TechCrunch Mobility: Apple layoffs, an EV price reckoning and another Tesla robotaxi promise Plus, more Fisker problems and a Waymo-Uber Eats tie-upWelcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.
The average price of an EV in 2023 was $61,702, while all other vehicles stood at $47,450.
This downward pressure has forced automakers like Ford to delay future EV launches and put more resources toward hybrids.
Even Tesla, a bellwether in the EV world, fell well below analysts’ expectations with deliveries down 20% from Q4 2023.
What vehicles — including the two-wheeled variety — are you interested in reading about?
Hours later, Musk posted on X that a “Tesla Robotaxi” will be unveiled August 8.
Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024Reports have swirled for years that Tesla was working on these two vehicles.
Musk has been promising autonomous capabilities in Tesla vehicles for years.
Tesla vehicles come standard with a driver-assistance system branded as Autopilot.
Tesla vehicles are not self-driving.
Tesla is reportedly abandoning its plan to build a lower-cost EV thought to cost around $25,000, according to Reuters, despite that vehicle’s status as a pivotal product for the company’s overall growth.
The company will instead focus its efforts on a planned robotaxi that is being built on the same small EV platform that was also supposed to power the lower-cost vehicle.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed, without proof, that Reuters is “lying” in a post on his social media platform, X, and did not dispute any specific details.
He also responded with an eyes emoji to another post that effectively summed up the Reuters report in different words.
Tesla was reportedly targeting a price of around $25,000 for the next-generation EV.
Ford announced Thursday that it’s delaying the production of two electric vehicles, a next-generation EV pickup and a three-row EV SUV.
Most recently, that startup mentality was on display with the Mustang Mach-E, Ford’s all-electric crossover.
The result was a crossover that has helped Ford claim second place in U.S. EV sales for several quarters in a row.
And don’t forget the original Ford assembly line, which while not a product, was definitely a product of entrepreneurial thinking.
Ford has excelled at those tasks: The Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning are by most accounts not just excellent EVs, but excellent vehicles overall.
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.
Remember in the last edition of TechCrunch Mobility, when I wrote that the wheels were starting to come off the Fisker bus?
Deal of the weekIt ain’t easy being an executive at an EV startup these days.
Amid all of the EV startup bankruptcies and other bleak goings-on, there was a bit of positive news.
It seems that Tesla is turning to FSD as another financial lever to pull as profits on automotive sales shrink.
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups.
For the low, low price of being a Robinhood Gold member (because who doesn’t want to pay $5 a month for the privilege of spending more money?
Robinhood unveiled its Gold Card, a credit card so packed with features it might just make Apple Card users pause for a hot second.
For the low, low price of being a Robinhood Gold member (because who doesn’t want to pay $5 a month for the privilege of spending more money?
Trend of the week: Transportation troubleThe New York Stock Exchange has given EV startup Fisker the boot, citing its “abnormally low” stock prices.
Sila, Group14, Envoix, and Amprius are all trying to commercialize their silicon anode technology, hoping to cash in on consumers’ desire for ever more EV range.
Ionobell, a seed stage startup, is hoping to be at the top of that list, claiming its silicon material will be cheaper than the established competition.
Both established companies impregnate porous graphite structures with silicon; Sila also adds a coating to the particles.
Ionobell’s silicon supply comes from a waste material, Neivert said, which helps keep costs down.
Like other battery materials companies, Ionobell faces a challenging road ahead.
Bankrupt commercial EV startup Arrival has sold some of its assets, including advanced manufacturing equipment to Canoo, another struggling startup trying to build and sell electric vehicles.
Canoo said the purchased assets, packed into more than 20 container ships, will be sent to the company’s facility in Oklahoma.
The company previously acquired all of the new, and “like-new” assets owned by Arrival’s business unit in the United States.
Arrival announced in January that it planned to sell off assets and IP from its U.K. division after filing for bankruptcy protection in the U.K.
Arrival never produced any commercial vehicles at scale and its market valuation is now around $7.7 million.
Lucid Motors is raising another $1 billion from its biggest financial backer, Saudi Arabia, as it looks to blunt the high costs associated with building and selling its luxury electric sedan.
The fresh funding comes just a few weeks after Lucid told investors that it only plans to build around 9,000 of its Air electric vehicles this year, a slight bump over last year’s output.
It lost $2.8 billion in 2023 and finished the year with just shy of $1.4 billion in cash and equivalents.
Lucid also plans to start building its electric Gravity SUV at the end of this year.
Lucid announced the investment less than three weeks after CEO Peter Rawlinson told the Financial Times that he was wary of relying too heavily on Saudi Arabia to keep shoveling money into its proverbial furnace.
Chances are you may have noticed that many commercial vehicles are now electric vehicles — think about delivery vans, telecom minivans, utility maintenance trucks, etc.
That’s why Pelikan Mobility has been building a platform and a leasing solution that address this challenge caused by the switch to EVs for commercial fleets.
Many companies lease their commercial vehicles and Pelikan Mobility believes that pricing is broken for commercial EVs.
Leasing contracts — even for commercial vehicles, even for electric vehicles — end far too quickly.
It will also have to raise a debt fund for that new business as Pelikan Mobility plans to address large customers.
