Monthly Archives: August 2018

Unveiled the new Z4 roadster. (BMW)

Reportedly looking at a deal to take a 20% stake in VW’s online used car platform HeyCar. (Handelsblatt)

FCA ^(history)

Reportedly in talks to sell Magneti Marelli to private equity firm KKR’s Calsonic Kansei rather than spin it off into a separate listed entity. (Detroit Free Press)
Recalling around 209,000 cars to fix braking problems. (Yahoo Finance)

Moved the product planning team out of product development so the position now reports into the marketing organisation.(Ford)
Ford’s governmental affairs team took a hit as its head of international relations was recruited by the US government to oversee negotiations with North Korea, shortly after the top lobbyist left for SoftBank. (Detroit News)
Recalling around 50,000 charging cords for electric vehicles due to fire risks and a small quantity of vehicles that appear to have been factory released without all the bolts being properly tightened. (Ford)

Geely (includes Volvo) ^(history)

Reported first half revenue (excluding Volvo and Lynk&Co) of 53.7 billion RMB (about $7.9 billion). Reported profits of 6.7 billion RMB (about $1 billion) were up 54% on a year earlier. The company believes that it will beat its previous volume expectations for the full year, in part due to the strong performance of Lynk&Co products. (Geely)

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)^(history)

Increasing the amount of product development it does in Australia, even though it has ceased manufacturing in the country. GM will recruit around 150 new engineers to bring the total to 500. (com.au)
Employees at one of GM’s few components factories (in Rochester, USA) are worried that a move to source fuel system parts from an external supplier spells the end for their plant after 2021. (Democrat&Chronicle)

Hyundai / Kia^(history)

Kia reached an agreement with South Korean unions on a pay deal for 2019. (Yonhap)
Hyundai is reportedly looking for a partner to manufacture its Ioniq foldable electric scooter. (Korea Herald)

Launched production of the new Altima sedan at the Tennessee, USA plant after a $170 million refit of the plant facilities and tooling. (Nissan)
Production of the China market-only Slyphy BEV began at Dongfeng’s plant in Huadu, China. (Nissan)

PSA (includes Opel/Vauxhall) ^(history)

Opel unveiled the GT X BEV compact (B-sized) SUV. Although described as a concept, the vehicle seems a likely candidate for production as the next generation Mokka X, sharing the underpinnings of the next generation 208 / Corsa (already been confirmed as having a BEV version), and due around 2020. (Opel)
Employees at Opel’s Aspern plant in Austria are concerned by media reports that factory headcount could fall from 1,400 now to around 600 very soon as the outgoing five speed transmission is set to be replaced by one with far lower volumes, and engine production is also thought to be under threat. (Kurier)

Renault ^(history)

Will unveil the new Arkana crossover at the end of the month ahead of launch in various markets from 2019 onwards. (Renault)

Suzuki

Reportedly working on a deal to dissolve its Chinese joint venture and end direct involvement in the market, although Suzuki badged cars might continue to be made under licence. (Bloomberg)

Before it has even opened, union officials at JLR’s new factory in Slovakia are complaining about the work environment, saying that insufficient air conditioning has been installed to stay within comfortable working temperatures. JLR say that a “drinking regime” is used in the event of high temperatures. This is OEM-code for offering workers the choice between: working in stifling heat or; working in stifling heat and consuming disgusting orange squash, the type which you will have experienced if you were unlucky enough to attend an English state school in the 1980s and seems to have disappeared from all shelves; except those of a secret supermarket seemingly known only to OEM HR departments. (Slovak Spectator)

Elon Musk said he was no longer interested in taking the company private, citing unforeseen time consuming and complicated responsibilities that come with running a private company. (Tesla)
Leaked internal documents suggested Model 3 had a first time through quality rate of around 15% — about the same as an underperforming car plant in the late 1990s. Since first time through refers to corrections made at the end of the assembly line, it is an indicator of productivity and not a suggestion of low outgoing quality. (Business Insider)
Despite Tesla’s other troubles, a recent audit of the Las Vegas Gigafactory said that hiring was taking place at the expected rate to justify receiving tax credits from the local government. (Electrek)
Testing data collected from driver logs suggested that the 75 kWh Model 3 has a superior combination of charging time and consumption compared with top specification Model S and X. (ABRP)
A Bloomberg columnist took it upon themselves to ask former Ford CEO Alan Mulally whether he would like the top job at Tesla and received an equivocal response. (Bloomberg)
One of the companies reportedly prepared to invest in a bid to take Tesla private was VW. (WSJ)

CEO Diess gave a wide-ranging interview in which he called the level of change necessary to be competitive in software “exhausting” but expressed confidence that VW could hold its own against the likes of Google and Apple. He also believes that VW’s experience with the eGolf has shown strong demand for a 300km real world range car at a €30,000 price point and cautioned against viewing the electric car in isolation as an environmental benefit, citing claimed equivalent 600 g per km of CO₂ in Germany (against a sub-130g fleet average target). Diess suggested a working assumption of 2025 battery costs of €5,000 to €6,000, implying the company expects costs of €85 to €100 per kWh by that time. (Handelsblatt)
VW’s independent auditor of emissions protocol complained to the company about the level of cooperation it was getting from executives and received assurances that transparency will improve. (Reuters)
Reportedly tried to buy self-driving software developer, and partner, Aurora but was rebuffed because the firm wanted the freedom to work with multiple carmakers. (Bloomberg)
Will spend €3.5 billion on forthcoming IT initiatives up to 2025, with new cooperations and acquisitions planned in the “near future”. VW is simplifying its software design to reduce the number of control units in a vehicle from around 70 to “just a few”. (VW)
Audi showed an all-electric sports car concept called PB18, potentially a precursor to the next generation R8. (Audi)
Reportedly looking at a deal sell a 20% stake in online used car platform HeyCar to Daimler. (Handelsblatt)
VW was reportedly one of the companies prepared to invest in a bid to take Tesla private. (WSJ)
MAN truck announced a series of efficiency initiatives, including ending one model line and selling the factory that built it. (MAN)
Launched a new all-electric car sharing scheme called We Share which will begin operations in the middle of 2019 in Berlin and then expand to other European and US cities. (VW)
- Implication: VW’s approach to mobility still appears fragmented with We Share representing another new brand in addition to the previously announced Moia.

Other

Russian firm Kalashnikov unveiled an all-electric model called the CV-1 that it says will combine a 220 mile range with the looks of a stretched Yugo. Pricing and sales targets remain a mystery. (BBC)
Subaru has trimmed its European diesel line-up following WLTP certification and now the only vehicle offering diesel engines is the Forester. In the UK, the fuel type has been dropped altogether. (Autocar)
McLaren’s CEO said that high performance luxury car sales in India were being held back by the poor state of the country’s roads. (Automotive News)
Wiesmann said their new model will be on sale in 2019. (Sunday Times)
Perodua is reportedly experiencing launch problems with the new Myvi. (Carlist)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

The UK government issued guidance for a no deal Brexit. (UK Govt)
A poll of UK drivers found about half of them believe diesel cars should be banned, about the same proportion as drive petrol powered cars. (The Guardian)

Suppliers

Continental issued a new profit warning with the blame placed on exchange rates. (Continental)
Adient’s CEO and Chairman abruptly stepped down and was replaced on an interim basis. (Adient)
FCA is reportedly in talks to sell Magneti Marelli to private equity firm KKR’s Calsonic Kansei rather than spin it off into a separate listed entity. (Detroit Free Press)
HyundaiMobis invested about $7 million in image detection firm StradVision. (Green Car Congress)
Denso invested $270 million in OLED developer JOLED, a business that was formed through the merger of Panasonic and Sony’s OLED assets. (Denso)
Denso and Aisin Seiki are establishing a 50/50 joint venture for electric vehicle drive modules. (Denso)
Denso, Aisin Seiki, Advics and Jtekt agreed a joint venture to develop electronic controllers for self-driving software and sensors. The shareholdings will be 65%/25%/5%/5% respectively. (Denso)

Dealers

The man GM says sold the most vehicles ever in a single year in the US is being sued by the previous record holder and Guinness has refused to officiate. (Detroit Free Press)

Uber’s CEO says the company thinks bicycles are a better method of transport than cars for short trips in centres and will try to direct users to that type of service over cars. He believes that, in general, a switch will be a good thing for drivers since there will still be lots of longer trips for them to fulfil. (Financial Times)
- Implication: The CEO’s stance repeats earlier Uber data suggesting that bicycle rides cannibalised short term trips, however the company is yet to offer solutions to bicycle sharing’s shortcomings, notably how usage drops as weather worsens. Whilst headline-grabbing, Uber will be aware that its valuation, way beyond that of bicycle rental firms, is predicated on the assumption of profitable growth in taxi-type services.
Uber appointed a new CFO, who immediately hit headlines by suggesting that 2019 could be too early for the company to have its IPO. Uber’s PR department said he was simply being conservative. (Business Insider)
Uber executives talked about the challenges of operating in emerging markets, particularly verifying cash used in transactions and dealing with fuel price inflation. (QZ)
Grab announced a fleet of 200 Hyundai Ioniq BEVs will serve customers in Singapore and build the company’s understanding of the practicalities of operating a high-utilisation electric vehicle fleet. (Grab)
Didi suspended services on its carpooling app Hitch after a murder, the second this year. (Reuters)
Car sharing firm Getaround raised $300 million from investors including SoftBank and Toyota. (Reuters)
Luxury car rental firm CarHopper integrated its offering into private jet rental firm JetSmarter’s (CarHopper)
MaaS Global raised €9 million. (MaaS Global)

Aptiv’s fleet of 30 self-driving vehicles in Las Vegas, USA have already logged 5,000 journeys (on Lyft’s network) since operations began in May. (Aptiv)
The CEO of self-driving developer Zoox stepped down or was fired, depending on who you asked. (SMH)
Waymo is currently using remote operators in an advisory capacity. Rather than taking control of the vehicle, they select next steps from a list of suggestions by the vehicle and these are then executed according to the vehicle’s programming. (The Verge)
Lidar supplier Quanergy said it was expanding production “by an order of magnitude” in order to become the volume leader. (Quanergy)
Waymo has established a subsidiary in China, fuelling speculation of a launch in the country. (Reuters)
An ex-GM executive who now consults with Waymo listed GM, Daimler and Toyota as the OEMs best positioned for autonomous vehicles, in his opinion. (Forbes)
Mapping start-up Carmera said it has raised $20 million. (TechCrunch)
Self-driving developer Ghost Locomotion said it has $15 million in funding. (Crunchbase)
VW reportedly tried to buy self-driving software developer, and partner, Aurora but was rebuffed because the firm wanted the freedom to work with multiple carmakers. (Bloomberg)

Chief of the US UAW union wrote an op-ed piece calling for EV powertrain production to be located in the US and preserve jobs. (Detroit News)
- Implication: Although he acknowledged the far lower mechanical (and therefore value-added) content in a BEV compared with an ICE powered car, the UAW President didn’t recognise that anything near to a one-for-one exchange of jobs is impossible, even if powertrain production remains in the US as he hopes.
Russian firm Kalashnikov unveiled an all-electric model called the CV-1 that it says will combine a 220 mile range with the looks of a stretched Yugo. Pricing and sales targets remain a mystery. (BBC)

Connectivity

TomTom said in July it made 1.5 billion changes to its maps, part of this was adding 1.32 million km of new roadways but much of it was changes to existing features. (TomTom)

Other

Root, an insurance company that offers individual policies based on usage and data collected about the policy owner’s driving style, raised $100 million. (TechCrunch)

Find our archive here.

Auto Industry Briefing — week ending 19th August 2018

August 21, 2018 Ad Punctum TeamAd Punctum, Automotive0

Unsettling times for lidar investors; Aston Martin’s money for old rope and Tesla’s product ageing problem. Please enjoy our auto industry and mobility briefing for 13^th August to 19^th August. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories of the past week…?

I’m Looking Through You — Lidar maker Quanergy found itself on the receiving end of investor panic because Daimler might prefer Velodyne’s product. Recent funding for lidar developers seems to be on the premise that there are massive riches to be made from a killer-sensor. The reality is more mundane; some competition is good but are 30+ companies needed for a product OEMs will successfully commoditise within two cycles? Whatever becomes of Quanergy, some consolidation wouldn’t go amiss.
Get Back — Aston Martin are going to make another 28 DB5 cars. Lucky punters can pick them up for £2.75 million, plus taxes (but can’t drive them on the road). Since the last “continuation” run of DB4s came in at £1.5 million, the extra money seems to be going straight into AML’s pocket. Is this type of exercise good fun or does it sell out the heritage and make the company look a bit desperate?
When I’m 64 — Elon Musk gave an interview where he talked about the exciting challenge of Tesla developing two products at once (Model Y and Semi). At the rate they are going, the Model S and X are going to be over ten years old when they are replaced, yet the competitive position of an ageing product doesn’t seem to be discussed anywhere. Should it?

News is arranged by company and topic. Stories that apply to more than one company or topic are duplicated.

Find our archive here.

News about the major automakers

South Korean regulators told owners of around 20,000 BMWs to stop driving them until the company had completed a recall action on them to address the risk of engine fires. (Reuters)

Trademarked “AMY” branding in relation to autonomous driving technology. (The Drive)

FCA ^(history)

Confirmed early 2019 as the timing for the end of Alfa Romeo MiTO production. (Autocar)
Insourcing production of power electronics modules for forthcoming PHEVs to the Toledo machining plant. (FCA)
- Implication: This action indicates that FCA may see PHEVs as an opportunity to increase workload in its own plants and partially offset the losses from lower traditional transmission take-up. The reality is that the labour associated with these parts is not very high and since OEM plants have traditionally been uncompetitive in making parts such as fuel systems, camshafts and conn rods, this move looks more political than economic.

The CFO said calls for the dividend to be reduced on weaker profits were “baseless”. (Detroit News)
Published a document outlining its vision for autonomous vehicles, reiterating the company’s intent to bring a vehicle to market in 2021 that is capable of driving without human assistance “within a specific geographic area and during appropriate weather conditions” but clarified that the cars “won’t initially be sold to customers”. In some cases the geofenced area (called the operational design domain, or ODD by Ford) might resemble a series of protected routes more than entire map grid squares as the cars avoid “complex” road layouts. (Ford)
- Implication: The document doesn’t reveal any proprietary advantage Ford believes it may have in autonomous vehicles but does confirm the company recognises and implements best practice in a number of areas. The text doesn’t make for skim reading; in one section Ford talks of “post crash ads behavior” but rather than explaining an exciting strategy to bombard occupants with commercials for no-fault lawyers following an accident, it refers to how the automated system will shut down in a safe manner (yawn). Ford also downplays the value of fleet deployments by competitors saying it has “millions of miles available for training sets” in virtual environments and “novel data” is what matters.
A report suggested CEO Hackett’s communication style was harming the company’s ability to implement strategic changes, saying some executives had to rely on his chief of staff (a former visual sensemaker) to understand his intent even after holding meetings on the subject. (Wall Street Journal)
Said that the development of new premises in downtown Detroit, centred on the former train station, will cost up to $740 million, which Ford expects to be partly subsidised by $240 million of tax breaks. (Detroit News)
Ford’s Autonomic unit signed a collaboration with Alibaba to develop a connected car platform for the Chinese market that would run on Alibaba’s servers. (Ford)
Said it will take “whatever action is needed” to ensure business profitability in the face of Brexit. (The Independent)
- Implication: Despite the consistent interpretation of these comments as a threat to Ford’s UK base, the reality is Ford already has too small a footprint in the UK compared with its sales and is suffering from the lack of a natural hedge, which it had at a corporate level until the sale of JLR in 2008. Unless Ford is contemplating mass withdrawal from segments in a market that is the company’s joint third largest globally (behind USA and China and tied with Canada), the obvious implication of Brexit is that the company needs to do more in the UK, rather than less.

Geely (includes Volvo) ^(history)

Geely and Proton signed a new strategic agreement that will likely lead to Proton-badged cars being built and sold in China. Proton are also hoping to access Geely’s electrification technology. The new agreement was signed with Malaysia’s prime minister — who has recently suggested that Geely’s involvement in Proton could require a new Malaysian national champion to be founded — looking on. (Geely)
Said its latest small crossover would be called Bin Yue in China and launched a competition to decide the name for international markets. (Geely)
- Implication: Unfortunately, wags appear thin on the ground with respondents to Geely’s Facebook page offering mundane or faux-profound monikers with no wordplay on bin/been and only one “Geely McGeelyface”. It was unclear whether there would be any trademark issues with “Geely LaGeely”.
Investors have reportedly indicated favourable support for a Volvo IPO that would value the brand at $30 billion, in line with Geely’s aspirations but higher than previously indicated. (Business Insider)
- Implication: At $30 billion, Volvo’s value would stand at more than 75% of former parent Ford, and a hefty mark-up on Geely’s acquisition price. It also implies a fantastic growth outlook at a time when most other western OEMs are being valued (with some justification) on an assumption of the cycle being at its peak.

Announced US customers will be able to purchase fuel from Shell stations using the in-dash Marketplace app. (Shell)
Will begin production of the Chevrolet Tracker at its joint venture in Uzbekistan this year. (Wards Auto)

Hyundai / Kia^(history)

Made a strategic investment in Revv, an Indian car sharing firm. (Hyundai)
Unions will hold partial strikes of between 4 – 6 hours per day at Kia’s South Korean plants after failing to reach agreement on wage rises. (Korea JoongAng)

Reportedly plans to start production at its new plant in Slovakia in September. (Slovak Spectator)

CEO Musk gave an interview where he talked about the mental and physical pressures of working constantly, and but said the board had full confidence in him and there was no need for a COO, although if someone better than him were found they could “have the reigns right now”. (New York Times)
CEO Musk explained the background to his infamous “funding secured” tweet by saying it came following conversations with a Saudi sovereign wealth fund where he was left with the impression that the fund would provide him with whatever financing was necessary to take the company private. (Tesla)
A trip to Tesla’s factory left analysts confident the company was achieving benchmark levels of productivity and that an increase in line rate to 8,000 vehicles per week can be achieved with relatively low additional spending. (CNBC)
A Model 3 teardown report speculated that base model vehicles may be lossmaking (by up to $6,000 per unit) due to the technology cost, and that the design cost lead over GM was lower than expected. (Economic Times of India)
CEO Musk said the company could “maybe” make a car with a price of $25,000 “in about three years”. Musk also said the company was still learning to develop two products concurrently. (CNBC)
- Implication: Almost silently, Tesla is implicitly challenging industry norms in terms of replacement cycle. With no successors on the horizon, the Model S and X could conceivably be over 10 years old when their replacements arrive. The possible counterpoint to this (based on no disclosure by Tesla) is that vehicles will be quickly scalable from common parts in the same way as the mid-2000s Nokia range. The company risks rapid fall-off in sales as competitive product (finally) arrives and its vehicles look stale by comparison.

Toyota ^(history)

Chinese government websites suggested Toyota has been granted approval for incremental annual production capacity of 10,000 BEVs and 110,000 PHEVs in Tianjin. Company sources suggest an additional 120,000 units of annual capacity could be installed at Guangzhou. (Reuters)

Unsealed court documents suggested CEO Diess knew about the diesel scandal for a couple of months before the company’s revelation of the problems, however the company defended this saying it was normal for executives to have discussed the matter before public disclosure and that at the time, executives hadn’t realised the extent of the problem. (Reuters)
Bentley’s boss implied that his medium-term volume goal is 15,000 units annually. (Autocar)
Works council boss Bernd Osterloh said that German plants should be fully utilised before new capacity is built in the VW network, and is focused on finding new work for Emden. He also called the views of those saying there is no need for German battery production “ignorant” because “40% of the value of the car will be the battery”. (WAZ)
Said that it had improved the company’s process for whistle-blowers and there were now around 70 to 80 reports made each month, of which “a relatively small number” turn out to be suspicious conduct. (VW)
Agreed a two year pay deal for workers in Mexico; 5.5% now and inflation plus 2% in 2019. (Reuters)
VW’s UK sales operation was hampered by a protest of environmental activists and health workers that blockaded the entrance to the building. (The Guardian)
VW’s German workers are outraged by a change in the tomato ketchup in staff canteens. The new recipe apparently has less fat and sugar but more tomato; the impact on productivity has not been publicly revealed. (WAZ)

Other

NIO filed documents saying it intends to raise up to $1.8 billion through an IPO in New York. (NIO)
Lucid is reportedly in talks to with PIF, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund that Elon Musk says may fund his bid to take Tesla private. The deal would see PIF invest $1 billion for a majority stake. (Reuters)
Aston Martin will build 28 new DB5s in a specification matching the James Bond movie Goldfinger. The cars will retail for £2.75 million plus tax. (Aston Martin)

News about other companies and trends

Suppliers

Nexteer reported first half revenue of $2.05 billion and net profit of $200 million. (Nexteer)
Lear opened a new seating plant in Michigan, USA which will ultimately employ 600 people. (Lear)

Dealers

Swap Motors, a US peer-to-peer car marketplace announced the opening of its first physical site to help address key transactional pain points. (Swap Motors)

Uber’s Q2 2018 financials showed net revenue of $2.7 billion on gross bookings of $12 billion. Adjusted losses came to $(891) million. (Reuters)
Uber is reportedly under pressure from investors to abandon its self-driving program after rumours that it is spending almost $(200) million per quarter on development. (Reuters)
Didi’s services unit, Xiaoju Automotive Services, acquired car maintenance business Hiservice. (TechCrunch)
Hyundai made a strategic investment in Revv, an Indian car sharing firm. (Hyundai)

Waymo researchers said the company has 25,000 vehicles in its virtual test fleet driving eight million simulated miles each day — an average of 320 miles per day — indicating that the simulated world, dubbed Carcraft, is processed at around real world pace (13 mph would be respectable in an urban area). (Business Insider)
FiveAI said it will start operating an autonomous test fleet in London suburbs in late 2019, following several months off data gathering by five manually-drive, sensor-laden vehicles starting soon. The company’s ultimate aspiration is to run ride hailing services with its own vehicles. (TechCrunch)
- Implication: Based on real world experience from the likes of Waymo and Cruise, the size of the FiveAI fleet suggests that the company will initially experience very high numbers of manual interventions per mile, unless the company’s development team has discovered a far more efficient testing regime.
US supermarket Kroger announced details for a self-driving delivery pilot using Nuro The shop involved is not Kroger-branded and there will be a $5.95 delivery fee for all orders. (Kroger)
- Implication: The use of a non-Kroger branded store may indicate the company perceives a reputational risk from the pilot, in addition, the service charge is in line with current manually-delivered orders so the pilot is likely to reveal little in terms of price elasticity and potential incremental sales from low cost delivery services enabled by AVs.
Lidar maker Quanergy has reportedly seen its funding plan disturbed by Daimler’s recent sourcing of sensors from Velodyne and rumours of quality problems. The company appears to have put a planned IPO on hold but insists it is one of the “finalists” for a Daimler supply agreement. (Bloomberg)

Vietnamese company Vinfast, which intends to produce a new range of vehicles, signed an agreement to make electric buses using Siemens technology in a possible precursor to building the systems into cars. (Reuters)
NIO filed documents saying it intends to raise up to $1.8 billion through an IPO in New York. (NIO)
Lucid is reportedly in talks to with PIF, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund that Elon Musk says may fund his bid to take Tesla The deal would see PIF invest $1 billion for a majority stake. (Reuters)
CEO Musk said Tesla could “maybe” make a car with a price of $25,000 “in about three years”. (CNBC)
Bollinger asked about access to Tesla’s charging network, but since the question was via Twitter, it seemed like it could be tongue-in-cheek. (InsideEVs)
Chinese solar equipment maker GCL is investigating car manufacturing on a new campus it is building near Nanjing. From the reports it wasn’t clear whether the intention would be to leverage solar power for cheap energy or to use solar as a power source for the vehicle itself. (Reuters)

Connectivity

Ford’s Autonomic unit signed a collaboration with Alibaba to develop a connected car platform for the Chinese market that would run on Alibaba’s servers. (Ford)

Other

Indian scooter rental firm Vogo raised around $7 million. (Deal Street Asia)

Find our archive here.

Auto Industry Briefing — week ending 12th August 2018

August 13, 2018 Ad Punctum TeamAd Punctum, Automotive0

Tesla’s long-term outlook; Ford’s slimmer portfolio and a blow for winner-takes-all mobility company valuations. Please enjoy our auto industry and mobility briefing for 6^th August to 12^th August. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories of the past week…?

Private Dancer — Elon Musk has a plan to de-list Tesla. Probably. He says the stock market creates too much short term pressure with insufficient focus on the long term. But is that true in Tesla’s case? Yes, it’s one of the most shorted stocks, but it’s also a perennially loss-making car company, less than half the size of (profit making) Volvo, with a market capitalisation of $60 billion… not all bad news then.
Work It Out — Ford is going to make less cars because winning customers from the people who are good at it is so hard. So far, so capital efficient. The problem is the industry’s unwritten (and not necessarily correct) rule that you need a full portfolio because customers are more loyal to brands than nameplates. Ford is cutting product without acknowledging the impact on its operating philosophy. What changes need to be made in selling and branding to cope with a narrower portfolio?
Fairytale Of New York — New York has implemented the long-threatened freeze on the number of cars permitted to offer ride hailing services. Will this cause mobility bulls to take stock of their company valuation models, which have been built on winner-takes-all assumptions that neglected the power of regulatory authorities? If there can be a licencing crackdown in New York, the bastion of the free markets, why will other territories be more forgiving?

News is arranged by company and topic. Stories that apply to more than one company or topic are duplicated.

Find our archive here.

News about the major automakers

After a spate of engine fires in South Korea, BMW recalled European vehicles with diesel engines and EGR to inspect for EGR coolant leakages. Media reports put the number of affected vehicles at 324,000. (BMW)
Executives said that BMW test drives of autonomous cars often last 1,000 km, with an average of three driver interventions, and also expressed scepticism that fully autonomous driving will be allowed on public roads. (Autocar)
Reportedly won’t replace the 3 Series GT model at the end of the current cycle. (BMW Blog)

Said it had ceased activities in Iran. (Reuters)
Reportedly in talks with BAIC to start making electric Smart cars in China. (Bloomberg)

Ford’s VP of product development and purchasing, Hau Thai-Tang gave a presentation outlining some of the company’s plans and how they tied into recently announced cost saving targets. For example, Thai-Tang presented a chart (slide 7) showing average age of portfolio coming down in the new plan as evidence of reater understanding of consumer trends and the need to produce relevant vehicles. (Ford)
- Implication: Page 105 in this presentation from September 2016 showed Ford had already learned this lesson and was boasting of a 2015 portfolio age of 2.6 years (even the new plan only gets to 3.3). In 2014, Ford called its product refresh plan leading up to 2020 “industry leading”. Is Ford failing to deliver on new products and then having to set itself back on track or is it taking credit for a pre-existing plan as new thinking?
Ford Aims to save around 20% to 40% of the engineering bill for each program by sharing up to 70% of the vehicle parts through common modules across five platforms. Ford conceded that in some markets the global platforms may be too expensive, and they will look to collaborate with local partners to do things more cheaply. Ford’s previous platform strategy restricted parts sharing to around 30% of vehicle content. (Ford)
- Implication: Ford’s new platform strategy echoes the approach of VW, Renault-Nissan and PSA, and to a lesser extent Volvo and JLR. The claimed savings appear realistic since these other manufacturers have quoted similar numbers and, VW aside, financial performance seems consistent. Slightly concerning was that Ford presented its plan as ahead of the pack, rather than recognising some competitors are more than five years ahead (but not GM). To judge for yourself how much of the costing process is new, you may want to look at this 2015 presentation by then VP of Purchasing Hau Thai-Tang, paying close attention to slides 1, 5, 9, 10 & 11.
Believes that the shift from passenger cars to utilities is permanent and the remaining car customers look for value and utility traits that “some of our competitors dominate”. (Ford)
- Implication: There has long been an unwritten rule in the industry that you kept customers by offering a full portfolio of vehicles since customers tend to be more loyal to brands than nameplates or segments. In pursuit of capital discipline, Ford is now eschewing this approach but is doing so without articulating (or potentially, realising) what changes need to be made to the selling model and branding to compensate for the narrower portfolio.
Unveiled the China-only Territory, an entry-level SUV developed with joint venture partner JMC. (Ford)
Suggested that the time to create the Territory, from initial concept to mass production (but not first customer deliveries) was under 20 months. (Ford)

Geely (includes Volvo) ^(history)

Reportedly close to investing £1.5 billion in Lotus, that would add models and new production and R&D facilities. Geely would also look to increase its ownership from the current level of 51%. (Bloomberg)

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)^(history)

GM executives said they had decided not to go all-aluminium for the latest generation Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full size pick up trucks after seeing Assembly challenges and looking at alternative materials. GM now says it has a cost advantage of “thousands of dollars” over F-150. (Reuters)
- Implication: With a history of crosstown trash talking every time one of them releases a new truck, GM’s comments on cost advantages merit consideration but should be seen in the context of GM’s product head saying he had been sent a box of the rivets used by Ford years ago and they were “still on my desk”, indicating that either: he has a massive desk; it is awfully untidy; or he keeps a special place for a box of rivets he doesn’t intend to use.

Hyundai / Kia^(history)

KIA unveiled a new technology, dubbed separated sound zone, which the company says can create individual sound zones within a vehicle through localised noise cancellation. (KIA)
Stopping production of diesel engines for Sonata, Grandeur, i30 and Maxcruz, citing low sales mixes. (Yonhap)

Mazda

Said that there was no improper emissions testing in Japan, although it had found some small issues which would be rectified through improved processes. (Mazda)

Mitsubishi is increasing production of the Xpander small crossover from 100,000 units annually to 150,000 units by 2019, citing wild sales success in the ASEAN region, particularly Indonesia. (Mitsubishi)
Nissan has trademarked “h-POWER”, leading to speculation that it could be used in hydrogen vehicles. (Auto Guide)

Suzuki

Was found to have passed vehicles with discrepancies in the emissions test. However, the issues with the test were minor and there is no impact on the consumer (Reuters)

Released its annual sustainability report. (Tata)

Tesla CEO Musk announced via Twitter and internal email that he was mulling whether to take the company private at a $420 per share level. He believes that the stock market listing drives too much short term thinking but still wants to have a tradeable form of shareholding for employees and external investors, citing SpaceX as a precedent. (Tesla)
- Implication: Despite Musk’s misgivings about the stock market, Tesla has been able to post consistent losses whilst pointing to future growth (and maintaining a high valuation). Either the short term thinking is a phantom or the rest of the industry must be facing the same problem to an even greater extent.
CEO Musk is reportedly under investigation because of how he released information about the possibility of Tesla going private. Speculation about legality concentrated on whether the statement “funding secured” was true and the use of Twitter is when some subscribers are blocked (precedent already says it is okay where there is no impediment to access and the company directs investors to the relevant channel — as Tesla have done). (Business Insider)
Saw a large Saudi sovereign wealth fund take a stake of just under 5%, but they reportedly aren’t interested in providing financing for the company to be taken private. (Reuters)
Information reportedly supplied by current and former Panasonic employees showed production of solar cells at around a quarter of Tesla’s intended annual 1 GW target, and includes production that Panasonic is selling under its own brand, due to envisaged demand from Tesla not yet materialising. (Reuters)

VW’s credit company trumpeted its success in selling bonds in euros, Russian roubles and pounds, saying that euro and pound issues were more than three times oversubscribed, despite the low interest payments. (VW)
Bugatti said the yet-to-be-revealed Divo model will not be track-only. (Autocar)
Has around 300 employees engaged on various projects relating to blockchain use in cars. (VW)
May have to recall PHEVs and BEVs due to high levels of cadmium in the charging units. (WirtschaftsWoche)

Other

Subaru announced financial results for Q1 of the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Revenue of 709.2 billion yen (about $6.4 billion) was down (12.9)% on the prior year, explained by a (12.3)% drop in unit sales. Operating income of 57.6 billion yen (about $520 million) was down (51.8)%. (Subaru)
Gyon held a brand launch, revealing the slogan “right is our niche” and saying that a concept car would be displayed in 2019. The only technical details disclosed were that Gyon’s products (sedan., SUV and crossover) will have ~360 mile range batteries that can be 80% charged in 10 minutes and 100% charged in 15 minutes. (Gyon)
Workhorse lost $(6.9) million on revenues of $0.2 million in Q2 2018 (Workhorse) and said it would undertake a stock offering, seemingly aimed at improved liquidity. (Workhorse)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

UK July passenger car registrations were 163,898 units, up 1.2% on prior year, but still down (5.5)% YTD. (SMMT)

Suppliers

Magna’s Q2 2018 revenue was $10.3 billion with operating income of $819 million. (Magna)
Delphi reported Q2 2018 revenue of $1.2 billion and operating income of $122 million. (Delphi)
Schaeffler announced a 90/10 joint venture with Paravan that will acquire the latter’s Space Drive drive by wire products and Schaeffler’s Mover autonomous platform. (Schaeffler)
Horiba acquired battery and fuel cell testing expert FuelCon. (Horiba)

New York passed restriction measures that freeze the number of vehicles operators such as Lyft and Uber are permitted to operate in the city for 12 months. (Digital Trends)
BlaBlaCar acquired smaller Russia market rival BeepCar. (TechCrunch)
Ola is going to expand to the UK. (BBC)

Wipro and Genesys will collaborate on software and maps for self-driving cars. (Economic Times of India)
Self-driving truck start-up Kodiak says it has raised $40 million. (TT News)
Data labelling company Scale, which says it counts GM, Lyft, Zoox, Voyage, NuTonomy and Embark amongst its customers, raised $18 million. (TechCrunch)
Navya sold 36 autonomous shuttles in the first half of 2018, for over €200,000 each. (Navya)
Driverless truck maker Nikola said it had already raised $100 million of a $200 million Series C target. (Nikola)
News of the hiring of Tesla’s former engineering VP reignited interest in Apple’s self-driving project. (TechCrunch)
BMW executives said test drives of autonomous cars often last 1,000 km, with an average of three driver interventions, and expressed scepticism that fully autonomous driving will be allowed on public roads. (Autocar)

Gyon said their products (sedan., SUV and crossover) will have ~360 mile range batteries that can be 80% charged in 10 minutes and 100% charged in 15 minutes. (Gyon)

Other

Intel said it sold $1 billion of artificial intelligence chips in 2017, but the number should be taken with a pinch of salt, it is partly based on Intel’s estimates of how much data centre workload is AI applications. (Reuters)
Per mile insurance provider Metromile licenced its platform to Japanese insurer Tokio Marine. (Metromile)

Find our archive here.

Auto Industry Briefing — week ending 5th August 2018

August 7, 2018 Ad Punctum TeamAd Punctum, Automotive0

Solar powered cars; the cons of GM’s manufacturing strategy and car making’s no-deal-nightmare Brexit. Please enjoy our auto industry and mobility briefing for 30^th July to 5^th August. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories of the past week…?

Good Day Sunshine — Bolloré and Hanergy are collaborating on solar powered cars. Although not household names, both have a wealth of industrial experience and deep pockets. With others put off by the technical challenges of harvesting energy and solar panel packaging, might Bolloré build on its know-how from the Bluecar and steal a march on others?
Please Release Me — GM wants an exemption from recently imposed US tariffs on Chinese-made Buick Envisions. Their reasoning is that the volume is too small for a standalone US plant, and it’s a good thing for GM to make money because it gets spent in America. But will the Trump administration see it that way when the inability to profitably produce the car in the USA is less to do with industry realities and more because of GM’s industrial strategy and lack of mega-platforms (previously trumpeted as good capital discipline)?
No Plan B — As UK government ministers rated the chances of a no deal Brexit at 60%, the car industry acknowledged the scenario as a “nightmare”. But why should that be the case? The problem for automakers is that they have held off making contingency plans for their manufacturing base because they would have to spend money upfront and think about which European plants would lose the work (Ad Punctum’s 2017 paper showed how this might be done). Are those good enough reasons for executives in wood-panelled boardrooms to stick their heads in the sand and work on different priorities? Unless your cars have a Mazda, Subaru, Suzuki or Mitsubishi badge it surely makes sense to have prepared ways to cut your tariff bill by tens (or even hundreds) of millions of pounds per year?

News is arranged by company and topic. Stories that apply to more than one company or topic are duplicated.

Find our archive here.

News about the major automakers

Reported automotive revenue of €22.2 billion in Q2 2018, about level with the prior year. Group PBT of €2.9 billion was down (6)% on a year earlier. (BMW)
Building a new plant in Hungary near the town of Debrecen. BMW say the plant will have capacity for 150,000 units per year and employ 1,000 staff. Total investment could come to €1 billion. (BMW)
Has hedging in place for 100% of 2018 currency exposures and 50% of 2019 levels. (Seeking Alpha)

Joined a slew of transparency groups to promote ethical sourcing of raw materials. (Daimler)
Moovel said it has five million users, with two million joining in the past 12 months. (Daimler)
Car2Go now has a fleet of 14,000 vehicles (of which 10% are electric). In the past six months, 90 million km have been covered by the scheme’s 3.3 million users. (Daimler)

Ferrari

Reported Q2 2018 financial results. Revenue of €906 million was down (1.6)% despite shipments increasing 6% to 2,463 cars. EBIT of €218 million was 8% higher than prior year. (Ferrari)
Markets reacted negatively to the new CEO’s comments that longer term financial targets set by prior CEO Marchionne were “aspirational”, even as he tried to clarify later in the earnings call that he simply meant the company didn’t have a detailed plan. (Seeking Alpha)
Said that normal wait times for cars was 1-2 years but that in “extreme” cases for particular products or markets the wait times could be up to four years. (Seeking Alpha)
Maserati’s drop in engine orders are not expected to affect Ferrari’s financial position because of the “take-or-pay” contract in place between the two parties. (Seeking Alpha)

Reportedly working on a spiritual successor to the Courier car-based pick-up truck, but this time based off a Focus, rather than Fiesta. If the rumours are true, US sales could start in 2022. (Automobile)
Cutting prices in Russia in a bid to increase sales. (Wards)
Has reportedly been discussing a sale of its South American unit with FCA and VW. (Bloomberg)
- Implication: The key question for Ford in relation to a regional exit is whether it could come to terms with relinquishing control of the blue oval brand, since although the overlap between distant markets may not be much, fallout from an uncontrollable scandal is the stuff of executive nightmares.

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)^(history)

Applied for the Buick Envision to be excluded from newly imposed US tariffs on China-sourced vehicles, arguing that sales were insufficient to justify US manufacture and profits supported US jobs. (Reuters)
- Implication: Whilst GM’s statement that sales of around 40,000 units a year are insufficient for breakeven is probably true, this is also a reflection of GM’s industrial strategy more than market realities. US OEMs have long eschewed mega-platforms, offering half-hearted words and few deeds, whilst others have made engineering choices enabling lower volume manufacture.
Badging some models as Tripower (previously associated with performance) to highlight the use of three fuel-saving technologies: cylinder deactivation; active thermal management and variable valve control. (Car Buzz)

Honda ^(history)

Reported financial results for the first quarter of its 2018-2019 financial year. Revenue of 4 trillion yen (about $36 billion) was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis, whilst operating profit of 300 billion yen (about $2.7 billion) was up 11.2% YoY. (Honda)
Intends to resume vehicle and engine production at a Mexican plant hit by flooding in mid-November, having recently restarted transmissions manufacturing at the site. Production of Insight vehicles in the US have been suspended in August as the Mexican plant cannot supply key componentry and stocks have been exhausted. (Honda)

Mazda

Reported financial results for the first quarter of its 2018-2019 financial year. Revenue of 873 billion yen (about $7.8 billion) was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis, whilst operating profit of 33 billion yen (about $300 million) was down (17.2)% YoY. (Mazda)

Nissan has agreed to sell a majority of its AESC battery division to Envision. (Envision)
Nissan executives expect 35% of the brand’s European sales in 2025 to be electrified vehicles. (Autocar)
May add another plant in China, but wants to maximise existing capacity first. (Bloomberg)

PSA (includes Opel/Vauxhall) ^(history)

Has reportedly been cutting production rates at several Opel factories: Rüsselsheim is going from 55 vehicles per hour to 42; Eisenach is going from 37 to 30 and Gliwice has reduced from 40 to 25 cars per hour. (FAZ)
- Implication: Since Opel’s sales grew on a year-over-year basis, the production cuts indicate that PSA is seeking to use the performance of newly launched (and PSA produced) crossovers, and Opel’s recent surprise profits to offset a portfolio realignment in cars, especially for Astra and Corsa.

Suzuki

Reported financial results for the first quarter of its 2018-2019 financial year. Revenue of 987 billion yen (about $9 billion) was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis, whilst operating profit of 116.5 billion yen (about $1 billion) was up 36.9% YoY. (Suzuki)

Reported financial results for the first quarter of the 2018-2019 year. Revenue of 670 billion INR (about $9.7 billion) was a 14% improvement versus the prior year. There was an after tax loss of (18) billion INR (about $260 million). The year over year drops were almost entirely explained by JLR which saw revenue fall (7)% to £5.2 billion and made an after tax loss of £(210) million. (Tata)

Reported Q2 2018 financial results. Revenues were $4 billion (of which automotive was $3.4 billion) and loss from operations was $(621) million — greater than both the prior quarter and a year earlier. (Tesla)
The company aims to be profitable and cash flow positive “for every quarter, going forward”. In some instances, this could be “barely” and Tesla may take on debt for projects like new factories. (Seeking Alpha)
Aims to produce 6,000 Model 3 cars per week by the end of August and reach 10,000 units per week “sometime next year”. (Tesla)
Revised its medium-term production outlook, saying although 1 million vehicles in 2020 was still its aspiration, “somewhere between half a million and a million seems pretty likely”. (Business Insider)
Said it has faced cost challenges because production problems with Model 3 have sometimes meant resorting to low volume tooling where unit prices “can easily be 10 times more” than volume tooling. (Seeking Alpha)
- Implication: This figure may surprise experienced industry hands, who would probably expect a multiple closer to three times where a supplier has a stable long term contract.
Said its latest driver assistance hardware will be capable of processing 2,000 frames per second, with redundancy, versus 200 frames per second in the current version. (Seeking Alpha)
Has reportedly been in talks with officials in Germany and the Netherlands to decide a site for a European Gigafactory. Tesla currently has a CKD facility in the Netherlands. (Reuters)
Said the most frequently traded in vehicles for Model 3 (in the US) were Honda Accord, Honda Civic, Toyota Prius, Nissan Leaf and BMW 3 Series. (Seeking Alpha)
- Implication: Depending on which way you read this, it is either positive (Tesla are attracting customers to pay far higher price points than they did on their prior car) or negative (3 Series aside, it seems to be failing to win sales from the competitors one would expect). If, as Tesla believes, customers are coming from lower segments then question marks must exist. Why were they not buying more expensive products previously? Have market dynamics been badly understood all along, or are Tesla inferring too much from a group of early adopters?
Tesla’s latest software update will apparently feature some Atari games the driver can play whilst the car is at a standstill, including a driving game controlled with the vehicle steering wheel. (The Verge)
- Implication: Whilst the idea might sound corny to some, using the steering wheel to play a game sounds like a fun way to repurpose vehicle controls (and makes you wonder why no one else has done it already).

Toyota ^(history)

Reported financial results for the first quarter of its 2018-2019 financial year. Revenue of 7.4 trillion yen (about $66 billion) was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis, whilst operating profit of 683 billion yen (about $6.1 billion) was up 18.9% YoY. (Toyota)
Will dissolve its partnership with Isuzu and sell all the shares (5.89%) it holds, saying that the collaboration had yielded few benefits and some of the originally planned projects had not gone ahead (especially diesel). (Toyota)
Announced a new venture fund, Mirai Creation Fund II, with a planned warchest of 50 billion yen (about $450 million) and a mandate covering AI, robotics, hydrogen infrastructure, electrification and new materials. (Toyota)
- Implication: The inclusion of electrification (out of scope in the 2015 fund) shows that Toyota is taking this technology more seriously.

Reported group financial results for Q2 2018. Revenue of €61.1 billion was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis whilst operating profit before special items of €5.58 billion rose 22.7% YoY, however special items of €(1.6) billion meant that the net operating profit was lower than the prior year. (VW)
Said WLTP will result in around €(1) billion of non-recurring profit reduction in 2018, and that in partial response to the new regulations, several portfolio trimming measures are underway, with reductions of 30% in VW Golf and Audi offerings being cited as examples. (Yahoo Finance)
VW’s performance division head said the brand wants to introduce performance versions of its forthcoming electric vehicles but hasn’t yet decided which vehicle is most suitable or what the product characteristics should be. (Autocar)
Announced a new COO for the VW brand. (VW)
Former CEO Martin Winterkorn may have been aware of the diesel scandal in 2007, if leaked witness testimony is to be believed. (Der Spiegel)
CEO Diess commented that synergies between motorbikes and cars were “not much, probably the same as between trucks and cars”, and “wouldn’t exclude” an independent future for the Ducati brand. (Bloomberg)

Other

Faraday Future has started the first production intent builds of FF91 vehicles, with the intention of customer car deliveries starting in December. The company previously said it has over 64,000 orders but it isn’t clear how many of these are paid deposits. Curiously, Faraday is rejecting interest from customers in some markets. (Faraday Future)
Aston Martin’s CEO said the company will offer hybrid versions of both the Mercedes-supplied V8 and its own V12 engines. (Autocar)
Prodrive is looking into production of a car that can convert into a boat, with a likely price tag of £150,000 if the vehicle ever makes it to production. (Autocar)
XPENG announced a 4 billion RMB fundraising round, taking total investment to 10 billion RMB (about $1.5 billion) and a valuation of “close to” 25 billion RMB (about $3.6 billion). (XPENG)
Austrian hypercar start-up Milan Automotive said it has already sold 18 of the planned 99 examples of its €2 million Milan Red. (Milan)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

US light vehicle SAAR in July was 16.7 million units, about flat compared with July 2017. (Wards)
German passenger car registrations in July came to 317,848 units, an increase of 12.3% on the prior year. (KBA)
July passenger car registrations in Spain were 131,176 units, an increase of 19.3% on the prior year. (ANFAC)
Italian passenger car registrations in July totalled 152,393 units, an increase of 4.4% on a year earlier. (UNRAE)
The US government unveiled plans to relax future fuel economy standards. Instead of requiring a fleet average of around 50 miles per gallon by 2026, the new rules call for about 37 miles per gallon. (CNBC)
As the UK trade minister put the chances of a “no deal” Brexit at 60% (BBC), the UK car industry trade body said “no deal… is just not an option”. (Reuters)
- Implication: The automotive industry has exhibited an extremely relaxed approach to Brexit planning, concentrating on obvious issues such as increased customs paperwork (actually mostly electronic) volumes and ignored the impacts of no deal scenarios, mostly because they involve spending money and contemplating changes to the industrial base that executives would prefer to avoid. Unfortunately, this is looking ever more rash as lead times to set up alternative manufacturing or sourcing have now been exceeded for all but the most inventive solutions. If a no deal comes to pass, companies faced with tariff bills in the hundreds of millions of euros are likely to point to similar failures by their competitors, it remains to be seen whether investors will be so accepting of the collective failure.

Suppliers

Aptiv reported Q2 2018 revenue of $3.7 billion, adjusted operating income was $474 million. (Aptiv)
Denso reported Q2 2018 revenue of 1.3 trillion yen (~$12 billion) and operating profit of 91 billion yen. (Denso)
Mahle announced that it had loads of test stands available for WLTP certification. (Mahle)
Continental reported Q2 2018 revenue of €22.4 billion and adjusted EBIT of €2.2 billion. (Continental)
Magneti Marelli agreed terms for the acquisition of perception software developer SmartMeUp. (Magneti Marelli)
Chinese materials supplier Teijin Frontier is to acquire German automotive interiors specialistH. Ziegler for €125 million. (Textile World)

Dealers

Despite troubling times for US OEMs, dealer group AutoNation reported 11% profit growth on slightly improved revenue. Much of the profit increase was attributed to used cars and financial services. (Auto Nation)

Grab said it had raised $2 billion in a round where Toyota invested $1 billion. (Grab)
Indian bus (shared rides) service aggregator ZipGo is reportedly close to a $50 million investment. (Live Mint)
Didi is reportedly considering a $2 billion takeover of bicycle rental firm Ofo in combination with Alibaba’s Ant Financial. (Deal Street Asia)
Lyft is conducting a trial for 100 people in Chicago where it will provide $550 in vouchers for a combination of mobility services in return for them renouncing car usage for a month. (The Verge)
- Implication: Whilst the trial has attracted plenty of media interest (presumably its intent), the number of users seems extremely low, the timeframe short and the $550 per month travel entitlement seems unduly generous — but perhaps that’s the point: offer loads of money and then report back that they didn’t need as much to get by without their car?
Winner-takes-all ride hailing bulls saw their vision of a future monopoly for the likes of Uber take a blow as New York investigated measures to control fleet sizes, meaning regulators are now active in major cities on both sides of the Atlantic. (New York Times)
Moovel said it has five million users, with two million joining in the past 12 months. (Daimler)
Car2Go now has a fleet of 14,000 vehicles (of which 10% are electric). In the past six months, 90 million km have been covered by the scheme’s 3.3 million users. (Daimler)

Mapping supplier RideOS announced $25 million in investment. (RideOS)
Hertz and Aptiv announced a strategic partnership that includes running Aptiv’s vehicles in Las Vegas but also aspires to create a standard set of operating procedures. (Hertz)
Swedish self-driving start-up Einride unveiled a new model called T-log which is says can handle off-road activities in addition to the on-highway capabilities of its predecessor. (Business Insider)
Uber is stopping development of self-driving trucks. The company still sees a future for freight movement using autonomous vehicles but believes the way forward is to develop working driverless passenger transport and then transfer the technology to commercial vehicles. (TechCrunch)