Nikola closes Romeo Power battery facility / DOT reviews Allegiant and Viva Aerobus agreement / VW seeks China expansion

1. Nikola revealed it is closing a Romeo Power battery manufacturing facility in Cypress, California, and moving the work to its assembly plant in Coolidge, Arizona. Nikola acquired Romeo Power for $144M in August 2022.  Read more on Inside.com. 2. The Department of Transportation concluded its first review of anti-trust immunity for the planned alliance between Allegiant Air and low-budget Mexican carrier Viva Aerobus and opened the proposal to public comments. Currently, partnerships between U.S. and Mexico airlines include Delta's and Aeromexico's joint venture and Frontier and Volaris' codesharing agreement. Read more on Inside.com. 3. Volkswagen's head of China, Ralf Brandstaetter, revealed the company plans to expand its high-end and low-end sales in the market. "Diversification doesn't mean shutting down in China and ramping up America. It means continuing to use the market opportunities in China and ramping up America," said Brandstaetter. 4. The Energy Department is granting a $700M loan to Ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project. The company seeks to supply materials for Ford and Toyota. 5. Newark International Airport opened its new $2.5B terminal to passengers. The terminal is estimated to increase passenger capacity from 9 million to 13 million passengers per year. 6. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo is calling for a public vote on whether shared electric scooters should continue operating in the city. The vote is expected on April 2.  7. eVTOL developer Lilium's board of directors appointed Oliver Vogelgesang as CFO and Sebastien Borel as CCO. Vogelgesang was previously a senior VP of finance and controlling at the company, while Borel was senior VP of commercial. A message from DELL Dell for Startups provides startup expertise from dedicated technology advisors and scalable solutions to ensure your business is always ready to grow. From MVP to IPO, our Startup Tech Advisors are specially trained for your unique needs. They understand startups and will get to know your business. From client systems to infrastructure hardware, we have your startup covered with the best in scalable technology. Whether you're looking for low latency performance, deep learning, machine learning, VDI, and more. We have a solution that’s just right for you. The dell EMC Poweredge r750 is a full-featured enterprise server that delivers outstanding performance for the most demanding workloads. Inside members can save up to 50% off on Dell orders when connected to a Startup Advisor. For more information, go to www.dell.com/inside or contact us at startups@dell.com. Update your infrastructure 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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