Mercedes-Benz announces charging network / London's bike-share program reached 11.5 million trips in 2022 / Southwest is expecting a net loss in Q4

1. Mercedes-Benz revealed it is planning to build 400 locations containing 2,500 chargers with up to 350 kW of capacity in North America by 2027. The automaker is seeking to install a total of more than 10,000 fast chargers in North America, Europe, China, and other key markets.  Q: What are your thoughts on the current state of EV charging in North America? Let us know. 2. London's bike-sharing program, Santander Cycles, reported a total of 11.5 million trips in 2022, constituting a 5.1% YoY increase. The program launched 500 docked e-bikes in October, which were used 129,232 times by the end of 2022.  Q: The local government is allocating £80M ($96.3M) to walking and cycling programs and an additional £69M ($83.1M) for boroughs. Do you think the program should add more e-bikes in 2023? Share your thoughts. 3. Southwest expects a net loss between $725M and $825M for Q4. The airline is estimating a loss of $400M to $425M originating from the effects of the airline's holiday cancelations.  4. Amazon is partnering with EVGo to provide navigation and payments at EV chargers through the Alexa voice assistant. The functionality is expected to be available later this year. 5. On Thursday, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said the automaker will close plants if high EV prices reduce the size of the market versus its pre-pandemic levels. Tavares added that the auto industry would risk losing pricing power as semiconductor chip supplies recover. 6. American Airlines revealed it is cutting its flights in the spring to Columbus, Georgia; Del Rio, Texas; and Long Beach, California. The airline attributes the decision to the shortage of pilots and low demand.  7. Volvo Cars increased its sales in the U.S. by 6% to 11,111 vehicles in December. Full-year U.S. sales totaled 102,038, a 16% YoY drop that the automaker blamed on component shortages stemming from the COVID-19 lockdowns in China. 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. If your company would like to sponsor an Inside.com newsletter, please take a look at our sponsor page here.

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