We strongly believe that a VC’s most important customers are the entrepreneurs they’ve invested in. | LINK

🚗 Automotive

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently pitted a 1996 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer against a 2026 Blazer to show how much its testing program has helped improve car safety over the past 30 years. The cars were crashed head-to-head under the same parameters as the IIHS’s moderate overlap front test, which normally involves a single car being run into a stationary barrier at 40 mph. The front end of the new Blazer absorbed most of the impact, keeping the cabin intact, which would have allowed a real-life driver to walk away with only minor “bumps and bruises,” according to an IIHS press release. In contrast, the 1996 S-10 Blazer’s was compressed, pushing the dashboard and steering column into the crash-test dummy’s lap. Instead of softening the blow, the airbag hit the dummy in the chin, pushing its head back with such force that it detached. | The Drive

European cities are facing an unprecedented threat to urban space because the trend towards large SUVs risks eliminating vast numbers of parking spaces. According to a new report published today by T&E and Clean Cities, all cities are set to lose between 8.5% and 14% of their on-street parking spaces by 2040 if the size of new cars continues to increase unchecked. The study analyses the relentless growth of newly sold cars across all key dimensions and compares it against a “right-sizing” scenario where policies help return new car sizes to 2015 levels. Without intervention, longer and wider cars will drastically reduce the number of vehicles that can be parked end to end along streets. | Clean Technica

Ten years ago, a record 17.6 million cars, trucks and SUVs were sold in the U.S. Some forecasts say the country might not come close to that number again. Analysts at consulting firm Bain & Company said several signs indicate the market is about to shrink even more. Falling birth rates, behavioral changes, high car prices and a growing array of alternatives could drive sales down by more than 2 million units by 2040, according to their analysis. These indications point to a future where automakers fiercely compete for a shrinking number of customers, said Mark Gottfredson, a partner at Bain & Company. | CNBC

Ford took an unusually human approach to fixing its stubborn quality problems: It brought back what it calls “gray beard” engineers to help train younger staff and to reprogram the artificial intelligence tools that weren’t getting the job done. Over the last three years, Ford says it has hired 350 veteran engineers, many of them former employees and others from suppliers, to help address seemingly intractable quality woes that have cost the automaker billions. The result: Ford is the top mainstream brand in the latest JD Power Initial Quality Survey, released Thursday. “Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it’s only as good as the information you use to train it,” Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told reporters on a call Wednesday. “Over prior years, we didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles.” | Bloomberg ($)

The U.S. government’s decision to ban Polestar from selling cars in America under a rule prohibiting Chinese technology has thrown the automaker’s nascent 32-dealership network into chaos. Now dealers, owners, and Polestar’s corporate teams are struggling to figure out how vehicle service, selling the remaining 2026 stock, and even disposing of real estate will work as the company is abruptly forced to wind down operations, according to multiple dealer sources who spoke with The Drive. This is an unprecedented situation. Brands come and go over the years, but even when automakers are shuttered for financial reasons, the writing is on the wall. This time, dealers say they weren’t given any heads-up that a decision was even imminent when Geely-owned Polestar shared the news last Thursday that the government had revoked its certification to operate in America. | The Drive

Last week, fledgling electric-car maker Polestar was forced to exit the U.S. market due to a change in federal regulations surrounding connected car services, which affects vehicles manufactured in China and Russia. The U.S. government's decision to ban the Chinese-owned company from selling new cars on our shores has kickstarted a fire sale of existing Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 inventory at dealers across the country. Right now, you can qualify for up to $25,000 off a new Polestar 3 or Polestar 4. That would bring the price of a base, rear-wheel-drive Polestar 4 from $57,800 to a very attractive $32,800. For comparison, that's $195 less than a 2027 Chevy Bolt RS, one of the most affordable EVs on the market today. | Car and Driver ($)

Americans are finding that one of the few ways to save money in the car market is by refinancing their auto loans. Drivers who refinanced in the first quarter of 2026 saw a 2.24 percentage point interest rate decrease on average from their original loan, compared with a 0.47 point decrease two years earlier, according to the credit bureau Experian. The number of car owners refinancing has nearly doubled over that time to about 111,000 in the first quarter of this year. Most other costs associated with owning a car have gone in the other direction. Car prices have risen sharply since the industry faced a series of pandemic-era supply-chain issues. Car maintenance and insurance costs have risen faster than inflation in recent years, and gas prices have surged in recent months. But lenders have been lowering rates on refinances since the Federal Reserve Board began cutting interest rates in 2024. Buyers with high payments found that refinancing drove their costs down by an average of $81 a month in the first quarter. “Being able to refi and save almost $100, that’s pretty considerable,” said Melinda Zabritski, head of automotive financial insights at Experian. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

The U.S. decided against renewing its trade deal with Canada and Mexico, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said, choosing instead to conduct annual reviews of the pact in a move that risks adding uncertainty for companies producing goods across North America. The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement will remain in force for another decade provided no country decides to exit. Annual reviews instead of a longer-term renewal open the door to years of contentious negotiations over the rules governing continent-wide supply chains and low tariff levels vital for automakers, farmers and energy companies. | Bloomberg ($)

Researchers at Tohoku University’s Institute of Development recently published a study citing that stick-shift driving actually stimulates the prefrontal cortex in a way that using an automatic transmission does not. This pivotal research was conducted by Professor Ryuta Kawashima, who focuses on neuroimaging and previously worked on Nintendo’s Brain Age puzzle games. Kawashima said that the physical sequence of driving a manual transmission is particularly stimulating for the region of the brain that handles memory, attention, and decision-making. The research showed that operating a manual transmission every day is particularly beneficial—a daily, low-grade brain workout that aging brains would otherwise miss out on, helping improve cognitive function over time. The same cannot be said for operating an automatic, according to the study. | Road & Track ($)

⚡️EVs

Sales of hybrid vehicles have increased more than 80 percent from 2023 to 2026, to a pace of more than 2 million vehicles a year, according to Cox Automotive. Hybrids — which use a mix of electric and gas power — made up a record high of 14.1 percent of new vehicle sales, nearly three times as much as EVs, in the first quarter this year. The bulk of new cars and trucks sold still run on gas alone. But hybrids have more than doubled their market share over the past three years — taking gains from the shrinking share going to EVs and gas vehicles. | The Washington Post ($)

EV owners have found that the batteries that power these cars continue to perform well even after several hundred thousand miles. This has come as a welcome surprise to EV enthusiasts. After five years on the road, the average EV will still be able to drive up to 95% of its original range, according to Recurrent, a data-science company that provides a battery-monitoring tool for EVs—better than many in the auto industry expected. Consumers in the mass market have yet to develop trust in EV batteries, according to Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at car-shopping resource Edmunds. “There still is a lot of trepidation amongst buyers,” she said. Potential new car buyers’ fear of having to pay for a battery replacement is the number one reason they choose to steer clear of EVs, according to a 2025 survey from industry research firm AutoPacific. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

Honda began production of batteries destined for energy storage systems, according to a report from Nikkei Asia. The milestone makes Honda the latest car company to dive into the red-hot energy market. The automaker’s shift toward energy storage comes three months after Honda canceled its EV programs in the U.S. Batteries for the EVs were slated to be made at a factory in Ohio, which Honda operates under a joint venture with LG Energy Solution. Now, those cells are headed to data centers instead of driveways. | TechCrunch ($)

🇨🇳 China

The mid-2010s were a golden age for Western carmakers in China, the world’s biggest auto market. Brands such as Buick and Volkswagen thrived as a newly empowered class of buyers couldn’t get into foreign cars fast enough. But now that footprint is slipping away. The biggest Western automaker in China, Volkswagen, saw the market share for its brands fall to 9.7% in 2025 from 14.7% in 2015, according to data from industry consulting firm AlixPartners. The German carmaker is now eyeing tens of thousands of job cuts globally, in part because of lost ground in China. Volkswagen went from $5 billion in profit from its Chinese operations to a projected $228 million to $684 million this year. Today, Western car companies face intense competition from the local companies they once taught how to make cars. American brands’ total market share fell to 5% last year from 12% in 2014, according to AlixPartners. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

Foreign automakers invested heavily in China, building factories and forging partnerships to feed the country’s passion for EVs, hoping the world’s appetite would grow to match. But the strategy flopped; customers in the U.S. continue to resist EVs, and those in China are buying cheaper, faster and more technologically advanced models from domestic brands. “China is moving to center stage, globally,” says Michael Dunne, CEO of Dunne Insights LLC, an automotive adviser. “It has already mastered and dominates the battery sector, and it’s looking at global brands with fresh eyes and has realized they’re not all that.” | Bloomberg ($)

In exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars, XPENG has provided Volkswagen a crash course in the new world of tech-led carmaking. That included lessons in how to design and release a new model in just 18 months, three times as fast as VW ordinarily does, in addition to the provision of a ready-made chassis and an AI chip that could operate an EV. VW paid a high price for a master’s degree in Chinese carmaking, which industry veterans regard as the most sophisticated in the world. Lan Shanbin, a China-based senior manager of strategy and planning for Volkswagen, sees the cost as the price of admission to this Chinese carmaking school. “If you want to see the China game, you buy the ticket and you watch the show, and then you learn,” he said. VW’s dealings with XPeng reflect the global car industry’s heightened attempts to adjust to one of the most turbulent eras in its more than century-long history. It’s likely to be a rocky adjustment. Many analysts do not expect all the major Western car companies to survive the global shift to electrified vehicles, which has so far turned China into the world’s biggest car exporter. | The Information ($)

Global carmakers in China, from General Motors and Volkswagen to Hyundai and Nissan, once prized the country’s massive domestic market. Now, they are shipping cars out of China as fast as they can. Many international players now embrace a new mantra: Export or suffer. They are succumbing to pressure as Chinese demand slumps, consumer preference shifts to domestic brands, and the market pivots to software-packed electric vehicles — an area in which overseas hopefuls struggle to compete. Ford Motor Company and Hyundai have turned China into an export base for internal combustion vehicles. GM and Nissan are leveraging China-developed electrified exports and China factories for overseas markets. In June, Volkswagen, on the brink of the biggest restructuring in its history, with up to 100,000 layoffs worldwide, became the latest to join the tide. Increasingly, players who don’t export do so at their own risk. | Automotive News ($)

Ferrari unveiled the controversial Luce EV sedan in Rome in late May. Now, it’s been officially launched in China with a retail price of 3,988,000 yuan, or 586,600 USD. The Chinese market is receiving 88 Luce allocations, which have allegedly all been sold out. | CarNewsChina

🤖 Autonomy & Robotics

Humanoid robots' recent viral mishaps—a humanoid dancing uncontrollably at a restaurant, another kicking a small child during a performance in China—underscore a big challenge for robot makers aiming to put them to work in factories and warehouses: How can they ensure a humanoid doesn’t hurt a human? Makers of humanoids, which have humanlike attributes to perform jobs a person might do, say they’re unaware of anyone who has been seriously hurt or killed by one of the robots. But the machines are getting bigger and heavier, approaching 200 pounds in some cases. At that size, people in the industry worry about the damage that could ensue if a bipedal robot loses power. De-risking humanoid workers may be key to the sector’s aggressive growth goals. Right now, humanoid makers are raising big money. Agility Robotics, an Oregon-based company whose robots are already laboring within a Plexiglas cage at an auto-parts factory, recently announced plans to go public at a valuation of $2.5 billion. While the machines are just starting to enter workplaces such as factories and warehouses, some companies plan to eventually deploy them in people’s homes. Morgan Stanley researchers project that a billion humanoids will be in place around the world by 2050, with the total market worth $7.5 trillion. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

🤖 AI

Sam Altman from OpenAI recommends a global framework for advanced AI models: safety testing and standards, and a way for people around the world to access the benefits that would come from this technology. He proposes a U.S.-led international forum that establishes accepted standards, provides expert and impartial analysis of capabilities and risks, and makes the technology available to nations and companies that participate and follow the rules. This forum might include government representatives, independent technical experts and others. It could also serve as a governance mechanism over the AI labs, and guard against the commercial pressures that can lead to unsafe racing. | Financial Times ($)

🛴 Micromobility

These days it can be hard to know what a liberal really believes. Thankfully a simple test throws light on their soul. It is similar to the one Hermann Rorschach designed in the 1920s. Though instead of putting the subject in front of an ambiguous inkblot and waiting for them to say something profound about their mother, wheel in a white and green Lime Gen4 electric bike, found stacked by the dozen on city streets around the world, let their eyes settle on it and gently ask: “What do you see?” “That is the paragon of liberal capitalism!” exclaims the first subject. One liberal’s casual dismount is another’s brazen incivility. “That is the devil!” the second subject shouts. The two positions are irreconcilable. | The Economist ($)

✈️ Aviation & Space

For the first time in over half a century, the United States government is clearing the way for a new generation of ultrafast aircraft to take to the skies. A ban on continental supersonic flight has been in place since the 1970s, to ensure nobody endures the noisy sonic booms left in their wake. Aeronautic engineering has come a long way since then, however, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) knows it. According to a new FAA rule proposal, revised noise-based certification standards for supersonic aircraft will ensure any upcoming planes’ sonic boom overpressure doesn’t exceed 0.11 pounds per square foot (psf). Basically, supersonic civilian travel would sound more like a car door slamming than an explosive gunblast to anyone at ground level. “We can ultimately repeal the ban from the 1970s on supersonic flight over U.S. territory while minimizing noise impacts to residents in communities along the route and near airports,” FAA administrator Bryan Bedford said in an accompanying statement. | Popular Science

🚘 Car of the Week

Our Automotive Ventures “Car of the Week”: a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS Lightweight. | Bring a Trailer

📰 In The News

Is Slate Auto's approach of a "de-contented" plastic EV pickup (with crank windows and no radio) the most effective way to deliver affordability to the U.S. consumer and ward off the threat of the Chinese OEMs? | More Than Cars

Thanks to Mark Hollmer from Automotive News for including Steve in this conversation on how dealerships are using AI in their operations. | Automotive News ($)

Automotive Ventures portfolio company Auriga Space is in the news! | Tectonic

👀 Automotive Ventures Company to Watch

Treehouse offers EV charger installation, modernized. Fast online quotes, expert electricians who specialize in EVs, and a stress-free process from quote to plug-in. | Treehouse