Fisker remains far from meeting CEO and founder Henrik Fisker’s publicly stated goal of delivering 300 electric SUVs per day globally, according to internal documents viewed by TechCrunch.
The EV startup spent much of December aiming to meet an internal sales goal of between 100 and 200 vehicles a day in North America, where the bulk of its inventory and sales efforts are.
Fisker is delivering its SUVs in a number of European countries, and contract manufacturer Magna Steyr builds them in Austria.
Henrik Fisker told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the lack of a physical footprint has harmed sales here.
The slow pace of deliveries has widened the gulf between the amount of Fisker Ocean SUVs being produced by Magna and the number sold.
Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has revealed its first electric car, a sharp-looking sedan called the SU7.
It’s the same pitch Faraday Future’s founder originally gave many years ago when promoting his original electric vehicle project in China, a part of his tech conglomerate at the time.
There are quite literal versions of this in Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto, which mirror a phone’s software on the in-car screen.
Volkswagen tried to build up its own powerhouse in-car software team but has struggled mightily.
Tesla has developed a robust in-car software experience for its vehicles, though it has resisted CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of maintaining control of its screens.
The EV tax credit is about to get better, and also harder to findThe federal tax credit for electric vehicles is about to change in one particular way that will make it far more attractive to buyers.
Vehicles qualify for a $3,500 credit if the automakers follow certain guidelines on where they source battery materials, and another $3,500 provided they stick to similar rules for battery components.
As a result, General Motors said this week only its Chevy Bolt will qualify for the full tax credit starting January 1.
Ford, meanwhile, said only its F-150 Lightning will qualify for the full $7,500 credit.
The Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring SUV will be eligible for half of the credit, while the Mustang Mach-E, Lincoln Aviator Grand Touring plug-in hybrid and E-Transit van won’t.
It also objected to Google limiting or refusing to allow interoperability of services included in GAS with third-party services.
“We are particularly concerned about the compulsory bundling of services with great market strength and reach with services that are less strong.
“Google is also prepared to eliminate its contractual provisions on setting Google services as default applications or displaying them prominently in the infotainment platform,” the FCO also noted.
The question of whether Google’s proposals will result in an unbundled offering of Google’s services in the automotive sector will be decisive in this context,” it added.
Which may give the FCO reason enough to continue its scrutiny of Google Maps in the meanwhile.
Electric vehicle charging company EVCS is raising a $20 million round, TechCrunch+ has exclusively learned.
The startup has so far raised $7.5 million of the $20 million target, according to paperwork the company filed with the SEC on Wednesday.
If EVCS can raise the rest, this round would make for a slight step up from the $18.8 million Series A the company raised in July 2022, perhaps as an extension to that round.
But the round also suggests a tempering of expectations at the startup, which reportedly explored raising $125 million as recently as this June.
The funds would have helped the company add more than 2,000 fast chargers to its network.
The announcement comes at the tail end of a procession of other automakers jumping on the charging standard, following Tesla’s announcement last year that it was opening up access.
Ford added that its next generation of EVs would be integrated with Tesla’s charge port called the North American Charging Standard (NACS) starting in 2025.
Since then, major automakers such as GM, Rivian, Honda, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia, Toyota and most recently Subaru followed with their own announcements to leverage Tesla’s charging standard.
Lucid, a smaller luxury EV company, announced in November it would adopt the NACs standard.
The company has previously told TechCrunch it is evaluating the charging standard.
Sono SionGerman automaker Sono once led the charge to bring solar panels to electric cars with the five-seater Sono Sion hatchback.
No longer an automaker, Sono now focuses on embedding its solar tech into other vehicles.
GM, Honda’s affordable EVsGeneral Motors and Honda said in April 2022 that they’d co-develop millions of small and affordable EVs.
Months later, it seems the acquirer has yet to restart VanMoof production or resume repairs.
On the other handIt’s been a bummer year for fans of small EVs, but all is not lost.
Autonomous vehicle company May Mobility has launched its first driverless on-demand microtransit service on public roads in Sun City, Arizona in partnership with transit tech company Via.
May’s strategy of integrating its autonomous microtransit service into existing public transit, in partnership with cities, has also laid the groundwork for future, more challenging deployments.
More recently, May launched an on-demand service in Grand Rapids, Michigan in partnership with Via.
Beep operates autonomous shuttles for resident transportation in the Lake Nona community in Florida and for public transportation in Peachtree Corners, Georgia.
Riders can book the on-demand ride-hail service through May Mobility’s app, available in Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Select Waymo One riders can now get picked up or dropped off by the company’s robotaxis curbside at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Waymo became the first autonomous vehicle operator in the U.S. to launch a paid robotaxi service to and from the airport in November 2022.
The average trip rating for its airport trips has been about 4.7 out of 5 stars, Waymo says.
Waymo’s trusted testers are riders who have been vetted by the company and have signed nondisclosure agreements.
“Last year, we partnered with Waymo to become the first airport in the world to offer travelers the ability to take an autonomous vehicle to the airport,” said Chad Makovsky, aviation director at Sky Harbor Airport, in a statement.
An email, penned by newly minted president and CTO Mo Elshenawy, was sent this morning to the entire 3,800-person workforce.
Cruise is targeting non-engineering jobs in the layoffs, particularly those people who worked in the field, commercial operations and corporate staffing, according to the email.
Engineering, a category that makes up the bulk of the Cruise workforce, is largely being preserved, according to the content of the email and discussions with internal sources.
The layoffs have been largely expected at Cruise for weeks now.
GM and the Cruise board have been scrambling ever since the October 2 incident put the company in the crosshairs of state, local and federal agencies.
