BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | 3 JULY 2023 | VIEW ONLINE ➡️

Dealerships are about to get swamped with EV inventory, with ~150 new EV models coming over the next two years. If you want a screaming deal on an EV, just wait 6 months. The wave of discounts (and incentives) are coming. (Link)Expect more automakers to back off their plans to go 100% EV as they realize continued healthy demand for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Not to mention that ICE vehicles will be much more profitable per unit than EVs for the foreseeable future. (💲Link)Volkswagen is cutting EV production at one of its biggest factories after “strong customer reluctance” led to far lower sales than expected. Demand for electric vehicles is running 30% below the company’s forecasts. (Link)As legacy automakers race to produce new EV models, Tesla's market share could decline from 62 percent in 2022 to 18 percent by 2026. (💲Link)If EVs are able to deliver dramatic annual performance improvements through a combination of both hardware and software upgrades, what's it going to do to the depreciation of used vehicles that are far less attractive to the consumer as a result? (Link)The arrival of the battery-electric vehicle era is roiling the supplier market. BEVs generally have fewer components than their internal combustion engine counterparts, and many automakers are bringing the development of several of those components in-house. (💲Link)

When it comes to fighting off China’s electric vehicle invasion, Europe’s carmaking superpowers are split. Some see the prospect of antagonizing Beijing with an all-out trade war over clean cars as an unthinkable nightmare, while others have much to gain from pulling up the drawbridges and protecting domestic industry with tariffs. (Link)Porsche AG will spend more than €20 billion ($21.9 billion) to implement dozens of measures — from building its own software to developing high-performance batteries. (💲Link)Across the U.S., a shortage of car parts in the past few years has collided with a continuing dearth of service technicians. The result: more frustrated customers, who are waiting longer to get their cars back, and paying more for service. (💲Link)McKinsey says that vehicle leasing is about 2x more likely to be the ownership preference for consumers who choose an EV over a traditional internal combustion engine. This may be rooted in people’s uncertainty about technology maturity, battery lifetime, and EV used-car markets. (Link)Investors from oil-rich Arabian countries have long been fond of buying into European luxury and sports car brands. But a shift is unfolding and such investors are now developing more interest in staking out electric-vehicle startups from China. (💲Link)Chinese EV brands are dominating domestically and may become much more influential players in the Western market in the next three to five years. (💲Link)The U.S. will need 28 million charging ports (including home chargers) to support a scenario where 33 million electric vehicles are on the road by 2030. (💲Link)Volvo Cars is the latest automaker to jump on the Tesla Supercharger bandwagon. Starting in 2025, Volvo electric vehicles in the region will be equipped with the Tesla NACS port. (💲Link)

Polestar plans to use Tesla charging port in its future electric vehicles, making it the fifth automaker to embrace what is fast becoming the new standard in the U.S. (💲Link)Electrify America plans to add Tesla connectors to its large network of electric-vehicle charging stations across North America. (💲Link)SAE International will develop manufacturing, performance and reliability standards for Tesla's NACS connector. (💲Link)The decision to work with Tesla comes with big risks for the rest of the auto industry, which will be relying on Elon Musk, a mercurial leader, for an essential technology. Musk has promised not to put GM and Ford customers at a disadvantage, and the other car companies say they believe him. Competitors are betting that government regulators would step in if Tesla tried to create a charging monopoly. (💲Link)During the first half of 2023, vehicle recalls will be down 51% from the peak in 2020 and down 14% from last year. The industry is on pace for 25% fewer recalls this year. (Link)Across the developing world, mineral-rich nations are restricting the export of raw minerals, demanding that miners build processing plants locally, and looking to tighten control over foreign-operated mines. (💲Link)Kerrigan Advisors' Q1 2023 Blue Sky Report: "The automotive dealership buy/sell market set a new record in the first quarter of 2023 with 103 completed transactions, a 43% increase over the first quarter of 2022." (Link).PitchBook's "US Venture Capital Outlook" forecasts that Seed-stage startup valuations and deal sizes will continue their ascent, reaching new annual highs despite a slowdown in total deal value and count. (Link)The U.S. Department of Homeland Security caused a stir last February when it revealed that it was exploring deploying robot dogs on the U.S./Mexico border. (Link)NYC drivers may begin paying a "Congestion Pricing" charge, aiming to raise $1 billion of new annual revenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), reduce traffic and pollution, while boosting mass-transit ridership. Congestion pricing may cut the number of daily vehicles entering the district by as much as 20%. (💲Link)52% of marketing executives believe AI’s greatest source of savings will come from allowing marketers to reduce spending on third-party service providers, such as ad agencies, or to assign more valuable tasks to these parties. (💲Link)Up until now, I thought that everything was bigger in Texas. A 74,000-square-foot Buc-ee's gas station has opened on Interstate 40 outside of Knoxville. The newest location is the largest gas station in the world, featuring 120 fuel pumps. (Link)

Have a great week,Steve Greenfield

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🗞️ The July Intel Report is out. We review how Tesla won the EV charger standards war. (Link)🗞️ If EVs are able to deliver dramatic performance improvements on an annual basis (through a combination of both hardware and software upgrades), what's it going to do to the depreciation of used vehicles that may be far less attractive to the consumer as a result? (Link)

📢 Do you want to be one of the six startups pitching their innovation at the MEMA Aftermarket conference on October 10th in front of major suppliers in the North American market? (Link)

🎤 I'm honored to be a keynote speaker at the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA) Summer Roundtable conference this August in Chicago (Link)🗞️ On this week's Future of Automotive segment on CBT News, we discuss how software-enabled upgrades to EVs may both upset used vehicle prices and also encourage consumers to postpone purchases of new EVs. (💲Link)

🌟 Optiwatt is an EV charging scheduler that enables you to reduce your EV charging costs by up to 70%. Optiwatt helps you save $388 per year on average by automatically scheduling your EV to charge when rates are cheapest.

 (Link)

🌟 Novus Sentry focuses on the rapid testing, detection and prediction of EV battery faults that can lead to high safety risk such as catastrophic failures and fires. As a result, they are able to extend the life, safety and reliability of batteries. (Link)

✈️ Air Mobility & Space

Anduril Industries, one of the first California-based tech startups to seek weapons contracts from the Pentagon, is acquiring Adranos, an Indiana-based company developing a new solid rocket motor for conventional and hypersonic missiles. The companies didn’t disclose the terms of the deal. (💲Link)B GARAGE, a San Jose-based startup building autonomous drones along with software to track warehouse inventory, has raised $20 million in a Series A round of funding. B Garage’s mission is to address labor shortage issues across industries like agriculture and logistics by utilizing artificial intelligence and autonomous technology. (Link)Cloudcards has completed a €1.4m equity funding round that will help the company to bring its One Aviation Platform software ecosystem concept to market in the next 18 months. Cloudcards allows leasers to manage all aspects of its assets, including legal, financial and technical services. and its offers a cloud-based project management tool called CARDS. (Link)Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY), a company developing all-electric aircraft for commercial passenger service, announced that SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM), South Korea’s leading telecommunications company, is making an equity investment of $100 million in Joby, as part of an expanded partnership between the two companies. (Link)Elon Musk’s SpaceX is offering to sell insider shares at a price that would raise the company’s valuation to about $150 billion. In January, the company was valued at $137 billion after raising $750 million in a funding round. (💲Link)Gather AI has acquired drone inventory competitor Ware. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Gather is a warehouse automation company that has created the world's first drone-powered inventory monitoring solution. (Link)

🦾 Autonomy, Robotics & AI

Black Sesame, a maker of AI chips and systems for cars, filed an IPO in Hong Kong. (Link)Dexory, a company that serves warehouses with real-time inventory management data using AI software and autonomous robots, has raised $19 million in a Series A round of funding. (Link) AI-based traffic management platform NoTraffic raised $50 million in Series B funding. NoTraffic’s combined hardware-software solution turns intersections into smart intersections that can manage traffic flows based on data collected in real-time. (Link)Realtime Robotics has been raising funding at a steady clip since announcing a two-pronged $31 million Series A back in 2021. This week’s $9.5 million announcement is a fast follow-up to last September’s $14.4 million raise. This time last year, Realtime unveiled RapidPlan, software that helps manufacturers deploy robots in an industrial setting. (Link)RoboSense Technology, which develops sensor technologies for self-driving vehicles, filed an IPO in Hong Kong. (Link)

🚘 Dealer Tech & Auto Commerce

CDK Global announced the acquisition of

Computerized Vehicle Registration

(CVR). Financial details were not disclosed. CVR provides automotive dealers and other key members of the vehicle lifecycle with fast, secure, certified electronic vehicle registration. (

Link

)

⚡ Electrification & Alternate Fuels

General Motors has acquired ALGOLiON, an Israel-based software startup that can detect potential hazards in battery cells. Financial terms were not disclosed. (Link)E.ON has acquired e-mobility start-up elvah. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. elvah helps eMobility users find the optimal charging option through real-time ratings and smart recommendations. (Link)Faraday Future managed to raise $90 million from existing investors to help it get its much-delayed FF 91 luxury electric SUV to production and delivery. (Link)KoBold Metals raised $195 million. The new cash values the climate-tech startup at $1.15 billion. The company uses artificial intelligence to mine for valuable metals such as cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium used in the production of batteries for a variety of sectors, including electric vehicles. (Link)

Octopus Electric Vehicles has secured a £150m funding boost to accelerate its growth amid soaring production of greener cars. The company's "salary sacrifice offer" helps drivers save up to 40% every month on new electric cars, providing the vehicle, charger and a discounted energy tariff. (Link)Chinese battery maker REPT BATTERO has filed for an IPO in Hong Kong, aiming to raise as much as $1 billion. (Link)BP has invested €7.5 million in EV charging service provider Service4Charger as part of a €10 million Series A financing round. The Berlin-based company specializing in the design, installation and operation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. (Link)

💲Finance & Insurance

Crux, a new startup aiming to remove friction from the use of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of climate law tax incentives, raised $4.25 million in Seed financing. Crux helps businesses that don't yet have tax liability to monetize the incentives to boost low-emissions tech deployment. (Link)

🚢 Maritime

Sharrow Marine, a leading manufacturer of revolutionary propellers for boats and ships, completed a $30+ million series of debt and equity financings, The company is developing innovative propeller technology for the marine and aeronautical industries. (Link)

🗞️ Media & LIfestyle

SQUAKE has raised $3.8 million (€3.5 million) for technology that powers carbon emissions calculations for the travel and logistics industries. Squake's software can make carbon calculations for all types of travel and logistics activities — including flights, shipping, car rentals, and hotels — based on national and international standards, meant to provide information to help travelers and companies make more sustainable choices. (Link)

🛴 Micromobility

Malaysia-based startup iMotorbike, an online motorcycle marketplace, has raised $2.6 million in a Series A round. (Link)

📱Shared Mobility & Subscriptions

Ruqi (OnTime) Mobility, the ride-sharing platform under Chinese state-owned automaker GAC Group, has raised 842 million yuan ($117.2 million) in a Series B round. The financing will help the firm accelerate the commercialization of its robotaxi. (Link)

🚛 Supply Chain & Logistics

German logistics start-up Colonia Technologies raised a Seed round of €6 million. The company has developed a B2B sharing model for commercial vehicles that to give logistics providers a marketplace to share their vehicles and manage their fleets more effectively. (Link)Nuvocargo has raised a $36.5M Series B round at a valuation above $250M. Nuvocargo is the all-in-one digital platform for cross-border trade between USA and Mexico, offering freight forwarding, customs brokerage, cargo insurance and supply chain financing. (Link)Tummoc, a multi-modal connectivity platform, has raised $1 million in a pre-series A round. Tummoc is a transit technology platform that offers multi-modal connectivity solutions to State Transport Authorities (STAs). It offers features like intracity journey planning, online bus & metro tickets bookings and convenient first-to-last mile connectivity. (Link)

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