Waymo doubles its rides, EU updates its tariffs, Renault's F1 engine factory threatened - MOBILITY BRIEF_ ??????? - August 26th

?? This Week In The Mobility World

???Appointments (& resignations)

• In the midst of a sales crisis in North America, Stellantis has appointed Tim Fallon, EV manufacturing operations leader at Rivian, as the new Head of Manufacturing in North America, a few months after Rivian signed the Logistics VP from Stellantis.
• It is, by the way, the fourth C-level executive to leave Rivian in the last 2 months, as reported by Eletric Vehicles.
• Canoo’s founding team is facing significant attrition with CTO Sohel Merchant being the latest departure! This follows the exits of other key members, including co-founders Stefan Krause, Ulrich Kranz and Richard Kim. With the company facing financial woes and a rocky path to commercial success, it seems Canoo’s future is as uncertain as a Tesla self-driving taxi.
• Former head of Supercharging team, Rebecca Tinucci, fired by Elon Musk at Tesla a few months ago, has finally found a new home in Uber, to lead the company’s fleet EV transition.

?? Factory Updates

• Alert at Rivian’s plant in Normal, Illinois: a fire has damaged around 60 vehicles on their way to be either repaired or delivered, on its parking storage. No manufacturing facility was impacted.
• Good news though for Rivian in the same Normal factory: the 105.000m2 expansion required for the Rivian R2 manufacturing has been approved by the local council.
• Remember how Stellantis’ co-owned battery JV, ACC, put on pause the Termoli gigafactory project? Well, the Italian government is now asking for a firm commitment from the company on this project, threatening of withdrawing its funding otherwise. Note that Stellantis was targeted by the Italian Industry Minister, not ACC and its other owners: a new episode in the Stellantis-Italian Government feud. The carmaker stick with its story: it’s currently pausing the plans to design a better project with the introduction of new battery technologies more in line with the current market trends (LFP).
• Volvo Trucks is announcing the construction of a 700M$ heavy-duty trucks factory in Monterrey (Mexico).

? Marketing & Dealerships Updates

• Renault’s iconic R5, or Le Car as it was known in the US, has made a comeback to NYC! The electric version, the R5 E-Tech, is a nostalgic nod to the original model, which was sold in the US in the 70s and 80s. While the new one isn’t currently planned for a US launch, Renault has created a vibrant mural in Brooklyn, showcasing the iconic design of the R5 alongside modern EV tech! Another masterstroke.

• Continuing with Renault, but this time on a more controversial note: the future of the Viry-Chatillon F1 engine factory. Rumors have circulated for weeks that Renault is considering shutting down its multiple-world-champion engine facility to transform the Alpine F1 Team from a manufacturer team into a customer team, potentially equipped with a Mercedes-Benz engine rather than a Renault-Alpine one. This news would come after years of disappointing performances from a Formula 1 team that Luca de Meo envisioned being embraced by the French people like a national team (“Allez les bleus!”), aiming to create an emblem with Alpine similar to what Ferrari represents in Italy. So, you might ask: what’s the point of building an ICE-hybrid engine for F1 if Alpine is switching to BEVs? Why continue despite poor performances in recent years? While these are valid questions, they miss the full picture: years of interference from the carmaker in the team, constant management overhauls, an engine regulation extended for multiple times to Renault's detriment, preventing them from making improvements, and more. Although the savings would be substantial for Renault (it’s 10 times cheaper to be a customer), there would be no coming back from this decision. While maintaining such facilities costs around $200M a year, re-entering the game is even more expensive (Audi is spending billions for this). Moreover, it would mean Renault abandoning the last French motorsport powerhouse, sacrificing its French DNA to become a fully UK-managed team. What would be the point then? What story would remain to be told? Who would support a team emptied of its soul? The comparisons to Aston Martin and McLaren, both customer teams using Mercedes-Benz engines, are irrelevant: most of their production cars are also made this way, and neither had such facilities when they entered or re-entered the competition. It would be a huge waste to see this scenario come true, so we wanted to express our support for the team at Viry-Chatillon, who have shared their disbelief with Motorsport.com and other outlets, especially after the new engine in development has recently reached and even exceeded its milestones. Allez les bleus! ????

???Tech Updates

• Waymo has doubled its weekly paid robotaxi rides to over 100k, expanding its service area and fleet. While this growth is promising, concerns about noise and the financial challenges of scaling remain. This impressive growth, which has doubled since May, follows the removal of the San Francisco waitlist and an expansion of the service area.

• A milestone that matches the launch of its 6th-generation Waymo Driver system, the new upgrade of Waymo’s autonomous system, gearing it up for more extreme weather conditions and decreasing the number of sensors required for delivering the same safety level. In a nutshell: lower the operating costs while increasing the conditions in which the system is able to safely operate = the right path for viability.
• Meanwhile, Cruise’s recovery is well underway, as it has closed the NHTSA ongoing inquiry about unexpected braking, through a software recall on its whole fleet. But as TechCrunch reminds: the inquiry about the crash with a pedestrian last fall (the one that withdrew Cruise’s permit) is still on.
• But those progresses come along other good news: Cruise signed a strategic partnership with Uber, to bring its vehicles onto the Uber app in 2025, giving them the opportunity to maybe narrow the gap more quickly with Waymo on commercial operations.
• General Motors is hitting the brakes on its software division, and it's not just a speed bump. The automaker has announced layoffs affecting 1k salaried employees, with a focus on the software and services teams. This move comes amid recent software challenges, including the Chevy Blazer EV's infotainment and charging issues. As GM races to catch up with competitors like Ford in the autonomous driving space, it seems the road ahead is filled with potholes and detours…
• Volkswagen has partenered with AirConsole to bring in-car gaming to its ID. vehicles and the new Passat, Tiguan and Golf. Passengers will enjoy a variety of games on the infotainment display using their smartphones as controllers. This new feature will be available in select European countries starting mid-September and will be expanded to more regions in the coming months. A new deal for AirConsole after the one signed with BMW recently, and a momentum for in-car gaming features as Mercedes-Benz also announced a partnership with Boosteroid this week to bring approx. 1000 games in-car, this time through cloud-gaming features.

• Fun story in Sète (France), where a Tesla blocked the whole city center as its owner launched a software upgrade while in a middle of a street, thinking we would still be able to drive during the upgrade. It still raises the question of enabling such usecases, but maybe more importantly if the UX/UI is clear enough to prevent this (Tesla owners, feel free to tell us how it is).
• Remote driving start-up Ottopia surveyed premium car owners in the US and China: 59% of them would prefer remote driving to self-driving, and 72% of them would be more eager to buy a car offering both rather than only one of them. The reasons? It’s all about confidence and handling the dangerous edge cases that motivates them. Although it could also be the lack of awareness of the advantages and risks of both technologies. But most of the industry will only remember one figure from this study: surveyed people say the would pay $60/hour for remote driving in average, and for 40% of them, they would even pay $84/hour or more! To say that we thought these technologies were designed to make mobility more affordable…

?? EV Updates

• The European Commission's decision to significantly reduce import duties on Tesla vehicles from China could give the American automaker a substantial advantage in the European EV market! This is because while Tesla's tariffs have been slashed to 9%, other Chinese EV manufacturers face tariffs ranging from 17% to 36.3%. This differential could boost Tesla's sales in the region, especially if the EU member states approve the tariff reduction by October 31. The decision follows an investigation that found Tesla received less in subsidies compared to other Chinese automakers, primarily due to its lower battery costs and favorable land use. However, the reduced tariff could also lead to higher overall EV prices in Europe, potentially hindering the EU's efforts to promote affordable electric mobility…
• Tesla’s challengers counter-attack!

? BMW is making headlines by overtaking Tesla in Europe’s EV sales in July, but the main information is not there: overtaking Tesla for a month is not a serious indicator as it strongly depends on sales pattern and strategies from each brands, especially in the holiday season. The most encouraging information here is how BMW is steadily increasing its EV sales for a while now, with +49% sales YTD.

? In the US, it’s Hyundai-Kia-Genesis who narrows the gap with the American carmaker, becoming the #2 EV seller by hitting the 10% market share milestone while Tesla dipped below the (impressive) 50% mark.

? Still in the US, Polestar is bringing its made-in-USA Polestar 3 on the market, and its CEO, Thomas Ingelath, talked to TechCrunch about putting the brand on the path to self-sustainability.

? Lucid Motors’ CEO, Peter Rawlinson, kind of confirmed the brand will no longer only focus on its luxury niche, and will launch 3 new models starting below the $50k mark to tackle Tesla’s Model 3. He also called the current EV sales slowdown as a “temporary blip”.

? But some legacies did not get the memo, like Ford, in a nice PR effort, decided to “broadens [its] electrification strategy to reach more customers and improve profitability”. Great news? Read between the lines: Ford is just postponing its EV offensive, using more hybrid engines instead of pure EVs, and taking its time to switch to cheaper batteries and co.

• First analysis in France about the “social EV leasing” shows it has succeeded in reaching drivers not accustomed to buying brand new cars: younger and with less revenue than the typical dealership buyer.

?? EV Infrastructures Updates

• At their recent Power UP 2024 event in Wuhan, NIO laid out some pretty exciting plans to boost EV infrastructure in China. They’re launching the "Power Up Counties" project to bring charging stations to every county by mid-2025 and are rapidly increasing the number of battery swap stations. Complementing this, their aggressive expansion of battery swap stations addresses the need for quick and efficient recharging options. By collaborationg with other companies thourgh the “Power Up Partner” program, NIO is cforesting innovation and sharing the financial burden of building infrastructure! And it doesn't stop there, as Nio is building a new factory and headquarters in Wuhan, developing new charging and swapping technologies, and investing in research and development!

???Investment/Financial/Legal Updates

• Crisis ahead for Stellantis? Carlos Tavares is visiting the US to design a plan to address falling profits on the continent, in a move aimed at showing he is now personally handling the matter. While Stellantis has kept increasing its price tags to continue its profitable success story, its inventory has actually started to grow the same way, becoming a problem to the company as the poor sales figures that followed started to raise eyebrows amongst the investors.

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