The Station - A new Vogt-less era takes shape at Cruise and battery material mining gets a boost

Sunday, November 26, 2023

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.

Happy Thanksgiving to our readers. We’re grateful here at The Station that you’ve stuck with us all these years as we dissect the transportation news each week. We’ll keep this one short because no doubt everyone’s exhausted from the tsunami of family and food.

The Cruise saga continues. Late last weekend, CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt resigned from his post. Vogt’s co-founder, Dan Kan, also resigned. No one has been named to replace Vogt yet, but Mo Elshenawy, EVP of engineering at Cruise, is stepping up to serve as president and CTO. Jon McNeill, a member of GM’s board, was appointed vice chairman of the Cruise board.

The top dogs released a new business plan for the beleaguered robotaxi company going forward, one that’s tempered to preserve cash and promote a safety culture. The first step is holding the pause on the Origin robotaxi production through 2024. Cruise will instead continue to focus on its Chevy Bolt AV.

Cruise isn’t planning to relaunch any time soon, but when it does, it will start in one city and go from there. That’s a departure from the previous aggressive multi-city launch strategy Cruise and GM had focused on in 2023.

Cruise didn’t announce any layoffs, but those should be coming soon. We expect to hear more about that in mid-December.

Want to reach out with a tip, comment or complaint? Email Kirsten at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or Rebecca at rebecca.techcrunch@gmail.com.

Reminder that you can drop us a note at tips@techcrunch.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and various encrypted messaging apps.

Image Credits: Darrell Etherington with files from Getty under license

Micromobbin'

A quick word on what two cities near and dear to my heart are doing, or are not doing, in the way of micromobility.

In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has announced a new plan to turn the Hudson River into a “marine highway,” facilitating delivery of goods to Manhattan’s piers. A fleet of electric cargo bikes would then pick up those goods and shuttle them to their final destinations.

Meanwhile in Auckland, the Council voted this week to scrap a planned multi-modal micromobility center that was meant to be a part of the redevelopment of a downtown carpark site. Auckland’s car-loving mayor Wayne Brown said the $28 million center had “no business case at all,” a clear attempt to ignore the hundreds of workers who might prefer to ride swiftly into work rather than sit in traffic only to waste time searching for parking.

Cases like these two put into hyper focus the need for intelligent city planning to encourage more people and businesses to choose greener forms of transit, like micromobility. If policymakers want to reduce carbon emissions and create more liveable cities, improving cycling infrastructure and supporting clean last mile delivery solutions is imperative. Adding 200 more temporary parking spaces (which is the policy Mayor Brown ended up supporting) only makes the problems of traffic congestion and air pollution worse.

Deal of the week

Kinterra Capital, a Canadian private equity firm, closed an oversubscribed $565 million fund dedicated to securing critical mineral assets for battery development.

The firm’s debut fund comes amid increasing government incentives into the sourcing and production of battery materials in North America. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is rife with incentives to promote domestic industry to fuel the energy transition and reduce reliance on China.

Kinterra’s co-founders said that the “structural underinvestment in critical minerals over the past decade” has resulted in “severely discounted valuations for excellent assets” while also creating a need for capital investment.

Basically, Kinterra wants to strike while the iron is hot. The company will be on the lookout to invest in assets across North America, Western Europe and Australia like lithium mines, battery manufacturing plants, energy storage solutions, raw materials manufacturing plants and more.

Other deals that got my attention…

Chinese battery giant CATL is reportedly eyeing a second listing in Hong Kong. The company is currently listed in Shenzhen.

HumanForest, a London-based e-bike operator, has raised a £5 million ($6.3M) extension to its Series A, bringing it up to a £17 million ($21.4M) total. The funds will be used to grow the e-bike fleet and further develop the startup’s ad tech platform and parking compliance software.

More like a no deal. Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russel’s bid to buy Forbes Global Media Holdings has ended. Forbes’s parent company, Integrated Whale Media Investments, terminated the agreement with Russell after he failed to secure the ideal group of investors needed to close the deal.

Notable news and other tidbits

ADAS

A Florida judge found that there is “reasonable evidence” to conclude that Tesla and its managers, including CEO Elon Musk, knew its vehicles had defective Autopilot systems and still allowed them on the roads. Now the family of Stephen Banner, who in 2019 died in a crash involving Autopilot, can take Tesla to trial and seek punitive damages.

Autonomous vehicles

Motional and Hyudai are co-developing production-ready versions of the electric IONIQ 5 robotaxi at a new innovation center in Singapore. The robotaxis are for set for Motional’s U.S. commercial service starting in 2024.

Electric vehicles, batteries & charging

Ford is downsizing plans to build a factory in Michigan that makes cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries using tech licensed from China’s CATL.

South Korean LG Electronics plans to enter the U.S. EV charging market in 2024 with a new line of owner-operated AC and DC chargers. The B2B line will include Level 2 and Level 3 chargers aimed at businesses, municipalities and other public spaces.

Nissan will invest around $1.4 billion to build three new EV plants in the UK.

Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe is taking on the additional role of chief product officer at the company as the current person in charge of that function, Nick Kalayjian, moves into an advisory position.

Tesla charged congestion fees at some of its Supercharger stations in the U.S. over the Thanksgiving weekend. The additional $1 per minute charge will be implemented to Tesla owners going beyond a 90% charge when stations are busy.

Gig economy

Ride-hail drivers for Uber and Lyft in Massachusetts who want the right to unionize have collected enough signatures to bring their ballot question to voters in 2024.

Miscellaneous

Chinese EV maker Li Auto is stepping up efforts to build in-house automotive chips. The company is hiring five positions in Singapore to develop silicon carbide power modules.