š Car Talk - Issue #41 (Cruise, Cazoo, Mercedes)
Hi friends
It has been a busy couple of weeks: a busy quarter end followed by some personal travel. This is why your inbox didnāt receive CarTalk per the usual schedule.
On the upside, as of this writing, Iām fully vaccinated! Looking forward to meeting mobility innovators / climate change enthusiasts / CarTalk readers in person throughout this year!
Buckle up for a long overdue issue!
Mobility In The US
On the upside: The state of Washington is legislating a ban on ICE cars starting as early as 2030, 5 years ahead of California which is generally seen as the thought-leader for these sorts of initiatives! Go Washington! Link
On the flip side: The state of Oklahoma is making it harder to operate electric vehicles by levying a charge on the energy used to charge EVs.
āOne of the main sources of funding for Oklahomaās roads and bridges comes from fuel taxes, but as electric vehicles have become more popular, itās clear we must find a fair way to ensure those EV drivers are helping support our transportation infrastructure as well,ā Taylor said. āThatās what the DRIVE Act will do.ā
C'mon man, we talked about ways to refill the Highway Trust Fund in last issue of CarTalk. Link
..at the federal level, however: The EPA is rethinking gas mileages for new ICE vehicles and wants to set the mpg for new gas vehicles to a whopping 60-70 mpg, effectively forcing OEMs to abandon combustion engine development and focus on EVs instead. Drastic, but I love it. Way to go! Link
Mercedes Benz EQS launch: Weāre in that in-between time of 2021 when a lot of car companies havenāt yet come out with real products but announcements are flying thick and fast. Sticking to that āsilly seasonā script is Mercedes, launching the car they think will win the luxury EV segment. The EQS is the electric counterpart to the S-Class. The exterior looks sporty. The interior, however, takes the cake. A 56-inch screen door-to-door āHyperscreenā that will induce apoplexy, or wonderment, or both. 478 miles of range. 350 sensors. 108 kWh. Price? They didnāt say, though I expect it to be $150-175k. Link
Cruise in the news (again): It wasnāt that long ago when Cruise was announcing that it had acquired its competitor Voyage. Then we heard about Cruise expanding their self-driving operations in Dubai as soon as 2023. Not only that, they have exclusivity to operate in Dubai till 2029.
Now, we hear about an extended fundraising round joined by Walmart (led by Microsoft) where they raised $2.75 Billion, valuing them at $30 Billion. Walmart, however, isnāt exclusive - they have a deal with Waymo, as well as Gatik (who we love at CarTalk). Point remains though, Cruise finds a way to be in the new every week. At least it is for the right reasons! Link
Chipotle invests in Nuro: That was not a development that I wouldāve anticipated but the timelines we live in are strange indeed.
Nuro Co-founder and President Dave Ferguson commented, āNuro and Chipotle share the same commitment to improving everyday life through innovative products, whether it is through responsibly sourced food or autonomous delivery vehicles.
Responsibly sourced food is innovative? Okay.. Good for my friends in Nuro though! Canāt wait for a bot to come drop off my burrito bowl in the south Bay Area, given that Nuro will soon deliver Dominos pizza in Houston. Link
Mobility Around The World
Grab those $40 Billion: Grab, the super-app from South East Asia (ride-hailing, food delivery, male-pattern baldness cure), is going public via the SPAC route at a $40B valuation. Unless Iām mistaken, this has to be the biggest SPAC IPO any company has IPOād at. Link
My IPO is bigger than yours: Not to be outdone, Vietnamās VinFast is eyeing a $50B IPO!
The carmaker plans a Vietnam roll-out of electric cars later this year and said last month it has received 3,692 local orders. The startup aims to deliver its first electric vehicles to the U.S., Canada and Europe next year and is looking to open a factory in the U.S.
Cazoo is going public!: Cazoo is the Carvana of Europe, slinging used cars online all day long. Their valuation over the years:
2018 - $117M
2019 - $265M
2020 - $$2.6B
2021 - $7B
Why do I care? Most importantly for me is their subscription business, something Iāve written extensively about. Cazooās investor deck says that they already have >6,000 subscribers in the car-as-a-service program. They are a household name in the UK by now, even sponsoring two football teams - Everton and Villa! Link
Cazoo thinks they'll exceed Carvana.
Nation of e-bikes: Thatās China alright. 300 million e-bikes and counting.
āWhat weāre selling isnāt just a transportation tool,ā says Ye, who turned to making bikes after a career in finance. āItās a platform allowing people to have better lives.ā
Everything has to be a platform these days, doesnāt it? Link
What became of the battery spat, Sachin?: Two months ago, I wrote about a battery patent spat between to Korean battery suppliers - LG Chem and SK Innovations - that was threatening the battery supply chain of US automakers. Well, happy to report that the spat has been resolved.
SK agreed to pay $1.8 billion in cash and royalties to LG in the settlement, and both South Korea-based companies agreed not to sue each other for the next 10 years.
The settlement means SK can finish building an EV lithium-ion battery plant in Commerce, Ga., which will provide batteries to Ford and Volkswagen, two contracts it won before the ITC ruling.
LG Chem too wasted no time and announced a second battery factory with General Motors in neighboring Tennessee! Glad to have this resolved so we can do real work! Link
85% of car sold in Norway were electric-ish: To be fair, 55% were battery/fully electric while 30% were plug-in hybrids. Still, such an impressive metric! At this point, gas engines should just pack up and leave Norway. Link
Indiaās first battery plant: Merely the anode for now. Still, good news, if the owners can pull it off!
Handa plans to invest 60 billion rupees ($807 million) to produce 100,000 tons of synthetic graphite anode by 2030, or about 10% of estimated global demand.
Good Reads
A primer on Lithium Ion batteries: Just go ahead and subscribe to this newsletter. It is climate/energy centered but has significant overlap with new mobility. Link
An amazing deep dive into QuantumScape and their solid-state battery: Link
China'a $4,3000 EV looks very cute: Iād totally get one for grocery runs. Link
Rivianās warranty is worth a shout-out: 8 years or 175k miles on the powertrain (high voltage battery, motors, electronics). Good move by an upstart automotive manufacturer to foster customer trust and credibility! Link
While on Rivian, they are nailing insurance too: You can not only bundle your home and other RV insurance with Rivian, but get this:
For more savings, we offer an additional program that rewards you for using Active Driving Assistance, our Driver+ feature that automatically steers and adjusts your speed on the highway. When you opt in to this program, the more often you engage Active Driving Assistance, the lower your insurance rates when you renew.
Wow! If youāre a less risky driver, you donāt have the bear the burden of the aftermath of riskier driversā habits. Very cool, Rivian. Link
On charging, however, Rivian is being less cool: Rivian wanted the mayor of Salida, Colorado to agree to exclusive EV chargers for their brand. He would have none of it! Link
Related - The US is *this* close to screwing up charging forever: A tale of competing charging standards and interoperatability amongst electric vehicle manufactures. A great read. Link
Thatās all from me folks! Have a great week!!
By Sachin Seth
This weekly newsletter on new mobility is curated by me as a passion project. Yes, the name is an homage to the NPR show of the same name! If you like it, please forward it to whoever is interested in this space. Cheers!
I have worked for many years on automotive products and currently work @ Tesla. All opinions are my own.
If you don't want these updates anymore, please unsubscribe here.
If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here.
Powered by Revue