The Station - Porsche IPO demand accelerates, California to ban new gas cars and more micromobility layoffs

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Welcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B.

In case you missed last week’s edition, here is a handy roundup of what we saw during Monterey Car Week, which wrapped last Sunday. Tl;dr: EVs reigned.

Let’s jump in!

You can always email me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share thoughts, criticisms, opinions, or tips. You also can send a direct message to @kirstenkorosec

Micromobbin'

First, let’s check out what cities are up to …

Brussels closed off its downtown to cars, joining a small but growing list of cities that are seeing the light (because there’s no car smog blocking the sun).

Denver is proposing shifting $900 million away from highway expansion projects and towards ones that favor walking, biking and public transit.

Nature published a study that found people won’t ride bikes if your city doesn’t implement pro-bike policy and infrastructure, even if they own heaps of bikes.

New York’s MTA is considering regulations around bringing personal EVs on trains because there have been too many battery fires.

Oakland has introduced an e-bike library program so low-income residents can get amongst the environment and money-saving transport form.

Toronto came out with results from its Complete Streets pilot that saw installations of cafes, bikeways and other nice things. The result was an increase in pedestrian and active mobility of up to 193% between May 2021 and June 2022.

In startup news …

Gogoro has surpassed 500,000 monthly battery swapping subscribers in Taiwan, a big milestone for the company that says it has enabled more than 325 million battery swaps, or 340,000 swaps per day.

Lime launched a “Spare the Air” campaign that offers riders a 25% discount on two Lime e-bike and e-scooter rides when cities issue a poor air quality warning, which typically happens during the hot summer months.

Tier is the latest micromobility company to layoff employees. I personally wasn’t expecting Tier to join the layoff train, especially after watching the company gobble up other startups on its path to scooter domination. Unfortunately, due to the current economic and funding climate, Tier laid off about 180 staffers as it tries to trim costs on its path to profitability.

— Rebecca Bellan

North Texas Is at the Center of Mobility Innovation

A little bird

Last week, I shared that BMW no longer has a permit to test autonomous vehicles (with a safety driver) in California.

This week, we have a new permit holder. The company is called Black Sesame Technologies, a China and Santa Clara-based autonomous driving computing chip maker. Black Sesame recently raised funds in a Series C+ round led by SummitView Capital. Industrial Bank Group, GF Xinde Investment Management, Hina Group Fund, Northbeta Yinuo Capital, Xingding Capital, Ei Camino Capital and Yangzijiang Fund also participated.

The company, which received strategic investment from Bosch’s Boyuan Capital in January, has raised a total of $500 million.

recently

Deal of the week

Snippets about impending Porsche’s IPO have been trickling out for months now, but this latest one really piqued my interest. Why? Well, Porsche could end up being one of Europe’s biggest-ever listings.

The company has reportedly put together enough investor interest, including from T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Qatar Investment Authority, for its IPO at a valuation of as much as $85 billion, Bloomberg reported. The company, which currently sits under VW Group, secured pre-orders that exceed the shares on offer at a valuation between 60 billion and 85 billion euros ($85 billion), according to unnamed sources cited by Bloomberg.

Stay tuned; the automaker is expected to announced its intention to float in the first week of September after a supervisory board sign-off.

Other deals that got my attention this week …

Hyundai Motor Group invested an undisclosed amount into BOS Semiconductors, a fabless startup based in Korea that designs system-on-chip solutions.

Kodiak Robotics landed another backer. The self-driving trucks startup announced this week a partnership with truck stop operator Pilot Co, a Berkshire Hathaway company. As part of the deal, Pilot has taken a stake in the company and a board seat. While the amount of the investment wasn’t disclosed, Pilot is now the largest strategic investor of Kodiak, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Pacific Equity Partners (PEP) bought a majority stake in Australian-based traffic management firm Altus Traffic.

Socar, the South Korean car-sharing company, raised $78 million in an IPO.

SK On, the South Korea battery maker, raised about 2 trillion won ($1.51 billion) from EastBridge Partners, Korea Investment Partners and Stella Investment.

Zitara, a San Francisco-based battery management software company, raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Energy Impact Partners, and joined by existing investors NextView Ventures, Collaborative Fund and Trucks VC

Notable reads and other tidbits

Autonomous vehicles

GM filed a patent application for a self-cleaning floor system that would be used in robotaxis.

The UK government’s new autonomous vehicle roadmap says manufacturers operating self-driving vehicles in the country will be liable for a vehicle’s actions when in autonomous mode.

Waymo is increasing the size of its self-driving truck fleet in Texas.

Electric vehicles & batteries

Autonocast co-host and author Ed Niedermeyer wrote an opinion piece in the NYT about why we don’t need 300-mile range EVs. Do you agree?

Electrification is poised to turn school buses into money-making arbitrage assets, TechCrunch’s Tim de Chant reported (TC+ subscription)

EV battery leases could be a boon for manufacturers, a bust for consumers (another TC+ subscription article by Tim de Chant.)

Ford began taking reservations for its 2023 Mustang Mach-E after a four-month hiatus due to short supply.The automaker also boosted the battery-electric SUV’s range and upped the price on the EV. (The base trim is now about 7% more expensive than the previous model year.

Mercedes-Benz began production of the 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV — its first battery-electric SUV for the U.S. market — at its plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Panasonic is eyeing Oklahoma as the future home for its next lithium-ion battery plant.

Sen. Joe Manchin’s ultimatum may turn the U.S. into a battery powerhouse (TC+ subscription).

Volkswagen is looking to take stakes in mining operations in Canada to shore up its raw material supply for battery production, Handelsblatt reported.

In-car tech

Comma.ai, the startup founded by famed iPhone hacker George Hotz, has filed a lawsuit against an individual that the company describes in a recent blog post as a patent troll.

Policy

California Air Resources Board approved a measure that will phase out the sale of new gasoline-powered cars in the Golden State by 2035.

Toyota agreed to recognize California’s authority to set vehicle emissions standards under the U.S. Clean Air Act. The move will make the Japanese automaker eligible for government fleet purchases by California.

Tesla

Yup, Tesla gets its own category this week.

California’s Office of Administrative Law denied Tesla’s petition against the state’s civil rights watchdog for failing to conduct proper investigations before suing the automaker for racial discrimination at its Fremont assembly plant.

Elon Musk publicly admonished a Tesla owner who criticized FSD beta software — the soon-to-be $15,000 upgraded version of its advanced driver assistance system that the CEO promises one day will deliver full autonomous driving capabilities.

Tesla sent a cease-and-desist letter to California U.S. Senate candidate Dan O’Dowd, to remove a controversial ad that depicts a Tesla Model 3 equipped with “Full Self-Driving” Beta software running over child-sized mannequins.

The company’s bid to dismiss a racial bias suit was denied in tentative ruling.

YouTube removed videos from its platform showing Tesla drivers using their own children to conduct vehicle safety tests.

People

Britishvolt CEO and founder Orral Nadjari is stepping down and will be replaced by Graham Hoare, who is deputy CEO and president of global operations.

Ford plans to cut about 3,000 jobs, a move that will affect salaried and contract workers, according to an internal email sent to employees.

Mercedes-Benz Group announced that Andreas Tetzloff was appointed president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Canada, effective October 1, 2022.