BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | 15 MAY 2023 | VIEW ONLINE ➡️

Join me for the live stream of a first-ever TV show for the retail auto industry on May 24th at 1:00 PM ET. ‘

More Than Cars

’ visits dealerships to tell inspiring stories.

www.MoreThanCars.tv

554 votes and the LinkedIn audience has spoken: 81% believe that we'll sell fewer than 50% EVs by 2030. Scott Case: We'll have to wait 7 years to see who gets the $200. Thanks to CarDealershipGuy for sparking the conversation and being our witness! (Link)

When is an MSRP no longer an MSRP? What if it changes weekly? (💲Link)Direct-to-consumer EV automakers like Tesla, Rivian and Lucid accounted for 12% of California's new vehicle sales last year and cost franchised dealerships $910 million in gross profit ($700,000 on average across the state's 1,303 franchised dealerships). (💲Link)Whether the EV transition ultimately creates less Parts & Service business overall remains an open question. AAA estimates that maintenance and repair on electric vehicles cost $949 a year, or about $330 less than on a gasoline-powered car on average if maintained according to the automakers’ recommendations. EVs have fewer mechanical parts that are prone to failure compared with those powered by internal-combustion engines - no air filters, antifreeze, spark plugs or oil changes. (💲Link)We should be paying close attention to how the price war for new vehicles in China is playing out. The dilemma facing all legacy carmakers, not just Chinese ones, is that gasoline cars currently generate more profit and better margins. By selling an increasing number of electric cars, they’re actually making less money. (💲Link)Cox Automotive surveyed 2,000 in-market vehicle shoppers and has published “Software Monetization: The Emergence of Vehicle Features on Demand (FoD).” Key findings: 41% indicate that they are interested in Features on Demand. Most shoppers believe a top benefit of FoD would be a lower starting vehicle price. (💲Link)Last year, 80% of new-car sales in Norway were electric, putting the country at the vanguard of the shift to battery-powered mobility. It has also turned Norway into an observatory for figuring out what the electric vehicle revolution might mean for the environment, workers and life in general. (💲Link)

I'm often asked about company valuations, especially at the Seed stage, where Automotive Ventures typically invests. CB Insights has published their latest "Tech Valuations Report" which is very helpful. (💲Link)Turnover for dealership Service Advisers has been as high as 55%. Technician turnover is often 30% or higher each year. Net Promoter Score (NPS) for Service technicians is minus 55. Service Advisers' Net Promoter Score was minus four. For comparison, a job with a company people love to work at receives a score in the 90s. (💲Link)Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna: "There are four kinds of software. There is performance software, there is comfort software, there is infotainment software, and there is autonomous. The last one, we don't care." (Link)

Have a great week,Steve Greenfield

Forwarded this email and not yet a subscriber? 

🎤 I had a chance to catch up with Jamie Butters from Automotive News on the "Daily Drive" segment to discuss Automotive Ventures. (Link)🎤 Zach Klempf and I discuss the combination of headwinds and tailwinds facing automotive dealerships. (Link)

🎤 Automotive Ventures portfolio company Privacy4Cars is receiving a huge volume of positive interest in their new "Vehicle Privacy Tool." Automotive dealerships are leveraging the tool to differentiate in their local market and be chosen as the dealership at which consumers want to trade-in their vehicle. (Link)📢 Congratulations to Automotive Ventures portfolio company Car Capital Technologies and new CEO Jim Landy! (Link)🎤 I'm excited to be back on Ted Ings' Fixed Ops Roundtable later this month. (Link)📰 Automotive Ventures is investing in early-stage Mobility solutions that will uniquely alleviate some of humanity's biggest challenges. For this introduction in the May Intel Report, I provide an overview of our seven investment thesis areas across the Mobility landscape. (Link)

🌟 B2U Storage Solutions is a large-scale energy storage using 2nd-life EV using patented EV Pack Storage (EPS) technology to deploy EV batteries without repurposing costs in large scale stationary storage. 

(Link)

🌟 

Inteliports

 creates highly automated, adaptable, and rapidly deployable solutions that mitigate the key barriers the drone industry faces. Automation of key drone logistics processes eases barriers to entry at business ends, allowing for easy integration into day-to-day operations. (Link)

🛠️ Aftermarket & Repair Cilia Tecnologia, a Brazil-based auto parts and car maintenance cost estimator for insurance companies, has raised BRL110 million (~USD$21.8 million). (Link)UVeye, using a combination of computer vision and machine learning to create a system that can quickly and accurately inspect vehicles, has raised $100 million in a Series D funding round pushing its valuation to about $800 million. (Link)

✈️ Air Mobility & SpaceQualcomm is acquiring Autotalks, a fabless chipmaker out of Israel that builds semiconductor and system-on-a-chip technology to aid in automotive safety; sources tell us Qualcomm is paying between $350 million and $400 million for the startup. (Link)WINGCOPTER, a startup out of Germany that has made a name for itself in the world of delivery drones used primarily for delivery of medicine and other goods to remote areas, has picked up €40 million (close to $44 million) in funding. (Link)

🦾 Autonomy, Robotics & AI

Deep learning vehicle inspection startup RAVIN.AI announced the raising of its first investment from Australia by Firemark Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Insurance Australia Group (IAG). (Link)Sniffer Robotics, an environmental technology-enabled services firm, raised $2.0M in Seed funding. Sniffer Robotics is an environmental technology-enabled services firm serving waste, natural gas, biogas, and related industries. (Link)SPREAD, an engineering intelligence startup for complex mechatronic products, announced the closing of their €14.6 million Series A funding round. SPREAD’s technology makes sense of complex products like cars, aircraft, and heavy machines to democratize engineering knowledge. (Link)

⚡Electrification & Alternative Fuels

Sweden-based ALTRIS, a sodium-ion battery developer, has secured €4.8M (SEK 50M) in bridge financing. Altris aims to produce highly sustainable cathode materials for rechargeable sodium batteries to enable a renewable future.  The company says its sodium-ion battery technology offers significant advantages over traditional lithium-ion batteries, including higher safety, lower cost, and greater sustainability. (Link)Blue Whale Materials, a leading lithium-ion (li-ion) battery recycling company, has acquired Eclipse Energy, a battery testing and evaluation lab. The acquisition will enable Blue Whale Materials to expand its testing offerings to cover the entire life cycle of batteries, from initial testing to end-of-life evaluation for remanufacturing or reuse in secondary applications. (Link)Modern Hydrogen has raised $32.8 million. They are developing methane pyrolysis reactors that take natural gas from fossil fuels or biogas from sources like manure and strip off the carbon to make hydrogen. The hydrogen burns cleanly, producing water vapor as a byproduct. (Link)

Kazam, an electric mobility software platform that works with charging point operators, fleet operators, and electricity grids, has raised US$3.6 million. The company’s goal is to create a comprehensive e-mobility platform that manages the entire EV process, from grid energy management to EV fueling and fleet management. (Link)Taiwanese solid-state battery maker Prologium Technology is considering raising fresh funding at a valuation of about $2 billion to ramp up growth and investments. (💲Link)

Vietnamese electric automaker VINFAST will list in the U.S. via a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Black Spade Capital Acquisition Co. After the merger, the new entity will have an enterprise value of approximately $27 billion and an equity value of $23 billion, "assuming no BSAQ shareholders elect to have their Black Spade shares redeemed for cash as permitted." The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023, it said, adding existing VinFast shareholders will hold approximately 99 percent shares of the combined company. (Link)

🛴 MicromobilityBike-sharing startup Hello Inc. — formerly known as Hellobike — has confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. Hello is currently valued at $5 billion, and had more than 400 million registered users across more than 400 cities in China. (Link)MOBY, offering e-bikes as a service, has announced the first close (€4.1m) of a €5 million pre-Series A round to accelerate its international expansion and growth. (Link)

📱Shared Mobility & Subscriptions

Indian ride-hailing start-up BluSmart has raised $42 million. The funds will be used to strengthen its presence in major cities as well as more than double its fleet to 10,000 over the next year. BluSmart is currently valued at $250 million. (Link)Peer-to-peer car-sharing company Getaround will acquire the assets of HyreCar, another car-sharing marketplace, for $9.45 million. Getaround expects to realize up to $75 million of run rate annualized gross booking value from the deal, which the company says will contribute to positive adjusted EBITDA profitability. (Link)

🚛 Supply Chain & Logistics

Brazilian logtech startup Infleet raised over $989K in a funding round. Infleet provides transparency and agility by integrating a hub involving logistics and equipment management services. (Link)

🏎️ Early-stage AutoTech or Mobility founder? We'd love to hear from you.🏁 Interested in investing directly into early-stage AutoTech and Mobility companies? Check out The Automotive Ventures Investment Club (AVIC)✨ Looking for our Dealership AutoTech Company Landscape? View that here.✨ Looking for our Mobility Tech Company Landscape? View that here.🚀 Interested in exploring Automotive Ventures' portfolio companies shown below? Check them out here.