Weekly Intel Report: Automotive & Mobility News

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | SEP 5 2023 | VIEW ONLINE ➡️

In the monthly Intel Report I catch up with Jim Roche from WarrCloud

What I'm Reading:

A great article by Michael Dunne on why the U.S. is stuck at 7% EV penetration. (Link)The average weight of EVs is 20% to 30% higher than internal combustion engine vehicles, mostly because of large, heavy battery packs. An extra 1,000 pounds increases the chance of crash fatalities by 47%. (💲Link)With EVs significantly outweighing gasoline cars, inevitable crashes threaten more severe injuries and fatalities for other road users. Heavier vehicles make crashes more severe. (💲Link)There was a surge in EV leasing this summer, accounting for 26% of all EV transactions in July — up dramatically from 7% in December. But counterintuitively, the brands experiencing an explosion in leasing are the ones ineligible for the U.S. government's Clean Vehicle Credit incentive. (💲Link)Tesla is winning the early stages of the EV charging race. Tesla is scooping up millions of dollars in federal grant awards for building roadside chargers with bids that are about half the cost of what its rivals have offered. (💲Link)Mercedes-Benz will launch its premium high-speed EV charging hubs this fall, open to all drivers of EVs regardless of the brand. The long-term plan is to build 2,000 charging hubs with over 10,000 charging points by the end of the decade. (Link)Ford, GM, Mercedes and other automakers plan to abandon the plugs their electric cars use today for those designed by Tesla. But they won’t begin selling cars with the Tesla plugs until 2025. Until then, cars like the Ford Mustang Mach-E or Chevrolet Bolt will come with technology that may eventually become obsolete, the equivalent of Betamax videocassette recorders. (💲Link)EV charging network companies know that this is crunch time. Two of the largest publicly held charging networks in the U.S., ChargePoint and Blink Charging, have less than a year of cash left. (💲Link)China’s rapid transformation into an electric car superpower that threatens Europe’s established carmakers even on their home turf is set to be a dominant theme at this year’s IAA MOBILITY show in Bavaria’s capital Munich. The presence of Chinese companies is set to double at this year’s show, reflecting a tectonic shift in the global automobile industry. (Link)China is building battery plants far beyond levels needed to meet domestic demand for electric cars and grid energy storage, underlining vast state subsidies and unchecked bank lending. Battery manufacturers are following a pattern exhibited in other industries such as steel, aluminum, and solar panels, where Chinese companies benefit from subsidies to take a huge share of the global market and squeeze out competition internationally. (💲Link)There’s growing interest in battery recycling as the global electric vehicle industry expands, and as carmakers and Western governments aim to build supply chains that bypass China. (💲Link)Mercedes-Benz's newest electric vehicle architecture will target 30% to 35% more driving range for each kilowatt-hour of energy stored in the battery than the brand's current EVs. (💲Link)Tesla is now charging $74,990 for the base Model S and $79,990 for the Model X. The two vehicles began the year with starting prices of $104,990 and $120,990, respectively. Dropping the base Model X below $80,000 makes the SUV eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit revived by the Inflation Reduction Act. (💲Link)It is hard to find a good deal on a German car these days. Most German car stocks, on the other hand, are selling for cents on the dollar. There are solid reasons for the discrepancy: weakening consumer sentiment, trouble in China, and the ever-mounting cost of catching up with Tesla in electric vehicles. Yet people will always want premium brands, not least in China. (💲Link)SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration company, had for months been providing Internet access across Ukraine, allowing the country’s forces to plan attacks and to defend themselves. But, in recent days, the forces had found their connectivity severed as they entered territory contested by Russia. More alarmingly, SpaceX had recently given the Pentagon an ultimatum: if it didn’t assume the cost of providing service in Ukraine, which the company calculated at some four hundred million dollars annually, it would cut off access. (Link)U.S. air travel is the safest in the world. But the safety record of our car-dependent ground transportation system is one of the worst among wealthy nations. Cars killed 43,000 Americans in 2021, a number that has increased by nearly a third in the last decade while our peer countries have decreased their car fatalities. (Link)The U.S. Air Force’s pilotless XQ-58A Valkyrie experimental aircraft is run by artificial intelligence, putting it at the forefront of efforts by the U.S. military to harness the capacities of an emerging technology whose vast potential benefits are tempered by deep concerns about how much autonomy to grant to a lethal weapon. (💲Link)The Pentagon will buy thousands of unmanned drones and other autonomous devices over the next two years, admitting it had been far too slow to embrace new technology that is “small, smart, cheap” and that could bolster the U.S. military as it prepares for possible future conflict with China. (💲Link)Fusion power has more hope (and investment) than ever, thanks to advances in semiconductors, magnets, and artificial intelligence. Over the last few years, startups in the sector have raised over $6 billion. (Link)InMotion's new V13 Challenger is the fastest, most powerful one-wheeler in the world, capable of putting out a peak of 10,000 watts and powering up to speeds of 87 mph (140 km/h). (Link)Michael Mann's new movie "Ferrari" will be released at Christmas. (Link)

Have a great week,Steve Greenfield

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Notable & New

🎥 On this week's Future of Automotive segment on CBT News, I caught up with Eric Owski from Treehouse to discuss how the company is helping automotive dealerships get EV chargers installed in customers' homes. (💲Link)🗞️ Thanks to John Huetter and Automotive News for outlining how auto dealers can use Automotive Ventures portfolio company Treehouse to remove friction in getting EV chargers installed for their customers. (💲Link)🎤 I present at the Piper Sandler Auto Service Summit this week in Denver. Two of our portfolio companies will also be attending: RoboTire and Kinetic Automation. (Link)📢 Thanks to Martin Romjue at Auto Rental News for the summary of my presentation on EVs from last week's International Automotive Remarketers Alliance Roundtable in Chicago. (Link)🎥 Automotive Ventures' portfolio company BusRight produced this video to celebrate what school bus drivers mean beyond their roles driving buses and what the student transportation system means to our country’s future. (Link)🎤 I'm excited to participate in the upcoming Ted Ings' Fixed Ops Roundtable. (Link)📢 Automotive Ventures is proud of portfolio company WarrCloud as one of the finalists for Automotive News' PACEpilot Awards! (Link)

Companies to Watch

🌟 SmartUQ is a Machine Learning and AI tool optimized for engineering applications from ideation and design to manufacturing and sustainment. (Link)

🌟 Skycharge is focused on providing automatic industrial drone charging with no human interaction. (Link)

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