Intel Report: The Weekly Mobility News That Matters

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | AUG 19 2024 | VIEW ONLINE ➡️

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What We're Reading

🚗 Automotive

The United Auto Workers (UAW) filed federal labor charges alleging former President Trump and Elon Musk attempted to “intimidate and threaten” workers during their Monday evening interview on the social platform X. “I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump told Musk. “You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’” Federal law protects workers who go on strike from being fired, and it is illegal to threaten to do so, the UAW argued. "When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean,” UAW President Shawn Fain said. Trump has sparred publicly with Fain and the UAW, which endorsed Vice President Harris last month for the upcoming presidential election. | The Hill

CDK Global has agreed to pay $100 million to settle a nationwide class action by retail auto dealerships claiming they overpaid for the company's dealer management systems. | Westlaw Today ($)Personal auto insurance rates rose 15% in the first half of 2024, according to data analysis from Insurify. The average annual premium now costs $2,329. By the end of the year, Insurify predicts that rates will have increased a total of 22%. 2024's rate increases continue the trend set in 2023, which saw premiums rise by 24% after insurers experienced record underwriting losses of $33.1 billion in 2022. While underwriting losses decreased to $17 billion in 2023, the hit was still enough to drive 2024's first-half increases. One factor contributing to losses is vehicle maintenance repair costs—which have increased by nearly 38% over the past five years, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While safety technologies can help drivers avoid crashes and the related premium increases, they're also expensive to repair. Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) can add up to 37.6% to the total repair cost after an accident, according to AAA data, and minor damages to front radar and distance sensors can add up to $1,540. These costs are compounded by the increasing usage of expensive-to-repair electric vehicles, auto mechanic backlogs, and vehicles getting older as Americans hold onto their cars for longer. Average vehicle ages reached a record 12.6 years in 2024, according to S&P Global Mobility. Increasingly severe and frequent weather events are also driving rate hikes. | BIG i

In the process of making the transition from Gen 1 to Gen 2 R1 vehicles, Rivian switched to a zonal architecture. The zonal approach reduces the total wiring length by a whopping 1.6 miles and enables each R1 vehicle to shed 44 pounds. Weight is a big deal for EVs, as it has a direct correlation to battery performance. Plus, the company claims a 20% savings in material costs and 15% reduction in its carbon footprint between Gen 1 and Gen 2. | Popular Science

⚡️ Electric Vehicles (EVs)

New electric vehicle (EV) sales growth outpaced the broader U.S. auto market in June, spurred by fresh models and heavy incentives, according to the latest registration data from S&P Global Mobility. New EV registrations rose 3.1% in June from a year earlier to 108,026 vehicles compared with an 8.8% drop in the broader light-vehicle market to just over 1.2 million. The monthly data, along with registrations for the first half of the year, showed an EV market still growing. Automakers drove down high EV prices with big incentive programs. | Automotive News ($)Elon Musk could influence a second Trump administration on policies for energy, self-driving cars, space and artificial intelligence — in some cases to his own benefit, experts say. The Tesla CEO seems to have shifted Trump’s messaging on electric vehicles, which he warned earlier this year could cause a “bloodbath” in the auto industry. Last week, Trump said he has “no choice” but to support EVs “because Elon endorsed me.” | Politico

Whatever Elon Musk's endgame, the public record clearly shows that Tesla, since its founding over two decades ago, has benefited from government assistance, largely because of its role in moving the U.S. toward cleaner cars. Tesla's first major manufacturing facility, in Fremont, Calif., was developed with the help of a $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), repaid three years later. More recently, Tesla has reaped almost $9 billion since 2018 by selling what are known as "regulatory credits," securities filings show. The credits, awarded in the U.S. by the federal and state governments to manufacturers who surpass increasingly strict emissions rules, can be sold to other carmakers who are unable to comply. | Automotive News ($)Electric Vehicles (EVs) cost more to insure – an average of $44 per month more than an internal combustion engine vehicle, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). One reason for the higher rates is the severity of EV auto claims. The severity of EV auto claims is 34% higher than that of ICE vehicle claims. Those who switch from an ICE vehicle to an EV have a 31% higher post-switch loss cost than those who switch from one ICE to another. Those who switch from an ICE to an EV have a higher collision risk, with a 14% greater severity and frequency of claims. Electric vehicles have a higher torque/weight ratio. EVs have an immediate and strong acceleration. | Insurance NewsNet

Low resale values for electric cars have pushed the leasing firms that drive Europe's auto market to double prices over the last three years and some are threatening to quit the business altogether if regulators force them to go electric too fast. | Reuters ($)For all of you Tesla Cybertruck fans, Titan Casket provides the most "fitting" way to meet your maker. | Titan CasketsA class action lawsuit of hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai owners, filed in July against Toyota, claims that Toyota salespeople misled them about the state of California’s hydrogen refueling system. “They were told the stations were convenient and readily available,” said lawyer Nilofar Nouri of Beverly Hills Trial Attorneys. “That turned out to be far from reality.” The class action now amounts to two dozen plaintiffs and growing, Nouri said. “We have thousands of these individuals in California who are stuck with this vehicle.” | LA Times ($)

EV FireSafe's latest report notes that battery fires in electric vehicles (EVs) remain rare. Since 2010, EV FireSafe verified 511 incidents of thermal runaway in electric passenger vehicles (BEV and PHEV). To put this in perspective, there are approximately 40 million EVs on the road, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). | EV FireSafe

🇨🇳 China

For the largest global automakers, profits in China have been hit by falling sales as consumers embrace EVs from homegrown brands such as BYD, which last year supplanted Volkswagen as China’s bestselling carmaker. In July, EVs and plug-in hybrids accounted for over half of all cars sold in the country for the first time, while the share shipped to dealers by non-Chinese brands slipped to 33%, down from 50% two years earlier. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

🤖

Robotics & Autonomy

Scott Painter has launched Autonomy Data Services, a new company that will provide a software platform and data to automakers who want to operate their own subscription services for electric, gas, new or used cars. Painter quietly bought up the assets of bankrupt used car marketplace Shift Technologies earlier this year for less than a million dollars. In the years leading up to its collapse, Shift had bought Painter’s former car-leasing startup Fair, which itself had previously acquired Ford’s subscription service Canvas — bringing the remnants of his former business back under his ownership — and Uber’s leasing service Xchange. | TechCrunch

Steve and Justin got into a Hertz rental at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) and prepared to sync our phone. It never ceases to amaze us when folks leave their PII in rental cars (but maybe in this case it was on purpose?). This is a great opportunity for Automotive Ventures portfolio company Privacy4Cars. | Privacy4Cars

The Future of Autonomy? At least the cars are communicating with each other. | Automotive News ($)

🌡️ Climate

Startups promising to power planes, ships and trucks with clean fuel are sputtering before they get off the ground, showing how hard it will be to wean many industries off oil and gas. The failures and delays are all but extinguishing the early optimism after the climate law passed. Rising costs have pushed out project timelines and made it more difficult for companies to raise money. The government’s delays in completing tax credits are adding to the challenges. Without clean fuels, emissions at many companies are expected to keep climbing, threatening U.S. and global climate targets. Industries including aviation and shipping are counting on the new fuels because wind and solar power and batteries can’t meet their huge energy needs. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

✈️ Aviation

The 100 little scanning drones Ikea currently commands across Europe can provide around-the-clock updates to inventory and reach heights humans and most robots can’t. The drones, which have been branded with the blue and yellow color scheme, an Ikea logo and the familiar “Hej!” tagline, are produced by Verity. The firm has been popular with investors, thanks in large part to its Ikea partnership. The startup raised $32 million last March and another $11 million four months later. | TechCrunch

🚘 Car of the Week

Our Automotive Ventures "Cars of the Week": a 1966 Shelby 427 S/C Cobra. | RM Sotheby'sHave a great week,Steve Greenfield

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Notable & New

🎤

On this week's "Future of Automotive" segment on CBT News: we discuss Automotive Ventures' recent investment in Chaiz. | CBT News ($)

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Companies to Watch

🌟 Gaussion has developed a novel solution that radically enhances battery performance using an external magnetic field during charge and discharge cycles to enable rapid charging by steering ions within existing battery cells. The magnetic field also lowers cell degradation, extending battery life. | Gaussion

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