Welcome to The Station, your central hub for all the past, present and future ways to move people and packages from point A to point B. Journalist Rebecca Bellan is back in the driver’s seat for the next two weeks as I put away my laptop and my head go on an adventure (planes, ferries and bikes included).
Micromobilist
India led the switch to electric two-wheelers, but the withdrawal of a popular government incentive caused sales to plummet, reports Jagmeet Singh.
In May, the Indian government revised its incentive scheme, reducing subsidies from $183 per kWh (up to 40% of the vehicle price) to $122 per kWh of battery capacity (up to 15% of the vehicle price). Changes to the regime resulted in a sudden halt in sales. In June, sales fell more than 56% and this is the lowest sales month for about a year.
This not only affects consumers, but it could also lead to consolidation in the industry and even the exit of some players. It just goes to show that government subsidies help people buy green alternatives and can stimulate fledgling industries.
In other news. . .
We made a big electric bike roundup, so you can find the best e-bike for your needs – whether you’re a commuter or delivery person, parent or senior citizen, bargain hunter or mountain biker. And the best part is that MANY of these companies are having sales right now, so grab it now for some great summer deals!
Ancient Aston Martin chief Andy Palm wants his Hi one “to be the Volvo of scooters”.
new York invites delivery people to apply for the city’s e-bike exchange program to get potentially incendiary e-bike batteries off the streets.
To the top is in partnership with Super73 to manage the resale of all used e-bikes.
A 12-year-old boy died while driving a So e-scooter in Birmingham, UK, prompting the city to demand selfie checks from riders to avoid underage driving.
Offer of the week
Deal of the week? Rather disagree.
Struggling UK electric vehicle maker Arrival killed off what would have been its second SPAC deal with Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. The company announced a plan to scrap SPAC (it made its public debut via SPAC with CIIG Merger Corp. in 2021) in April 2023, but that plan appears to have caused liquidity to plummet.
As regular readers of The Station might recall, this whole double SPAC thing raised a few of our eyebrows. Wejo was the first dual SPAC, i.e. a company that went public through a SPAC merger and then did a second SPAC merger in search of more capital.
It is unknown what caused the death of the second finish SPAC. Was it the terms? And was it Arrival or Kensington who backed down?
Other offers that caught my attention. . .
Finnish, a German car subscription company operating in the United States, has signed a €25 million asset-backed facility with Avellinia Capital, to help finance its vehicle purchases. The company says this means it can devote future capital to growth initiatives instead of funding its fleet.
move, an African mobility fintech start-up has raised $8 million from Absa Corporate and Investment Banking. He has raised a total of $28 million to date.
NEU battery materials, a Singapore-based lithium-ion battery recycling startup, raised $3.7 million in a funding round led by SGInnovate. The round was also joined by ComfortDelGro Ventures, Shift4Good, Paragon Ventures I and other angel investors.
Nicholas again failed to get enough shareholders to vote on a proposal that would allow it to issue more shares, and therefore raise more capital. But a new law could soon help the company circumvent the need to secure more than 50% of all outstanding shares. The company also successfully secured a $41.9 million grant from the California Transportation Commission to build six heavy-duty hydrogen fueling stations in Southern California.
RapidFlightan unmanned aircraft manufacturing company headquartered in Virginia, acquired the intellectual property portfolio of the late Local Engines. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Urban SDK, a company that sells cloud-based traffic management systems to state and local governments, raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round led by GOVO Venture Partners. DeepWork Capital, Florida Opportunity Fund, Techstars and venVelo also participated.
Notable reads and other tidbits
Autonomous vehicles
Safe Street Activist Group in San Francisco Disabled Cruise And Waymo robotaxis by putting traffic cones on their hoods. The now-viral prank is made to protest against vehicles that many accuse of malfunctioning and disrupting traffic, emergency vehicles and public transport.
volkswagen launched an autonomous vehicle testing program in Austin with a fleet of 10 ID Buzz 100% electric vehicles equipped with mobileyetechnology.
China We drive obtained the first national autonomous driving license in the United Arab Emirates to test and deploy its robotaxis, delivery vans and other autonomous vehicles on public roads.
Electric vehicles, charging and batteries
EV chargers can be hacked quite easily, and it poses a catastrophic risk that can threaten conductors and the power grid.
We can’t get enough Decreeis the adorable Topolino EV. The automaker said this week that the quadricycle will feature a series of odd accessories, including a small shower, “designed for days spent on the beach along the Italian coast”. Totally, totally, the Italian coast.
Fisker below its own second-quarter production forecast. The EV start-up produced 1,022 Ocean SUVs, when it expected to produce between 1,400 and 1,700. The company blamed a shortage of components on its contractors.
panasonic says it needs to build four more battery factories to meet its goal of increasing annual EV capacity to 200 GWh by early 2031.
Polaris is working to build off-road electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Michigan.
Rivian began rolling out its electric delivery vans to Amazon in Europe. The first 300 will be seen on the streets in Germany. The automaker also saw a three-fold increase in second-quarter deliveries — 12,640 units to be exact — which sent shares soaring 16%. Rivian said it was on track to meet its previous guidance of 50,000 units this year.
CT+ journalist Tim De Chant takes a look at the seven things every EV fast-charging network needs.
gig economy
Uber, DoorDash, Grubhub And Relay are suing New York City to block minimum wage standards for gig workers. They say regulators used faulty data to calculate new pay rules. The new $18 minimum wage for delivery workers was set earlier this month.
Saluting a Uber in Saudi Arabia is a nightmare, and this is due to state regulations on who can work for ridesharing apps.
Various
Konux, a Munich-based artificial intelligence scaling company, is developing a predictive maintenance SaaS business to modernize railway infrastructure. Its mission, as Natasha Lomas reports, is to drive digitalization and transformation into the most sustainable transit option using AI and IoT.
You’re here
Tesla is getting its own section this week. Here we are.
Tesla has started hiring »ads Test Operators” outside of Europe as it works to expand its FSD (Full Self-Driving) beta and autopilot suite outside of North America. Apparently, Australia is the next.
There have been more and more cybertruck observations, and the Tesla brothers are freaking out about it.
The company delivered a record 466,140 units in the second quarter, up 10% year-on-year. Investors will be looking for healthy margins on earnings day as many of Tesla’s sales have been fueled by price cuts.
Speaking of price cuts… Tesla is cutting prices by Model 3 And Y-model vehicles in Japan now.
The Elon Musk-owned automaker launched a price war in China, and now the company is trying to calm the waters. Tesla has joined Chinese automakers, including its biggest rival BYDsigning a letter pledging to uphold “core socialist values” and compete fairly in the country’s auto market.
But then… Tesla went ahead and rolled out a global referral program, giving $500 cash to buyers who purchase the Model 3 or Model Y. The program has been rolled out to Tesla’s biggest markets, including the United States and, you guessed it, China. (Also Germany, France, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong and Singapore.)
Tesla has more converts to its North American charging standard (NACS). Mercedes-Benz is the latest to adopt NACS, joining a handful of other automakers like GM, Ford, Volvo and Polestar. Mercedes electric vehicles will have access to Tesla’s boost stations by 2024. The automaker also plans to expand its own charging network, with more than 2,500 chargers in North America.
And Kentucky now requires EV charging companies to include You’re here, as well as the standard CCS, if they want to get federal dollars from a state program to electrify highways. Kentucky is the first to have done so, but Texas and Washington are considering it.
THE National Highway Safety Administration demanded that Tesla provide more information about its driver monitoring system as part of an ongoing Autopilot safety investigation.
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