pace," said Charles Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has added to the strain, with rising oil prices posing a risk to consumer spending. Gas prices are approaching a ⁠national average of $4 per gallon. "High fuel prices are typically things that will create disruptions. But so far, we haven't seen anything drastic in that regard. I'd hate to be a pessimist here, at this point, I feel there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic for the year for us," said Scott Bell, vice president, global, at carmaker Chevrolet. Electric vehicle sales, which surged ahead of a federal incentive cut last year, are expected to fall about 28% in the first quarter, Cox said. | Reuters ($)

Drivers have long wanted to put a permanent stopper on stop-start. Designed to lower auto emissions by temporarily shutting off the engine while the brake is engaged, it also makes driving feel unnatural, jerky and unenjoyable. The technology was developed decades ago, but federal incentives during the Obama administration kicked U.S. adoption into high gear. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began tracking stop-start technology in 2012 car models, less than 1% of which had the feature. By 2024, roughly 58% of new gasoline non-hybrid cars had the systems installed. As the uptick accelerated, so did the annoyance. With many vehicles automatically set to stop and then start with every new ride, some people got creative. Some regularly put their cars in sport mode, which in some models disables the engine from shutting off when the car is idle. Others installed products like the Autostop Eliminator, which at $99.99 for some car models will disable stop-start without drivers having to lift a finger. This year, stop-start resisters finally found their champion: President Trump. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

The brand that invented the minivan in the 1980s, and with it a style that became shorthand for American suburban family life, is fighting for survival. Chrysler is one of 14 big car brands owned by the European-American conglomerate Stellantis, a big portfolio compared to General Motors’s four or Ford Motor Company’s two. And Chrysler is the only major brand to sell just one model. A turnaround will be expensive and difficult. Stellantis will either need to invest a lot more. Or it may need to consider the unthinkable. For much of its existence, the Chrysler name has been intrinsically tied to Detroit’s Big Three automakers. Crosstown rivals General Motors and Ford Motor have generally always sold more cars, and Chrysler was affectionately called the “little brother” of the car triumvirate. This often made it scrappy and innovative, however, often pioneering technologies like better automatic transmissions, cruise control and four-wheel anti-lock brakes. A seemingly endless string of corporate mergers, over time, starved the Chrysler name of resources and different models to sell. Ten years ago, it sold two sedans in addition to its minivan. Twenty years ago, Chrysler’s sprawling lineup included midsize and large sedans, an SUV, the quirky PT Cruiser wagon, a sports car and multiple convertibles. The Pacifica is all that’s left today. Chrysler’s sales last year were down 80% compared to two decades ago. Last year, it sold about 126,000 cars. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

The cost of fuel in the United States is on the rise, with the price of gasoline steadily ticking up since the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran began in February. As oil supplies remain disrupted in the Middle East, Americans have seen gas stations across the country change their signs every day for more than a month. But the price increases have not been spread evenly. In California, where drivers typically pay the most for gas in the country, a gallon of regular unleaded has cost, on average, well over $5 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. In Oklahoma, a gallon has been closer to $3. The wide range is owed to regional differences in taxes, distribution costs and refining margins. But the common denominator is the supply of oil in the world. | The New York Times ($)

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that traffic deaths fell to record lows in 2025. With an estimated 36,640 traffic fatalities in 2025—a 6.7% decrease from 2024—the nation saw its second-lowest traffic fatality rate in recorded history at 1.10 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Under Secretary Duffy, the Department is restoring safety to our roads by strengthening partnerships with law enforcement, cracking down on unqualified truckers driving big rigs, and making newer and safer cars more affordable for American families. | NHTSA

CCC Intelligent Solutions' "Crash Course 2026" is here. This year's report takes a closer look at the emerging forces driving greater complexity across the auto insurance claims and collision repair ecosystem – from consumer affordability pressures shaping coverage participation and claim behavior to rising repair demands fueled by advanced vehicle technology and an aging car parc. Inside this year's report:

23% of auto claims now result in a total loss – a new high
Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist injury claims nearly doubled over the past 3-4 years
Calibrations on 28% of repairable estimates, reflecting rising vehicle complexity

| CCC Intelligent Solutions

⚡️

EVs

Electric vehicles usually cost thousands of dollars more to buy than comparable cars that run on fossil fuels, but owners may make up the difference in fuel savings. Electricity is usually cheaper per mile than gasoline, especially for people who can charge vehicles at home. Affordability is generally on the minds of consumers, and as electric vehicles become less expensive, the price of gas might weigh more heavily on the decision of what kind of car to buy. Compared to 2022 — the last time the average price of gasoline topped $4 a gallon in the United States — there are more electric models available, and prices have come down. Higher gas prices also seem to be giving people a reason to buy hybrid vehicles. Toyota Motor Corporation and Honda are likely to benefit in the long term because of their wide selection of hybrids, which can travel short distances on battery power and offer better fuel economy than vehicles that run solely on gasoline. | The New York Times ($)

At the start of the decade, EVs occupied a small but fast-growing corner of the U.S. auto market. Just 2% of vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2020 were EVs, nearly 80% of them made by Tesla. The Biden administration gave the EV market a big boost, offering $7,500 tax credits to buyers and implementing stricter federal air-quality mandates. The rest of the industry wanted in. Between 2022 and 2025, the U.S. auto industry invested some $200 billion into new EV and battery factories. Suppliers raced to get a piece of the business. At the time, the EV market in the U.S. was dominated by Tesla’s sporty cars and smaller models such as Nissan’s compact Leaf. General Motors and Ford had a different idea: Instead of crowding the market with more small cars, they would launch electric versions of their pickup trucks. Executives reasoned that trucks are what Detroit does best, and they would command sticker prices high enough to cover the production and development costs of a new EV line. The sales boom never came. Last year, GM sold just over 11,000 Silverado EVs. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

Renewable power made up almost 50% of the world’s electricity capacity last year after a record ‌increase in solar installations, data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) shared exclusively with Reuters showed on Tuesday. As the Middle Eastern conflict has led to record monthly gains on oil markets, some in industry have lobbied for more investment in fossil fuels, but countries with higher renewable capacity have been insulated from the market shock, some analysts say. Global renewable power capacity reached a record 5,149 gigawatts at the end of 2025, up 692 GW from 2024, the data showed. The growth was led by a leap in solar capacity. which grew by 511 GW in 2025 to 2,392 GW, confirming its position as the world's largest renewable source. The figures are far greater than the 116 GW growth in fossil fuel power capacity and took the share of renewables in global electricity capacity to 49.4% in 2025, up from 46.3% the year before, the data showed. | Reuters ($)

🇨🇳

China

Stellantis is discussing options for building electric vehicles in Canada with its Chinese partner, Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co., according to people familiar with the matter, a sign of how quickly the auto industry is being reshaped after Canada opened the door to companies from the world’s largest car market. The talks are in an early stage, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing information that’s not public. If the companies proceed, it would be the first major Chinese auto investment in Canada since Prime Minister Mark Carney reached an agreement with President Xi Jinping in January to reduce tariffs on Chinese-made EVs. As part of that deal, Carney’s government said it wanted to attract new Chinese joint-venture investment “with trusted partners” in the Canadian auto sector within three years. But the potential for Chinese-led vehicle production in one of the US’s closest allies and trading partners shows the ripple effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign-made cars and trucks, which have disrupted the integrated North American auto sector and cost automakers billions of dollars. | Automotive News ($)

Chinese car companies are trying to break into the American market, but 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles currently block them from selling in the U.S. President Donald Trump and his counterpart, Xi Jinping, are expected to discuss lowering those barriers when they meet for their long-planned summit in May. Chinese automakers have seized market share worldwide with cars that are stylish, loaded with advanced technology and far cheaper than Detroit can match, posing a threat to U.S. companies. | Bloomberg ($)

As Canadian consumers, car dealers and incumbent automakers brace for the first China-made electric vehicles to enter the country under Ottawa’s quota system, hybrids, plug-ins — and maybe even internal-combustion engine vehicles — from China are likely close behind. Ottawa will allow 49,000 electrified vehicles from China into Canada at the most-favoured nation tariff rate of 6.1 per cent in 2026, as part of a trade accord with Beijing struck in January. While EVs have been the focus, the quota system also covers hybrids, PHEVs and EREVs, opening the door to imports of a mix of powertrains. All electrified vehicles from China previously faced 106.1 per cent tariffs. The 49,000-vehicle import cap represents about 2.5 per cent of annual Canadian vehicle sales; the allowance will increase by 6.5 per cent each year. BYD, CHERY and GEELY are in talks with Canadian dealers and working through the vehicle certification process as they prepare to enter Canada, but none have shared their expansion strategies. | Automotive News ($)

BYD’s full-year net profit tumbled 19 percent as China’s intensifying electric vehicle price war squeezed margins at the world’s largest electric vehicle maker, prompting Chairman Wang Chuanfu to warn that the industry has entered a “knockout stage” for weaker players. Wang’s warning came as the Chinese Tesla rival reported that net profit tumbled to 33 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) in the fiscal year ended Dec. 31. The company detailed the earnings retreat in a 2025 financial report issued March 27. The slide came even though revenue increased 3.5 percent to 804 billion yuan ($117 billion). Wang blamed the profit slump on “fever pitch” competition in the domestic market. The EV sector, in particular, “is undergoing a brutal knockout stage,” Wang said in the Shenzhen-based company’s report. | Automotive News ($)

General Motors and its Chinese partners are in advanced talks to manufacture vehicles in Mexico, a strategic pivot that would establish an early China-backed production beachhead in North America as automakers navigate U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating tariff wars. GM’s partnership with SAIC Motor and Wuling Motors has long exported China-made cars for sale in Mexico under the Chevrolet brand, such as the Capita and Groove crossovers, Tornado minibus and Aveo hatchback. But the venture is looking for a local production base after Mexico hiked tariffs on Chinese imports in January. The gambit positions GM’s profitable Chinese partnership at the vanguard of a new manufacturing strategy as automakers navigate shifting trade policies following Trump’s tariff regime. GM joins rivals including Ford in leveraging China-built vehicles for international markets, though its production at a Mexico facility represents a novel hybrid approach. | Automotive News ($)

One clear takeaway from the Mexican dealer survey: Not all Chinese automakers are equal as partners. Dealers who named BYD as their top pick for a new franchise in the 2025 survey cited expectations for strong profits and brand reputation as the most important criteria. No other Chinese automaker was in the top 10 of most desired franchises. The cooling interest in Chinese brands came after high expectations clashed with market reality, analysts said. Among the top 15 brands in Mexico for dealer-factory relations, Toyota Motor Corporation came in at No. 1 and Chevrolet was second, the survey showed. The first Chinese brand in the ranking, MG Motor Europe, landed in seventh place. Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd. was No. 13 and CHERY No. 15. Most Chinese brands rank below average in JD Power’s sales satisfaction and customer service indexes, said Gerardo Gomez, Mexico country manager at JD Power. | Automotive News ($)

🚖

Autonomy & Robotics

Responses from seven autonomous vehicle developers show that, in one critical way, Tesla is an industry outlier. Six of the firms insisted that their remote assistance workers, who work across the U.S. and even, in the case of Waymo, in the Philippines, never actually drive the vehicles directly. Instead, the humans provide input that the autonomous vehicle software then decides to use or ignore. Not so for Tesla. “As a redundancy measure in rare cases … [remote assistance operators] are authorized to temporarily assume direct vehicle control as the final escalation maneuver after all other available intervention actions have been exhausted,” Karen Steakley, Tesla’s director of public policy and business development, wrote to Democratic U.S. senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts . The automaker’s remote assistance workers can “take temporary control of the vehicle" at speeds up to or less than 2 mph and can remotely drive a Tesla Robotaxi at up to 10 mph if the vehicle’s software permits it to do so, Steakley said. “This capability enables Tesla to promptly move a vehicle that may be in a compromising position,” she wrote. | Wired ($)Lucid Motors’ Marc Winterhoff and Uber’s Andrew Macdonald noted that more than 90% of the rides Uber provides today have just one or two passengers. Other studies put the proportion slightly lower — though still a strong majority. The logic of the vehicle, Lucid chief engineer Zach Walker later explained, was that the needs of ridehail fleet operators differ substantially from those of individual drivers. Physics dictates a two-seat EV will be smaller and lighter than one with more seats. That will make it cheaper to buy and to operate, primarily because it can provide the necessary range from a battery with lower capacity — which will cost less and recharge faster for the same range added. Ridehail companies will need robotaxis with the absolutely lowest possible lifetime cost, to make the expensive tech practical versus human-driven vehicles. | The Verge ($)

✈️

Aviation & Space

SpaceX boosted its target IPO valuation above $2 trillion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the company gears up to pitch its initial public offering. The company's valuation would increase by nearly two thirds in a matter of months, and would be bigger than all but five of the companies in the S&P 500 Index. A listing for SpaceX would raise as much as $75 billion, and the company would use the funds to fund Elon Musk's vision of AI data centers in space and a factory on the moon. | Bloomberg ($)

🚘 Car of the Week

Our Automotive Ventures "Car of the Week": a 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II. | RM Sotheby's

Have a great week,Steve Greenfield

Forwarded this email and not yet a subscriber?

Subscribe Now

📰 In The News

Many cars on the road today are equipped with at least half a dozen sensors, from cameras to radars, to support safety features and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) that are now ubiquitous in the modern automotive industry. And as automakers continue to offload the task of driving from humans, cars will become even more sensorized. Kinetic, a Southern California-based startup (and Automotive Ventures portfolio company), wants to scale a service that will fix those sensors if a car ever gets into a collision. CEO Nikhil Naikal analogizes it to the modern car's optometrist. | Business Insider ($)

📢

Great article on how Rocky Mountain Equipment is leveraging Automotive Ventures' portfolio company Brilliant Harvest. | Precision Farming Dealer

📢

On this week's Future of Automotive segment on CBT News, we discuss the latest news on automaker direct-selling efforts, including Rivian, Sony Honda Mobility and Scout Motors. | CBT News ($)

Enjoying this newsletter? Please share with others!

This year's Automotive Ventures "Startup Symposium" at the Agent Summit will include eight innovative startups:AutoTrainerChaizEPICLevelMobile Dealer DataOne Dealer LanePromptPathSelectFIMore information | LINK

JD Power’s 2026 retail automotive outlook, courtesy of Thomas King at the NY Automotive Forum.

👀 Automotive Ventures Company to Watch

Eecomobility is developing EV battery testing technology to ensure the batteries we use are reliable, safe and affordable. | Eecomobility

🎪 Upcoming Industry Events

Dealerware INSPIRE ConferenceApr 8/9 | Austin, TXSpeaker(Link)SMU Cox Energy Outlook 2026Apr 9 | Dallas, TXPanelist(Link)Maritz Future of Automotive RetailApr 13/14 | CaliforniaSpeaker(Link)Startup Symposium | Agent SummitApr 14 | Las Vegas, NVHost(Link)ETI ToolTech 2026Apr 20-23 | Palm Harbor, FLSpeaker(Link)Fixed Ops RoundtableMay 11-15 | Virtual EventSpeaker(Link)FIS Emerald VelocityMay 4-7 | Orlando, FLSpeaker(Link)