Intel Report: The Weekly Mobility News That Matters

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | AUG 5 2024 | VIEW ONLINE ➡️

What We're Reading

🚗 Automotive

For a decade now, automakers have extolled the virtues of the “software-defined vehicle”—a car that, because of a rethought electrical architecture and computer centralization, is able to update over time. The promise is a “smartphone on wheels”: a car that automakers can continue to improve well after an owner drives away from a showroom. But for how long? Today’s phones are able to receive updates six to eight years after their purchase date. Samsung and Google provide Android OS updates and security updates for seven years. Apple halts servicing products seven years after they stop selling them. That might not cut it in the auto world, where the average age of cars on US roads is only going up. A recent report found that cars and trucks just reached a new record average age of 12.6 years, up two months from 2023. That means the car software hitting the road today needs to work—and maybe even improve—beyond 2036. The average length of smartphone ownership is just 2.8 years. | WiredThe cost of car insurance is hitting high water marks nationwide, though drivers in some states are feeling the pain more than others. The nationwide average annual cost of full-coverage car insurance hit $2,329 in June, per Insurify. That's up from $1,601 in January of 2021. | AxiosOxhead Alpha announced a large-scale implementation for the California Department of Motor Vehicles on Avalanche, successfully digitizing 42 million car titles as part of an ongoing effort by the state to modernize the title transfer process for California drivers and DMV representatives. Together, the three partners are building a DMV-run blockchain to streamline the vehicle title transfer experience for California’s 39 million-plus residents. These digital titles will soon be claimable by vehicle owners through the DMV’s secure mobile wallet app in minutes using a verifiable credential. The escrow-like Avalanche blockchain smart contracts mediating the title transfer will allow consumers to track and manage their pink slip vehicle titles digitally, cutting down on trips to the DMV and post office. Blockchain technology may also provide an early warning system for lien fraud with its core function as an immutable ledger that bad actors cannot manipulate

. | Avalanche

⚡️ Electric Vehicles (EVs)

Electric vehicles cost more to buy than gasoline cars, and they may lose value more quickly. Even for people eager to own a car with no tailpipe emissions, it’s reasonable to wonder whether it makes sense to buy one now. The answer may well be yes, but there are a lot of factors to consider, many of which depend on your driving habits and how important it is to you to reduce your impact on the environment. And because electric vehicles are a new technology, there is less certainty than for gasoline-powered vehicles about how the numbers will shake out over time. | The New York Times ($)

Plug-in hybrids, which have both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, are increasingly seen as the best of both worlds. Their popularity could weigh on companies and investors who have bet big on soaring demand for batteries and the materials that go into them. Global PHEV sales grew 50% year over year in the first five months of 2024, according to Bernstein—far better than the 9% pace for pure electric vehicles. The major reason for the divergence is China, the world’s largest car market and by far the largest for EVs. In the first half of 2024, sales of PHEVs in China surged 70% from a year earlier. That compares with 16% growth for pure EVs. PHEVs now account for around 42% of new-energy car sales there from less than 20% around three years ago. | The Wall Street Journal ($)The gloom enveloping the electric car industry is starting to flow upstream, with a slew of battery-material producers winding back expansion plans. | Bloomberg ($)Hertz reported a worse-than-expected loss after its failed bet on Tesla electric vehicles weighed on the value of cars in its fleet. Hertz said fleet refreshment efforts drove per-unit depreciation to $600 a month, more than three times higher than a year ago, as the company unloads EVs faster than originally planned. Hertz has said it will sell tens of thousands of Tesla electric vehicles this year. | Bloomberg ($)Energy Innovation's "EV Fill Up Tool" shows that no matter where you are in the country, in every state, every EV is cheaper to fill up than a gas-powered vehicle, even when accounting for range differences between the two engine types. | Forbes

🇨🇳 China

Chinese companies are leaping ahead of their global rivals in Japan, which has shunned EVs, and the United States, where Tesla dominates the sector. Last year, sales of popular Japanese brands such as Nissan, Mazda and Mitsubishi plummeted as consumers bought new electric cars from Chinese manufacturers instead. Dealers that had worked with Japanese and American automakers for decades were now turning over showrooms to make way for Chinese vehicles. Amid an increasingly crowded field, Chinese brands are slashing prices on electric vehicles. The overseas push is the next phase in Beijing’s long-term strategy to focus on new energy vehicles and upend the balance of power in the automobile industry. | The New York Times ($)

China was further ahead of Japan in vehicle exports for the first half of 2024 after overtaking its Asian neighbor as the world’s top vehicle exporter in 2023. Automakers in China exported more than 2.79 million vehicles (up 31% from a year earlier, vs. Japan's exports of 2.02 million units (down 0.3% year-over-year). Among China’s vehicle exports in the first half, fuel-powered vehicles surged 36% to approach 2.19 million. Exports of electrified vehicles gained 13% to around 605,000. For the first six months, the top five vehicle exporters among Chinese automakers are CHERY, SAIC, Changan Automobile, GEELY and BYD. | Automotive News ($)

Chinese brands captured 11% of the European electric car market in June, notching record registrations as manufacturers raced to beat stiff European Union tariffs that took effect early this month. | Bloomberg ($)

BYD, China’s largest EV maker, has struck a deal with Uber to provide 100,000 full electric vehicles to the global ride-hailing giant in Europe and Latin America initially, and in the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand at a later stage. | Automotive News ($)

BYD is preparing to enter the Canadian auto market in a move likely to drastically change the complexion of the North American electric-vehicle segment but also attract government scrutiny, as trade officials in Ottawa weigh tariffs on EVs imported from China. The company, which overtook Tesla as the world’s top-selling EV maker at the tail end of 2023, would become the first of China’s major homegrown automakers to launch passenger EV sales in Canada. | Automotive News ($)

🤖

Robotics & Autonomy

Walmart has plans to potentially spend $200 million on self-driving forklifts as part of broader efforts to automate more warehouse operations. The world's largest retailer wants autonomous forklifts to move pallets of goods in its distribution centers, which replenish Walmart stores. It has intended to buy possibly hundreds from Fox Robotics and invested $25 million in the Austin-based startup. | Reuters ($)

🛴

Micromobility

Injuries among e-bike riders doubled every year from 2017 to 2022 while e-scooter injuries rose 45% annually in that same period. Smart Cities Dive

Bikeshare programs in the US and Canada have never been more popular. Americans and Canadians took 157 million rides on shared bikes and e-scooters in 2023, surpassing previous records set before the pandemic. But user costs are rising into unaffordable territory in many cities amid a shortage of public funding for the programs. | Bloomberg ($)

🌡️ Climate

The companies racing to build large solar farms across the United States are facing a growing problem: Not enough workers. Now, they’re turning to robots for help. | The New York Times ($)

📚 Entrepreneurship

The person who writes the RFP is most likely to win a prospect’s business. This should be required reading for all of the Automotive and Mobility entrepreneurs out there. | Tomasz Tunguz

🚘 Car of the Week

We have a new "Car of the Week": a 1990 Ferrari F40. | Broad Arrow AuctionsHave a great week,Steve Greenfield

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Notable & New

📢

On this week's "Future of Automotive" segment on CBT News: we discuss the stock price pressure and EV demand challenges that legacy automakers are facing amidst shifting industry trends. | CBT News ($)

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