Intel Report: The Weekly Mobility News That Matters

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | Nov 17 2025 | VIEW ONLINE

Automotive Ventures is excited to welcome Impel as an investor in our new Mobility Fund II. | LINK

What We're Reading:

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Automotive

Ford's CEO had an EV wake-up call after tearing apart cars from Tesla and its rivals in China. Jim Farley said the "shocking" realization of how far ahead Elon Musk's automaker and China's EV upstarts were pushed him to overhaul the company. "I was very humbled when we took apart the first Model 3 Tesla and started to take apart the Chinese vehicles. When we took them apart, it was shocking what we found," Farley said. The Detroit executive said Ford's Mustang Mach-E had around 1.6km more electrical wiring than the Tesla, adding extra weight to the car and requiring a much bigger and more expensive battery. | Business Insider ($)

More Americans are falling behind on their car payments, with the share of subprime borrowers at least 60 days past due on their auto loans rising to 6.65% in October. Ongoing inflation pressures and the return of student loan bills are causing millions of car owners to struggle to afford their monthly payments, a sign of weakness in the U.S. economy. The share of consumers in the riskiest credit category has grown this year, reaching levels not seen since 2019, with subprime borrowers accounting for 14.4% of consumers tracked in the third quarter. | Bloomberg ($)

The record number of Americans falling behind on car payments is stoking concerns that more pain is in store for subprime auto lenders. Investors now want roughly 50 basis points of extra yield to own the lowest-rated slices of subprime auto ABS compared with two months ago, lifting average risk premiums to about 170 basis points. The share of risky borrowers at least 60 days past due on their auto loans rose to 6.65% in October, the highest in data going back to 1994, according to Fitch Ratings. | Bloomberg ($)

Honda's downgrade to its full-year profit outlook underscores the immediate pressure from U.S. tariffs and global chip shortages - but the deeper, longer-term challenge lies in intensifying competition from Chinese electric vehicle makers. Japan's second-largest automaker cut its full-year outlook by a fifth after the market closed on Friday, citing one-off EV costs and a shortage of components using chips from Netherlands-based Nexperia. The Dutch government took control of the company, owned by China's Wingtech, on September 30. It also estimated a 385 billion yen ($2.6 billion) hit from U.S. tariffs, although that was less than the 450 billion yen originally flagged. Its shares tumbled 4.7% on Monday. Yet the more pressing concern for Honda - and by extension, other Japanese carmakers - is the steady erosion of market share in Southeast Asia, a region where they once dominated virtually unchallenged. Until recently, Japanese automakers believed they could shield their Asia businesses outside of China from the kind of slump they were experiencing in the world's largest car market. That assumption no longer holds. | Reuters ($)

Europe’s largest economy is stuck in its fourth year of stagnation. Six months after conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office, “the crisis in German engineering is gaining momentum at force”, says Dirk Pfitzer, a partner at Porsche Consulting. It is “very clear” that the slump is not cyclical and “won’t just disappear” in the next upswing, he adds. Industrial production sits at the 2005 level even after a partial rebound in September. “Many of Germany’s economic core strengths have turned into vulnerabilities,” says Marcus Berret, global managing director at Roland Berger, a Munich-based consultant. Those include a large industrial base that is hard to decarbonise, a high dependence on exports at a time when globalization is under threat, and a mighty auto industry having to write off 140 years of internal combustion engine expertise. All this is exacerbated by two distinct political decisions in the U.S. and China, taken 10 years apart: Donald Trump’s trade war, and Beijing’s decision a decade ago to turn itself into a global high-tech engineering powerhouse. | Financial Times ($)

As with other EV makers facing hurricane-force headwinds, including the U.S. rollback of pollution and fuel-economy rules, Hyundai has chosen to forge ahead with its long-laid plans. Company executives call Hyundai's Metaplant North America’s most automated car factory and the most advanced full-scale factory among Hyundai's 12 global manufacturing facilities. It rivals or surpasses Japan’s most advanced plants, such as the best operated by Toyota. To have any chance of one-upping China, car factories elsewhere must become hyperefficient, which includes enlisting armies of AI-controlled robots—robots that can potentially work 24/7 and never ask for a raise or a lunch break. | IEEE Spectrum

They say all roads lead to Rome—but exactly how many Roman roads were there? According to new research, potentially over 68,000 miles (over 110,000 kilometers) more than previously known. Meet Itiner-e, a new high-resolution digital dataset and map of the Roman Empire’s roads around 150 CE. A team of researchers used archaeological and historical records, topographic maps, and satellite imagery to create the behemoth, which charts 185,896 miles (299,171 km) of roads across almost 1,544,409 square miles (4,000,000 square km). | Gizmodo

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EVs

Last month, Toyota said it aimed to “achieve the world’s first practical use of all-solid-state batteries in BEVs” after securing a partnership with Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. to mass-produce them. It’s also working with Japanese oil giant Idemitsu Kosan Co. The company recently revealed a solid-state battery pack prototype that it claims can deliver 747 miles (1,200 km) range and 10-minute fast charging, but will we ever see it actually in production? Toyota has been making promises about EV batteries for almost a decade now. It initially planned to introduce solid-state EV batteries in 2020, then pushed it to 2023, then 2026, and now it’s saying it will be around 2028. | Electrek

🇨🇳

China

Poor-quality Chinese cars used to be treated as a punchline by western executives. The joke has long worn thin. China overtook Japan as the world’s largest exporter in 2023. As well as Europe, Chinese carmakers have continued to sell in Russia, while European manufacturers have been blocked since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Latin America is also of increasing interest. Yet the push for scale – often backed by city regions competing with each other – has resulted in massive overcapacity in the Chinese automotive factories. The industry could theoretically make 55.5m vehicles annually, but actually used just under half that potential, according to data cited by Bloomberg from the Shanghai-based Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute. That has led to a brutal price war in the Chinese market. The Chinese Communist party has told manufacturers to stop trying to undercut each other, fearing “involution”, or competition so intense that it could stop progress as companies enter a self-defeating spiral. Price wars at home mean exports make even more sense. Yet Andrew Bergbaum, the global leader of the automotive and industrial practice at AlixPartners, a consultancy, says the Chinese companies that have managed to break into the European market are often selling their cars at much higher prices than at home – hardly an indicator of desperation to offload products. | The Guardian

Michael Dunne from Dunne Insights notes that China didn’t just become the world’s largest car exporter by accident. They convinced global automakers – virtually the entire industry – to do something that was once unthinkable: export vehicles manufactured by Chinese joint ventures to global markets, splitting profits 50/50 with their Chinese partners. This was a catastrophic strategic error that will haunt the global automotive industry for decades. | Michael Dunne

General Motors has directed several thousand of its suppliers to scrub their supply chains of parts from China, four people familiar with the matter said, reflecting automakers’ growing frustration over geopolitical disruptions to their operations. GM executives have been telling suppliers they should find alternatives to China for their raw materials and parts, with the goal of eventually moving their supply chains out of the country entirely, the people said. The automaker has set a 2027 deadline for some suppliers to dissolve their China sourcing ties, some of the sources said. | Reuters ($)

Chinese cars are on a roll across Europe – they outsold Korean rivals in western Europe for the first time in September. That success is highly reliant on the UK. Of the half a million Chinese cars sold in western Europe between January and September, 30% were bought by Britons. China’s carmakers – backed heavily by its national and regional governments – have used the transition to electric cars as an opportunity to dominate the global automotive market. Trade barriers have been raised in the EU and U.S. and the industry is struggling globally with supply chain issues. The decision by the Netherlands to take control of Nexperia, a Chinese-owned chipmaker, has prompted tit-for-tat export controls on vital semiconductors. And Beijing’s restrictions on rare earth metals used in everything from motors to magnets have also sent shivers down car executives’ spines, as Brussels scrambles to negotiate a similar pause to last month’s US-China trade agreement. Despite such hurdles, the UK remains resolutely open, making it a key battleground. The sales push in Britain has been led by China’s BYD, which is expected to overtake Tesla as the world’s largest maker of battery electric vehicles this year. The UK has become BYD’s biggest market outside China, after sales in September surged tenfold compared with a year earlier. | The Guardian

In China, you can buy a heavily discounted “used” electric car that has never, in fact, been used. Chinese automakers, desperate to meet their sales targets in a bitterly competitive market, sell cars to dealerships, which register them as “sold,” even though no actual customer has bought them. Dealers, stuck with officially sold cars, then offload them as “used,” often at low prices. The practice has become so prevalent that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to stop it. Its main newspaper, The People’s Daily, complained earlier this year that this sales-inflating tactic “disrupts normal market order,” and criticized companies for their “data worship.” This sign of serious problems in China’s electric-vehicle industry may come as a surprise to many Americans. The Chinese electric car has become a symbol of the country’s seemingly unstoppable rise on the world stage. Many observers point to their growing popularity as evidence that China is winning the race to dominate new technologies. But in China, these electric cars represent something entirely different: the profound threats that Beijing’s meddling in markets poses to both China and the world. Bloated by excessive investment, distorted by government intervention, and plagued by heavy losses, China’s EV industry appears destined for a crash. EV companies are locked in a cutthroat struggle for survival. Wei Jianjun, the chairman of the Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd., warned in May that China’s car industry could tumble into a financial crisis; it “just hasn’t erupted yet.” | The Atlantic ($)

Volkswagen is developing its own AI chip for advanced driving capabilities in China as the German group fights to survive in the world’s biggest auto market. Europe’s largest carmaker said on Wednesday that its first in-house chip was being developed in China through a joint venture between its software unit CARIAD and its Chinese smart driving software partner Horizon Robotics. Deliveries are expected to start within three to five years. “By designing and developing the system-on-chip [SoC] here in China, we are taking control of a key technology that will define the future of intelligent driving,” said Volkswagen chief executive Oliver Blume. | Financial Times ($)

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Autonomy, Robotics & AI

Waymo will offer driverless rides on highways in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles, available 24 hours a day to users who have opted in to its new services and features. The company will gradually make the new service available to more users over time, but declined to share a timeline for expanding highway routes to other markets where it operates. Waymo's expansion into commercial freeway service marks a turning point for the company and cements its position as a leading US robotaxi provider, potentially making it more competitive with rideshares and traditional taxis. | Bloomberg ($)

🛜 Software & Connectivity

Honda plans to continue to talk with various automakers about partnering on software as the march towards the electric future continues. In Japan last week, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told journalists that, “when it comes to software defined vehicles it doesn’t make sense for one company to try and develop everything.” The more partners Honda works with the more development costs can be spread and absorbed, according to Mibe. Mibe name-dropped both General Motors and Nissan Motor Corporation as examples of automakers Honda could work with to help allocate software development costs but stopped short of confirming any future partners. | The DriveVolkswagen Group and Rivian said their year-old software joint venture is making strong progress developing the digital architecture that will underpin both companies’ next generation of electric vehicles, as the pair deepens ties to compete with Tesla and emerging Chinese EV makers. The joint venture, Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies (RV Tech), is finalizing work on a new zonal electronic architecture — the backbone for software-defined vehicles that will debut in future Volkswagen, AUDI AG, and Scout Motors Inc. models. The partners have built a global engineering team of more than 1,500 employees, with operations in the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Serbia and a newly established Berlin office aimed at strengthening collaboration with VW’s European brands. Founded in November 2024, RV Tech is developing a centralized vehicle architecture around high-performance computing units that can control all major functions — from power management to driver assistance and infotainment. The setup allows for over-the-air software updates, enabling continuous feature improvements without the need for dealer visits. | Automotive News ($)

Rivian's joint venture with the Volkswagen Group (Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies) isn't just developing the underlying tech for upcoming Rivians, Audis and Porsches. The firm sees a future in selling its electrical architectures to other car companies. "We're solving a problem not only for Rivian and VW, but we're solving a problem for the larger automotive industry," Wassym Bensaid, Rivian's chief software officer and a co-head of the joint venture, told reporters on Wednesday. "And that could become basically an opportunity for a standard technology stack that others can use as well." | Inside EVs

📲 Ridehailing

Glenn Mercer concludes that so far, Uber's impact on car ownership has been negligible. | Glenn Mercer

🛴 Micromobility

D.C.’s dockless electric bikes have become slower, and in some cases more expensive, after police raised concerns that the rental vehicles are enabling teen crime and misbehavior. In mid-October, e-bike rental companies Lime and Veo agreed to lower the maximum speed boost on their e-bikes across the city. In certain crowded nightlife areas where teenagers congregate, all rented e-bikes are being slowed down even further. While people younger than 18 are not allowed to use the shared e-bikes, enforcing those limitations can be difficult. Police did not provide data on teen use of Lime bikes or crimes involving them but in recent weeks have described suspects in several recent robberies as fleeing on Lime bikes. | The Washington Post ($)

⚓️ Marine

China’s efforts to blunt American maritime power in the Pacific, a region the United States has long considered its domain, received a major boost this month with the official launch of its third — and most advanced by far — aircraft carrier, the Fujian. The 80,000-ton supercarrier, which can accommodate about 60 aircraft and will be accompanied by as many as 10 warships, will dramatically narrow the naval capability gap between the U.S. and China, according to American, Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese analysts. It will also enable Beijing to further intimidate rivals in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. | The Washington Post ($)

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Aviation & Space

On its second try, Blue Origin nailed the landing of its New Glenn rocket booster on Thursday. A booster landing is not a novel feat. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space company, accomplished it for the first time a decade ago with its Falcon 9 rocket, and it now performs it routinely, most recently on Monday night. But no other company had pulled that off for an orbital-class rocket, until Blue Origin. With two successful launches in a row, New Glenn could win a sizable slice of the business of sending stuff to space. | The New York Times ($)

The U.S. is falling behind China in one of the defining technologies of the modern battlefield. Drones have proven indispensable in conflicts like Ukraine, where troops rely on them to destroy tanks, lay mines, evacuate wounded fighters, and deliver food and medication. Advances in artificial intelligence increasingly allow unmanned systems to operate with minimal human direction, such as tracking and attacking targets on their own. For years, the U.S. led in quality while China won on quantity. But across the spectrum, from stealth drones capable of flying at the edge of space to cheap foldable quadcopters that fit in a soldier’s backpack, Chinese technology has either drawn even with the U.S. or nudged ahead. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

🚘 Car of the Week

Our Automotive Ventures "Car of the Week": a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta by Scaglietti. | RM Sotheby's

Have a great week,Steve Greenfield

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👀 In the News

📢 Thanks to Auto Remarketing for covering Impel's investment into Automotive Ventures' new Mobility Fund II. | Auto Remarketing ($)📢 On this week's "Future of Automotive" segment on CBT News, we take a look at the EV slowdown and why Toyota, a company once criticized for dragging its feet on fully electric vehicles, now appears to be the smartest person in the room. | CBT News ($)

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