Intel Report | Oct 28 | The Weekly Automotive & Mobility News That Matters

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | OCT 28?2024?| VIEW ONLINE ??

Automotive Ventures portfolio company WarrCloud raised a $20m Series B round, led by Centana Growth Partners. | LINK

What We're Reading:

??? Automotive

Cars used to come in a variety of different colors. So how did they all end up in black and white? | Business Insider?($)

Among the many audacious gambles that mark Elon Musk’s career, few have been bolder than the bet he is now placing on Donald Trump.?From satellites to electric vehicles, brain chips to AI-powered robots, Musk owns a series of businesses that depend heavily on contracts and rules set by the federal government.?Yet in an election that most political analysts believe to be a coin toss, the world’s richest man has tied his reputation and fortune to Trump’s latest quest for the White House.?Speaking this month to Tucker Carlson, the firebrand former Fox TV host, Musk was only half-joking when he mused about Trump: “If he loses, I’m fu@$ed.”?As the election enters its final stage, Musk’s embrace of the Trump campaign is becoming ever tighter. | Financial Times?($)

Scout Motors Inc. said it will sell the Terra pickup and Traveler SUV direct to consumers and bypass the Volkswagen dealer body. Scout has likely opened the door to legal action by national and state dealer associations that have voiced frustration by a lack of communication over the brand’s retail plans. National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) CEO Mike Stanton said VW Group’s decision to sell Scout vehicles independently and compete with its U.S. dealers is disappointing, misguided and “will be challenged.” | Automotive News ($)

The latest The Presidio Group / NCM Associates Average Dealership Performance Benchmark reports that the average automotive dealership profit per vehicle sold continues to drift down close to pre-COVID levels. | The Presidio Group

Five remaining Jaguar models delivered a combined 8,284 U.S. sales in 2023— a near 80% drop from 2017's 39,594 — representing less than 0.05% market share. | Car and Driver ?

???Electric Vehicles (EVs)

Tesla’s Cybertruck was the third best-selling electric vehicle in the United States in the third quarter, beating out every other EV not made by Tesla. The only two vehicles that sold better were the Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV. The polarizing truck notched this achievement despite selling at its most expensive trim model in the early going. It’s also a sign of just how much trouble major automakers like Ford and General Motors have run into in finding customers for their own EVs. | TechCrunch

Researchers have found a trove of lithium, a critical raw material for electric vehicle batteries, in an underground brine reservoir in Arkansas. The researchers determined that there might be five million to 19 million tons of lithium — more than enough to meet all of the world’s demand for the metal — in a geological area known as the Smackover Formation. Several companies, including ExxonMobil, are developing projects in Arkansas to produce lithium, which is dissolved in underground brine. | The New York Times ($)

The Biden administration approved a massive lithium and boron mine in southern Nevada, overriding some environmentalists’ protests that it could drive an endangered wildflower to extinction. Lithium, much of which is mined outside of the United States, serves as a crucial component in electric vehicle batteries and other green technologies. Rhyolite Ridge is expected to produce enough lithium for roughly 370,000 vehicles annually for more than two decades. | The Washington Post ($)

Toyota has been one of the slowest automakers to transition to all-electric vehicles. Of the nearly 6.6 million vehicles Toyota sold through the first eight months of 2024, only 97,058 were all-electric, or less than 1.5%. Despite this, Toyota is promising that new tech, such as advanced new batteries and next-gen EV models, will accelerate the transition. | Electrek

South Korea's HYUNDAI GLOVIS will introduce a special fire suppression tool, the EV (Electric Vehicle) - Drill Lance, for use on its car carriers. The EV Drill Lance is designed to extinguish electric vehicle fires by drilling through the underside to reach the battery pack and spraying water directly onto it. The system operates by using water from a fire hydrant, which is fed through a hose to power a turbine that drives the drill. The drill can penetrate the vehicle's underbody and battery pack within two minutes. Once water is sprayed into the battery pack, the fire can be extinguished within 30 minutes. | The Korean Economic Daily ?

????? China

The United States is squandering its best opportunity to compete in the global battery race. China jumped to a commanding lead in the last decade, controlling the supply chain for lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from cell phones, to military drones, to electric vehicles (EVs). By passing ambitious legislation under U.S. President Joe Biden, Washington has begun investing heavily in its domestic battery industry. But even significant funding won’t get the job done if it isn’t directed at the right target: securing U.S. supremacy in next-generation technology, solid-state batteries. U.S. companies and research institutions are on the cusp of commercializing next-generation batteries that far surpass the performance of today’s lithium-ion batteries in safety, longevity, and energy density. And with scaled-up production, these batteries would eliminate dependence on Chinese-produced graphite. |?Foreign?Policy

Japan is wondering how Chinese EV makers, like 比亚迪 , build electric cars so cheaply.?BYD’s Atto 3 starts at under $20,000 (140,000 yuan) in China. Its cheapest EV, the Seagull, starts at under $10,000 (69,800 yuan) in its home market. BYD is able to offer vehicles at such a low cost because it makes most of its components in-house. | Electrek

Chinese automakers are aiming to more than double their full-process manufacturing capacity outside of China, all in hopes of beating out import tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles and meeting demand for EVs. Bloomberg reports that Chinese carmakers are set to boost annual production capacity in foreign plants from 1.2 million vehicles in 2023 to more than 2.7 million by 2026. As the US, the European Union , and Turkey are set to impose tariffs, Chinese companies are pouring tons of investments into full-process manufacturing – which involves all four major steps in auto production, from stamping, welding, painting, and final assembly, according to the report. While expensive to build, it has high production capacity compared to knock-down assembly, where key parts of cars are made in China, for example, and then shipped overseas for assembly. | Electrek

China is pressuring its automakers to pause expansion in the European Union due to the escalating trade conflict over electric vehicles. Beijing is telling manufacturers to put on hold active searches for production sites in the region and signing of new deals, and generally keep a low profile while negotiations over EU tariffs on Chinese EVs are ongoing. State-owned Dongfeng Motor Group Co. has already halted plans to potentially manufacture cars in Italy in response to the warnings. | Automotive News?($) ?

???Robotics & Autonomy

Wayve , a well-funded London-based autonomous vehicle startup backed by Uber and ソフトバンク , will begin testing its “Tesla-like” self-learning automated driving software in San Francisco and the Bay Area. The move marks its first on-road trials outside of the UK. The company has conducted trials on public roadways in the UK since 2018, a year after it was founded. | Electrek

Elon Musk says Tesla will produce millions of robots and self-driving cars in the future that will propel the company’s market capitalization to stratospheric levels.?How he will fund that future is coming under sharper scrutiny. Musk is under pressure to wring better profitability from the core auto business to help pay for those moonshot bets. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

??? Aviation & Space

Federal regulators have cleared the path for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to share U.S. airspace with planes and helicopters — a win for the burgeoning industry and a timely decision for startups like Joby Aviation ion and Archer that are expected to launch air taxi networks commercially in 2025.?The Federal Aviation Administration published Tuesday its much-anticipated final ruling on the integration of “powered-lift” vehicles, a category the FAA revived two years ago to accommodate eVTOLs and one that describes aircraft that can take off and land like helicopters but then transition to forward flight like airplanes. | TechCrunch

Chinese automobile manufacturer CHERY unveiled a flying car prototype, named ‘Land and Air Vehicle’, designed without a steering wheel or accelerator and with full autonomous driving capabilities.?The futuristic vehicle has already completed a 50-mile test flight successfully.? | Interesting Engineering ?

????Climate

A United Nations report said that nothing short of a “quantum leap in ambition” will suffice at a time when the world is on course to blow past all targets for limiting global warming. At the moment, even the sum of national pledges — some of which are predicated on obtaining outside financing — put the Earth on a path to warm by an estimated 2.6 degrees Celsius (4.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. When countries struck the Paris agreement in 2015, they agreed to hold warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, compared to preindustrial levels, while aiming for an even more ambitious target of 1.5 degrees Celsius. | The Washington Post?($)

One year after world leaders made a landmark promise to move away from fossil fuels, countries have essentially made no progress in cutting emissions and tackling global warming, according to a United Nations report. Global greenhouse gas emissions soared to a record 57 gigatons last year and are not on track to decline much, if at all, this decade, the report found. Collectively, nations have been so slow to curtail their use of oil, gas and coal that it now looks unlikely that countries will be able to limit global warming to the levels they agreed to under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. | The New York Times ($) ?

????Car of the Week

Our Automotive Ventures "Cars of the Week":?a?2006 Ferrari 248 F1.?| RM Sotheby's

One of the most successful Michael Schumacher-raced Ferraris of all time. Driven by Michael Schumacher to five (5) victories in the San Marino, European, United States, French, and German Grands Prix.

Recorded three pole positions, three further second-placed finishes, and four fastest laps; all achieved with Schumacher at the wheel during the 2006 season, his final year at Ferrari.

The actual chassis in which Schumacher surpassed Ayrton Senna’s pole position record; and in which he achieved both his final pole position and final Grand Prix win on his home German soil of his F1 career.

Have a great week,

Steve Greenfield