Weekly Intel Report: Automotive & Mobility News

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | AUG 28 2023 | VIEW ONLINE ➡️

What I'm Reading:

I picked up a rental car in Denver this week, and I'm always amazed that consumers don't delete the personal information they've synched via their phone. We invested in Privacy4Cars to address this very issue. (Link)Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) damage roads at twice the rate of internal-combustion-engine vehicles. Residential roads, which are not engineered for heavy vehicles, will develop a greater number of potholes owing to the weight of BEVs relative to ICE vehicles. (Link)A subsidy-fueled boom helped build China into an electric-car giant but left weed-infested lots across the nation brimming with unwanted battery-powered vehicles. (💲Link)China, Korea, and Japan together hold 92% market share for battery manufacturing (2022). This is partly due to their un-matched battery production speed leading to lower battery costs. China already has a roughly 30% cost advantage over Europe and the U.S. (Link)The San Francisco robotaxi dilemma is shining a light on the divided way we regulate cars in the US. The federal government creates vehicle safety rules, leaving the states to license drivers, register vehicles, and enforce the rules of the road. All that’s left for cities to do is make minor infrastructure decisions, help direct traffic — and not much else. (Link)In San Francisco, hundreds of human taxi drivers purchased taxi medallions for $250,000 — then some saw their wages plummet. Human drivers may receive tickets for violating traffic rules. They are required to participate in programs that provide rides for elderly people and those with disabilities in San Francisco. Robotaxis such as those run by Waymo and Cruise are subject to none of those pesky regulations. (💲Link)Today’s average new car loan has a monthly payment over $750, with an interest rate of 9.5%. For used cars, the average rate is above 13.7%. The average term for loans issued over the past three years is nearly six years. Defaults and missed payments on pools of auto loans made in the first half of last year to people with subpar credit are matching or outpacing those issued in 2008. (💲Link)In the past year, more than 270 new clean energy projects have been announced, with private investments totaling around $132 billion. Of those funds, more than half went to EVs and batteries, and the rest went to renewable energy, grid storage, carbon capture, utilization and storage and clean fuels. Bank of America expects these investments to create more than 86,000 jobs, including 50,000 in EVs. (Link)JLR, the automaker formerly known as Jaguar Land Rover, is supplying used Jaguar I-Pace batteries to develop one of the largest energy storage systems in the U.K. The batteries can be slotted directly into racks in containers on-site. (Link)Nissan laid out an ambitious "data-driven retail model" that calls for greater customer information sharing between dealerships and the factory to boost the customer experience. The new retail model is intended to "create an ecosystem where customers love Nissan and buy Nissan for the [brand's] value and not for the most recent rebate out there." (💲Link)Tesla and Rivian have endorsed an agreement backed by major automakers and independent repair shops on automotive "Right to Repair" that would include necessary telematics data. Under the new deal, independent repair shops will continue to have access to the same diagnostic and repair information automakers make available to their authorized dealer networks even as technology evolves. (💲Link)PeopleForBikes, the national trade organization representing bicycle manufacturers, has reached out to lawmakers and officials in several states to request that e-bikes be exempted from right-to-repair bills. (Link)New Honda and Acura EVs will adopt Tesla's NACS connector standard. In separate and earlier news, Honda is banding together with six other global brands in a still-unnamed joint venture that plans to open 30,000 high-speed chargers in the U.S. and Canada. The chargers will offer a mix of Combined Charging System (CCS) and NACS-compatible ports, making the stations universal. (💲Link)Hertz revealed that the cost of maintaining its fleet of Teslas is 50-60 percent below their internal combustion engine (ICE) fleet. One area that is slightly more expensive for Hertz has been tires on the Tesla fleet. (Link)Some global mining companies are taking their hunt for materials that can power the energy transition to city scrapyards, betting that makers of cars and consumer electronics will increasingly demand sustainably sourced metals for their products. (💲Link)The U.S. is turning to a much-criticized source as it races to secure supplies of battery metals to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles. To do so, it is homing in on cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s informal mining sector, where miners, sometimes including children, often work with no safety equipment in dangerous, hand-dug mines. (💲Link)There are currently 8,291 different vehicle license plates offered by the 50 states and the District of Columbia. (Link)

Have a great week,Steve Greenfield

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Notable & New

🗞️ On this week's Future of Automotive segment on CBT News we dig into the unbundling of vehicle features into paid subscription services. (💲Link)📢 AssetWorks announced a partnership with Automotive Ventures portfolio company Pitstop to provide integrated, artificial intelligence-powered predictive maintenance technology to fleets across the globe. (Link)🗞️ Thanks to Automotive News for covering Automotive Ventures' latest investment from our DealerFund: Treehouse. (💲Link)🎥 It's always a pleasure catching up with Kathryn from Work Truck Solutions to discuss the future of the Commercial Vehicle segment. (Link)🎤 I'll be borrowing some of Charlie Vogelheim's wardrobe for next month's DrivingSales Executive Summit in Las Vegas. (Link)

Companies to Watch

🌟 Birdstop is a remote sensing platform using flying drones and AI, delivering a remote sensing platform using uncrewed aerial technology in low-altitude airspace. Their vision is to build a nationwide remote sensing platform using “Beyond Visual Line of Sight” (BVLOS) drones, like a constellation of satellites on the ground. (Link)

🌟 SATIM provides AI-based software for automatic object detection, identification, and classification capabilities using satellite synthetic aperture radar (or SAR) imagery. The company claims 95% accuracy on vessel detection in port and on the open ocean using SAR imagery, and 90% accurate classification of civil and military vessels using SAR simulated training data, providing a comprehensive solution for strategic site monitoring and maritime situational awareness. (Link)

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