Weekly Intel Report: Mobility News

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | OCT 9 2023 | VIEW ONLINE ➡️

Automotive Ventures is proud to announce our investment in Kinetic, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service company that delivers digital maintenance and servicing for EVs and AVs through its network of service centers. (Link)

What We're Reading:

The battle against electric cars is turning into a campaign issue for conservative politicians on both sides of the Atlantic, a development that threatens to neuter the climate benefits of moving away from gasoline. (Link)Overall, mass-market EVs cost $16,000 more than their gas-market counterparts. (Link)More than a quarter-century ago, Toyota introduced the Prius, a car with a new technology—a small gasoline engine paired with a relatively large battery—that would become a darling of the green movement. But in recent years those hybrids fell out of favor as automakers raced to develop fully electric vehicles, which captured generous government incentives and sparked the imaginations of forward-thinking drivers. Now hybrids are making a comeback as would-be electric vehicle buyers are increasingly put off by stiff sticker prices and spotty charging infrastructure. US sales of hybrids have more than doubled since 2020 and are heading toward a 35% increase this year. (💲Link)Chinese manufacturer BYD has quietly accelerated in the last 6 months, finishing Q3 just 3,000 deliveries short of becoming the world’s leading seller of all-electric vehicles. Tesla's $825 billion market cap is still 9x that of BYD, equivalent to the next 10 largest automakers combined. (Link)The 3-week-old UAW strike against the Detroit 3 so far has not significantly dented the automakers' U.S. inventory levels, though GM dealerships are the most at risk of running low. (💲Link)Dealers will be reimbursed for EV credit transfers within 3 days. Starting in 2024, eligible EV buyers will be able to transfer federal tax credits to dealers and use those funds as a down payment. (💲Link)After a brief respite from soaring auto debt, Americans are once again falling deeply underwater on their car loans. (💲Link)Rivian vehicles sell for over $80,000 on average. Yet they’re so expensive to build that in the second quarter the company lost $33,000 on every one it sold. That’s roughly the starting price of a base-model Ford F-150. (💲Link)Hyundai and Kia are adopting Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports for their electric vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. (Link)Hyundai and Kia have finally announced their plans to adopt Tesla’s NACS ports for their electric vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. Ford, GM, Mercedes, Honda and Rivian have recently announced the same. The question on the auto industry’s mind is when will Volkswagen ante up? (Link)Tesla is cutting prices again after third-quarter sales fell compared with the preceding quarter. Elon Musk has said repeatedly this year that he is willing to sacrifice profits for volume and that Tesla intends to use its pricing power to balance supply and demand. (💲Link)FedEx unveiled a two-armed robot called DexR that’s designed to automate one of the trickiest tasks facing the company’s human employees—loading a truck with packages. (Link)In China, the price of lithium carbonate fell to 166,500 yuan ($22,814) a tonne last Wednesday, nearly half the price it was at its peak in early June. Less than a year ago, the metal reached a record of 598,000 yuan a tonne in China. (Link)

ARK Investment Management believes that autonomous vehicles could be one of the most productive innovations of all time, impacting global gross domestic product (GDP) by approximately 20% over the next decade, potentially reducing accidents, and cutting transportation costs. (Link)OMERS Ventures provides their investment thesis for AutoTech. (Link)Until four years ago, motorists largely had the Paris thoroughfare to themselves. Now, its bike-lane jams speak to a cycling revolution that is reshaping the capital of France. (Link)The aviation sector's sustainability trajectory is on the brink of disaster. Rather than progressing towards net-zero, the situation is deteriorating, and aviation is quickly moving towards becoming one of the top environmental offenders across the industry landscape. (Link)Lufthansa indicated that to fully transition to sustainable fuels (SAF), nearly half of Germany's electricity would be required for the production process. This statement came as a significant concern to those in the industry, specifically those who had hoped that SAF could help significantly reduce aviation's carbon footprint in the long term. (Link)Carta has published their "first cut" of Q3 fundraising data, and company valuations are getting stronger. (Link)

Have a great week,Steve Greenfield

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Notable & New

🗞️ Congratulations to our very own Justin Charbonneau for being recognized as one of Auto Remarketing's 40 Under 40 recipients! (Link)📢 Thanks to Constellation Research for the great coverage of Automotive Ventures portfolio company Kinetic. (Link)📢 Thanks to Axios for the coverage of Kinetic. (Link)

🎥 On this week's Future of Automotive segment on CBT News Steve provides a preview of his new book, "The Future of Mobility," which will be out at the end of the year. (💲Link)📢 Great article on vehicle privacy by Automotive Ventures portfolio company Privacy4Cars' CEO Andrea Amico. (Link)Check out this year's NAVIcon Cup finalists. (Link)🎥 Very exciting to see Automotive Ventures portfolio company BusRight in action. (Link)📢 Automotive Ventures portfolio company BusRight is hiring. (Link)🎤 Our panel had a lot of fun onstage at ASOTU-CON. (Link)🗞️ Steve had a great conversation with Mark Hollmer from Automotive News regarding the current state of venture capital for automotive technology startups. (💲Link)