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Welcome again to The Station, your central hub for all previous, current and future technique of shifting folks and packages from Level A to Level B.
The LA Auto Present was this week and whereas it now not has the cache of pre-COVID days, there have been nonetheless some notable information that got here out of the occasion. TechCrunch reporter Harri Weber was on the scene serving to me cowl the information. One of many greatest bulletins had nothing to do with a car reveal. Nope, it was Amazon declaring it was now going to promote vehicles on-line, beginning with Hyundai.
Different protection included the Lucid Gravity SUV debut and a useful roundup that lined the tech, EVs and different enjoyable stuff that obtained our consideration.
Alrighty, let’s dive in!
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Micromobbin’
Upway, the French refurbished e-bike market, has raised $30 million at an elevated valuation. Usually this piece of reports would go in our offers part under, however I needed to ponder on the that means of this up spherical.
Upway is current in a number of nations in Europe and lately expanded to the U.S. It takes in used e-bikes from respected and fascinating manufacturers, fixes them up, and sends them out to prospects at a good value. Getting this enterprise proper requires sensible provide chain and logistics administration, and it seems Upway is on the proper path. In at present’s capital markets, it’s not as straightforward to get new traders when you’re not proving out enterprise sustainability.
Zooming out to the macro setting, e-bikes aren’t going anyplace. Actually, as extra folks purchase new bikes, the marketplace for used ones grows. And with all of the e-bike battery fires we’ve seen, an organization providing safely refurbished e-bikes looks like a fairly whole lot.
— Rebecca Bellan
Deal of the week
Only a roundup this week!
Divergent Applied sciences, a Torrance, Calif.-based startup that developed an industrial digital manufacturing system, raised $230 million in a Sequence D funding spherical led by a $100 million funding from Hexagon AB. The spherical additionally included participation from new and present institutional and household workplace traders.
Gravity, an EV infrastructure startup, raised $13 million in a seed spherical led by GV (Google Ventures).
GM acquired key Tesla gigacasting provider Tooling & Gear Worldwide, Reuters reported.
InDrive, the “bid-based” ride-hail platform standard in Latin America and Asia, launched a enterprise and merger and acquisition division named New Ventures to take a position as much as $100 million in startups inside rising markets over the subsequent few years. The $100 million gained’t come from a fund, precisely. The plan is to take a position the cash “over the next few years by making annual allocations of investment capital from our balance sheet, starting in 2024,” Andries Smit, vice chairman of New Ventures advised TechCrunch.
Luup, a Tokyo-based shared e-scooter startup, raised $24 million to broaden its cost ports to 10,000 by 2025, up from round 4,900 at present.
Revolv, an electrical business fleet firm primarily based in San Francisco, raised $25 million in fairness venture financing from Greenbacker Capital Administration.
Shekel Mobility, a B2B auto sellers market in Africa, raised greater than $7 million in funding that was comprised of $3.2 million in fairness and over $4 million in debt. Ventures Platform co-led the spherical alongside MaC Enterprise Capital. Different traders embody Y Combinator, Insurgent Fund, Unpopular Ventures, Maiora Capital, PageOne Lab Inc., Phoenix Funding Membership, Heirloom VC, Pioneer Ventures and different angel traders. In the meantime, Zedvance, VFD Microfinance Financial institution, Zenith Financial institution and Fluna, amongst others, offered the debt element.
Tenet, an EV financing startup primarily based in New York, raised $10 million in Sequence A funding spherical led by Nyca Companions. Assurant Ventures and Big Ventures additionally participated.
Notable reads and different tidbits
Autonomous autos
Texas is poised to be the subsequent hotbed for autonomous autos and a possible regulatory battleground. AVs aren’t regulated within the state, however as robotaxis incidents rise, cities might flip to at least one weapon that California doesn’t have, TechCrunch reporter Rebecca Bellan writes.
In the meantime, GM has taken the wheel at its troubled AV subsidiary Cruise, going so far as inserting one in every of its personal executives to move up the self-driving automotive firm’s authorized and coverage, communications and finance groups.
Numerous Cruise staff have reported to TechCrunch that morale is at a brand new low level due to a choice by dad or mum firm GM to droop its worker share-selling program. However wait! On Saturday, Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt despatched an electronic mail to staff (which TechCrunch has seen) apologizing to staff, taking duty and reversing course, kind of, on the share sale. He opened with:
“I know the news about changes to our RLO program was extemely difficult to hear, and that there were many unanswered questions. We left you with concerns about your colleagues, your careers, and your personal finances. That’s the last thing I want for anyone, and I am truly sorry.”
Vogt went on to say that the corporate was engaged on a option to conduct a brand new tender supply that will mitigate potential tax obligations.
He later wrote that “as CEO, I take responsibility for the situation Cruise is in today. There are no excuses, and there is no sugar coating what happened.”
Earnings
It was a slower earnings week for transportation. Nonetheless, there have been a few noteworthy ones.
It’s nonetheless not wanting good for Fowl, which closed out the quarter after getting delisted from the inventory market with a $19.8 million loss. Fowl’s going concern warning could be very a lot nonetheless in impact — the corporate has incurred recurring losses and unfavourable money flows since its inception and has amassed a deficit of $1.6 billion as of September 30, 2023.
Income stays mild, regardless of the Spin purchase, at $54.3 million (down from $72.8 million in Q3 2022). Now we’re coming into winter, when money flows will drop much more considerably. Fowl closed out the quarter with $10.2 million in money and money equivalents, which by my calculations offers it one other 9 months with its present money burn. The corporate says it gained’t be capable to meet obligations over the subsequent 12 months.
Gogoro, too, remains to be feeling its earlier stings of foreign money conversions. Its income of $91.8 million for the quarter is down 10.2% YoY. Nevertheless, battery swapping service income of $33.6 million is up 10.4% YoY. The battery swapping large closed Q3 with a internet lack of $3.1 million, down from a internet earnings of $56.4 million in the identical quarter final 12 months. On an adjusted foundation, Gogoro reported EBITDA of $13.1 million, which is up from $9.2 million in Q3 2022.
Fisker additionally had a troubling third quarter, reporting a wider-than-expected loss.
Electrical autos, charging & batteries
Arrival, the as soon as buzzy EV startup that went public through a merger with a clean test firm, secured a $50 million bridge mortgage —funds that may maintain it afloat lengthy sufficient to discover a possible sale.
Cadillac debuted the Optiq, an entry-level compact crossover EV that may slot under the Lyriq
Candela’s electrical hydrofoiling ferry, which is now in manufacturing, took its first “flight” in Stockholm.
Exxon desires to drill sufficient lithium out of Arkansas to energy 1 million EVs per 12 months.
GM absorbed BrightDrop, the wholly-owned business EV subsidiary, a change that included ousting its CEO. Does the identical destiny await Cruise, one other one in every of its subsidiaries?
Mercedes plans to construct round 30 fast-charging hubs at Buc-ee’s places all through the South. TC+ reporter Tim de Chant digs into why supersize comfort shops is perhaps key to unlocking EV quick charging?
Redwood Supplies will provide Toyota with cathode materials and anode copper foil for battery cells produced on the automaker’s $13.9 billion manufacturing facility in North Carolina that’s slated to enter manufacturing in 2025.
Tesla hits reverse on its earlier risk to sue Cybertruck resellers. Additionally, an upgraded Tesla Cyberquad for youths is again on sale after security recall.
Way forward for flight
Archer Aviation signed a memorandum of understanding with Air Chateau, a non-public aviation operator in UAE, at a price of round $500 million for the deliberate buy of as much as 100 of Archer’s Midnight eVTOLs.
Joby Aviation and Volocopter gave the general public a vivid glimpse of what the way forward for aviation would possibly appear like this weekend, with each firms performing transient demonstration flights of their electrical plane in New York Metropolis.
Zipline hit an necessary milestone in its U.S. operations. The Federal Aviation Administration accepted Zipline for flying its autonomous drone with out line of sight visible observers. Quickly after the FAA lifted this requirement, Zipline flew its Platform 1 plane within the Salt Lake Metropolis space with out the previously-required visible observers. Zipline is now flying in Utah with out this requirement and can quickly broaden that strategy throughout its U.S. operations, based on the corporate.
In-car tech
Feds need pace discount tech in each new automotive. Are American drivers prepared?
A software program replace bricked Rivian infotainment techniques. About 3% of its autos have been impacted by the difficulty, which is being addressed with an over-the-air software program replace.
Trip-hailing
Uber is introducing new options geared towards addressing the problems of unfair deactivations that ride-hail and supply drivers usually face.