Hey readers — It was a busy year in transportation! As 2022 comes to an end, we are bringing you a recap of the year's top developments in EVs, autonomous vehicles, micro-mobility, the airline industry, and eVTOLs. | |  Nicolas |  |
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Fully-electric passenger vehicles reached 6% of U.S. sales in Q3, up from 2.2% during the same period in 2020. Q3 sales of BEVs were led by ~57,000 units of the Tesla Model Y and ~53,000 of the Tesla Model 3, followed by 14,709 Chevrolet Bolt EV/EUV and 10,414 Ford Mustang Mach-E. The Tesla Model Y also led U.S. sales from January through September with 159,834 units, followed by 146,800 units of the Model Y and 29,500 of the Model X. General Motors restarted production of the Chevy Bolt EV in April after a nine-month halt due to a battery safety recall and cut its price by $6,000 in June in its attempts at gaining market share. In November, GM received an order for 800 Bolts from Domino's, which expects to have a fleet of 855 pizza delivery EVs by the end of 2023. GM received an order from Hertz for 175,000 EVs over the next five years, including the Chevy Bolt and the BrightDrop Zevo 600 van. Tesla began the first deliveries of the Semi truck to PepsiCo on Dec. 1, after having first revealed the prototype in 2017. During the delivery announcement, the EV maker shared data of a 500-mile trip using the Semi with a load of ~82,000 pounds, starting in Fremont with 97% battery charge and completing the journey in San Diego at 4%. In July, commercial EV startup Canoo received an order from Walmart for 4,500 delivery vans. Last December, Canoo announced the decision to move manufacturing from the Netherlands to Oklahoma. It also relocated its HQ and advanced manufacturing facility to Bentonville, Arkansas. Canoo is not alone in the trend of manufacturing moving to the U.S., given the changes in EV incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, including credits for units assembled in North America and that have battery materials sourced from the U.S. or a country with which the U.S. has a free-trade agreement, starting in 2024. Shortly after the act's ratification, Hyundai began considering accelerating the schedule to build its $5.5B manufacturing facility in Georgia, with production expected in H2 2024. BMW announced a $1.7B investment in battery manufacturing in South Carolina. Battery manufacturer Northvolt halted its plans for a new manufacturing facility in Germany, as it considers the Inflation Reduction Act has changed the supply chain landscape in favor of North America. On the other hand, the world's largest EV battery manufacturer, CATL, has reportedly delayed its plans to invest in battery plants in North America due to concerns that the new rules for EV tax credits will raise industry costs.
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 While eVTOL developers worked toward aircraft-type certification, airlines continued placing product orders. In October, Saudia signed an agreement for 100 eVTOLs from Lilium, expecting local certification to be granted in Saudi Arabia starting in 2025. Saudia joins an order book that includes private jet companies Net Jets and Globeair and Brazilian airline Azul. In August, Archer Aviation announced a $10M deposit from United Airlines for the purchase of 100 eVTOL aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration defined the airworthiness criteria for the certification of Archer Aviation's M001 eVTOL. The issuance comes after the FAA also provided the criteria for Joby Aviation's JAS4-1 eVTOL, which the company plans to complete for certification in late 2024. Airlines and developers also began planning the first eVTOL routes. United Airlines is partnering with Archer Aviation for flights between Newark Liberty International Airport and Downtown Manhattan Heliport on Pier 6. United expects rates to be comparable to ridesharing and take 10 minutes versus ~1 hour in car traffic. The flights are expected to begin in 2025.
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 Earlier this month, Waymo revealed it is expanding its autonomous ride-hailing service to and from Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport. The Alphabet company expanded its operating areas in Phoenix to 41.2 square miles and in San Francisco to 46.5 square miles. Cruise also received approval from the California DMV to expand its operating area for autonomous ride-hailing in San Francisco. In October, Waymo also announced its plans to operate autonomous ride-hailing services in Los Angeles. Also in October, Uber signed a 10-year agreement with Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, to connect a fleet of autonomous Ioniq 5 vehicles for deliveries and ride-hailing. Uber has been testing food deliveries with Motional in Santa Monica since May and, earlier this month, began operating autonomous rides for customers in Las Vegas. In April, search giant Baidu received a permit to deploy driverless operations in Beijing, and in July, it announced its plans to manufacture an autonomous vehicle with a detachable steering wheel. The company has been operating a robotaxi service with a human safety driver across 10 cities since 2020, having performed 1 million rides. Uber Freight expanded its network of autonomous trucking by extending its program with Aurora Innovation to include a new commercial route between Fort Worth and El Paso, which it uses to haul goods for distributor Veritiv. Uber also added access to Volvo Truck's Autonomous Solutions to its marketplace for selected autonomous trucking routes in Texas. In September, Swedish trucking company Einride announced its plans to launch an autonomous fleet in Germany in collaboration with appliance company Electrolux. Einride raised $500M earlier this month to fund its current and future fleet of heavy-duty electric vehicles. On the other hand, self-driving trucking tech company TuSimple is reportedly planning to cut 15% of its workforce. TuSimple's board requested the resignation of CEO Cheng Lu in March; however, Lu has returned to the role after Xiaodi Hou was fired in the wake of an internal probe that confirmed the sharing of confidential information with Chinese company Hydron. Note: Inside.com founder and CEO Jason Calacanis is an investor in Uber.
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Hydrogen, as an alternative to the internal combustion engine and battery-electric vehicles, had a negative year. A total of 153 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles were sold in the U.S. in Q3, consisting entirely of Toyota Mirai and Hyundai NEXO units. Last week, the city of Dundee, Scotland, decided to cancel an order for fuel-cell buses, which it had planned to finance Arcola Energy. In October, reports surfaced of Hyundai ending its plan to import 1,600 hydrogen fuel-cell trucks to Switzerland by 2025 over concerns about pricing volatility. The company has sold a total of 47 Xcient hydrogen trucks in Switzerland since 2020. On the other hand, in December, Toyota announced its plans to lead a consortium of companies, including ETL, D2H, Thatcham Research, and Ricardo, to manufacture a hydrogen fuel-cell pickup truck in England. A week earlier, Honda revealed its plans to manufacture a hydrogen-powered CR-V in 2024. However, questions arise about the feasibility of these types of vehicles in relation to infrastructure. As of the start of October, there were 57 hydrogen stations in operation in California and an additional nine under construction. Shell began shutting down its hydrogen fueling stations in the U.K. earlier this year, a move which is speculated to have stemmed from the increase in demand for battery-electric vehicles. Questions do not end with infrastructure, as fuel-cell truck manufacturer Hyzon Motors removed CEO Craig Knight in August over financial reporting irregularities pertaining to its operations in China, allegedly consisting of the sale of 500 fuel-cell vehicles to Shanghai HongYun, a fake company. Hyzon, however, recently announced it is acquiring 1,485,000 shares for €5.52M ($5.8M) to take control of its European business, which it previously shared with Holthausen Clean Technology Investments. The European joint venture had only sold 20 FCEV trucks to Dutch companies.
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Airlines continued their road to post-COVID recovery as Delta Air Lines and United Airlines expect demand to continue to rise despite a mild "recession." This is despite a deviation from the trend for December, as expectations of a weaker month stemming from a "modest softening in corporate travel bookings" are believed to impact Alaska Air's earnings; meanwhile, Delta President Glen Hauenstein said demand will recover in Q1 2023 from the off-trend month. Delta CEO Ed Bastian said business travel is never going to return to its pre-COVID levels; however, the airline plans to supplement the segment. In Q3, United reported a net profit of $942M, an 8% Yo3Y decline; however, it generated $12.9B in revenue, up by 13% versus Q3 2019. Meanwhile, American Airlines reported $12.39B in passenger revenue for Q3, up from $7.95B during the same period in 2021. American's operating income increased from $595M in Q3 2021 to $930M. The pilot shortage produced upstream effects, as regional carrier Mesa Airlines ended its partnership with American Airlines, which was tested as American penalized Mesa an estimated $5M in losses per month for not meeting its pre-COVID flight obligations. In August, American added Air Wisconsin to its regional carriers to address the pilot shortage. Regional carrier SkyWest was blocked by the Department of Transportation from canceling flights to 29 cities, but it delayed an order of four Embraer E175 aircraft due to the pilot shortage. In November, regional airlines offering services for American Airlines, including Envoy Air, Piedmont Airlines, and PSA Airlines, resorted to offering a $100,000 bonus for select new hire pilots. American Airlines expanded its stake in local airlines in Latin America to offset the effects of LATAM Airlines' exit from the Oneworld Alliance in 2020 (LATAM joined SkyTeam following Delta's 20% acquisition of LATAM) through the planned acquisition of a minority stake in Chilean airline JetSmart and a $200M investment in Brazilian airline Gol.
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Electric moped-sharing company Gogoro continued its expansion in Asia and the Middle East, launching a battery-swapping network in Delhi, India, with moped rental company Zypp Electric, adding a retail presence in Israel and performing battery-swap tests in Singapore. The Taiwan-based company also announced it is launching a moped scooter battery-swapping network in Manila, Philippines, in Q1 2023. As of early December, Gogoro had 520,000 riders and 11,000 battery-swapping stations in ~2,260 locations. The shared-scooter sector had a rocky 2022. In 2021, Tier Mobility went on an acquisition spree, purchasing Wind Mobility's Italian unit Viento, camera-based parking tech Fantasmo, global bike-sharing company Nextbike, and camera-based parking tech startup Fantasmo. However, in August 2022, Tier let go of 180 people (16% of its workforce) and re-designed its strategy, moving away from geographical expansion and reducing projects that did not have a clear path toward profitability. Scooter-share company Helbiz, which operates in more than 50 markets in the U.S. and Italy, saw its stock decline by 97.63% in 2022, while Bird Global's stock decreased by 85.27% YTD. Helbiz completed the acquisition of the seated scooter-sharing company Wheels in November, despite stock delisting warnings from Nasdaq as the market value of its Class A common stock and publicly traded warrants fell under the required $35M minimum. Currently, Helbiz's market cap stands at $20.26M, and the company requested a hearing to remain listed. Bird also received a delisting notice. In November, Bird notified investors through an SEC filing that its financials dating back two years "should no longer be relied upon," as it reported supposed revenue from trips taken with insufficient wallet balances. Bird may get a rescue via a merger with Bird Canada, a separate company that licenses its tech and vehicles.
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- Canada announced legislation requiring 20% of the country's vehicles to be EVs by 2026.
- More than 17,000 U.S. flights since Wednesday were canceled due to inclement weather.
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 |  | Nicolas is a Sr. Analyst at Inside, covering transportation and IT trends. He is an avid map maker and data nerd. Nicolas has worked in the shared-scooter space, as well as advised e-bike and moped startups. | | | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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