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| Hey Insiders — Today, we're bringing you the latest on BrightDrop's production halt, plus Fernride's new round extension. Scroll down for news on GM, Brussel's scooter tender, and Rimac Buggati's U.S. plans. Let us know which areas you would like us to cover next. If you find this newsletter helpful, please share it with a friend or colleague. Thanks for reading! Nicolas
p/mobilitynerd | |
| 1 | | Germany-based self-driving truck startup Fernride raised a $19M Series A extension for a total round of $50M. The company provides autonomous solutions for Volkswagen, Deutsche Bahn's logistics arm DB Schenker, and logistics company HHLA. More: - Fernride focuses on autonomy and remote-controlled operations for yard trucking, such as moving containers from A to B.
- "We have a very sound plan with a step-by-step approach. Launching our product first in yards, scaling it there, and then in the future, we roll out into open roads," said Hendrik Kramer, co-founder and CEO of Fernride.
- The extension round included participation from Germany's Deep Tech and Climate Funds, Munich Re Ventures, and Bayern Kapital.
- Prior investors included 10xFounders, Promus Ventures, and Speedinvest, among others.
Q: Which areas of transportation would you like to see investments in? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | General Motors' commercial electric van subsidiary, BrightDrop, is expected to halt production from October through the spring of 2024. The pause at the CAMI Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada, is reportedly due to a battery pack shortage. More: - General Motors is currently in the process of adding 400,000 square feet of battery production space at the facility.
- The automaker's CEO, Mary Barra, revealed that the manufacturing of all of GM's EVs is delayed due to a supplier failing to deliver automated battery production equipment.
- This constitutes the second production stoppage for BrightDrop after a two-week halt in July.
- BrightDrop launched sales in Mexico in August and in Canada in June.
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| 3 | | The United Auto Workers union is expanding walkouts at 38 General Motors and Stellantis facilities. "We will shut down part distribution until those two companies come to their senses and come to the table with a serious offer. Stellantis and GM, in particular, are going to need some serious pushing," said the union's president, Shawn Fain. More: - The 38 facilities comprise all of General Motors and Stellantis' parts distribution hubs in the U.S.
- The expansion brings the total employee count on strike to 18,000 out of 146,000 UAW members.
- The union announced it is not expanding strikes at Ford facilities as it reinstated a cost of living allowance that was suspended in 2009.
- The UAW is asking for a mid-30% wage increase, down from its initial request of 40%.
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| 4 | | Volkswagen Group of America signed a deal to become an importer and distributor of Bugatti Rimac in the U.S. "For both the Bugatti and Rimac brands, the U.S. is the strongest single market in the world, so it's important that we curate a sales and ownership experience befitting the extraordinary cars that we're delivering to customers," said Mate Rimac, CEO of Bugatti Rimac. More: - Rimac has sold at least three Nevera EVs in the U.S. thus far.
- Bugatti is currently developing a new model, described as a "hypercar rearranged as a hybrid," which it expects to reveal in 2024 for sales in 2025.
- The Bugatti Rimac joint venture was formed in 2021, with Porsche holding a 45% stake in the entity.
- Croatia-based Rimac Group raised $536.6M led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Goldman Sachs in June 2022.
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| 5 | | The city of Brussels, Belgium, is revamping its shared scooter program, seeking tender applications from companies for operations starting on January 1, 2024. The city will lower its e-scooter operators from eight to two. More: - Each permit will allow a maximum of 4,000 e-scooters.
- Brussels is also making three licenses available for bicycles, with a maximum fleet of 2,500 units per permit, two licenses for 300 electric mopeds per company, and two permits for 150 cargo bikes each.
- The city had over 1 million trips per month from April to June 2023.
- The companies selected will be announced on Dec. 4.
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| 6 | | LG Energy Solutions is holding early-stage talks with steel-to-energy group JSW to jointly manufacture electric vehicle batteries in India. JSW is reportedly also in talks with CATL, Panasonic, and Toshiba. More: - JSW is reportedly planning a capacity of 20 GWh by the end of the decade, starting with 8 GWh.
- LG Energy Solutions provides batteries for Tesla and General Motors, among other automakers.
- JSW's chairman, Sajjan Jindal, was linked to a potential purchase of a stake in Chinese company MG Motors. JSW is reportedly now in talks with Leapmotor to license its technology for the Indian market.
- EVs currently comprise 2% of the market in India. The Indian government is seeking to increase the market share to 30% by 2030.
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- Jaguar announced an agreement with Tesla for access to the Supercharger network in North America.
- BMW stopped sales of gasoline motorbikes in North America.
- Tesla's Gigafactory Texas is reportedly seeking to ramp up the number of employees for Cybetruck production to 60,000.
- KG Mobility, formerly known as Ssangyong Motors, is planning to triple its annual sales to 320,000 in the next three years.
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| Upcoming Events | | SEP
28 | | Join TruEra's Webinar on AI Observability with former CMU professor Anupam Datta* | | | | | | | OCT
4 | | Join this free online and onsite event in Amsterdam and you'll hear from industry experts at Meta, Opera, AdGuard, Mozilla, Google, and more* | | | | | | | OCT
16 | | Meet Our Fund 5, Building and Investing in AI | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
 | Sr. Analyst | | Nicolas S. is a Sr. Analyst at Inside, covering transportation and startup 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. Follow him at @MobilityNerd. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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