Polestar secured a $950 million loan from a dozen banks, critical funds needed to keep its EV plans moving forward following Volvo’s decision to pull back its financial support of the electric automaker.
Polestar, which has cut 10% of jobs since mid-2023, said it plans to make another 15% cut this year.
Polestar currently produces the Polestar 2, Polestar 3, which recently started production in China, and the Polestar 4.
The company said it has successfully completed test production runs for the Polestar 3 at its factory in South Carolina.
The $950 million loan follows Volvo Cars’ decision last month to reduce its 48% holding in Polestar and let parent company Geely take over financial responsibility.
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Of course, as he talked, I wondered if this was wishful thinking or an attempt to show the company was still part of the autonomous vehicle conversation?
Robotic Research Autonomous Industries (RRAI), an autonomous vehicle company with a history of working with the Department of Defense, changed its name to Forterra.
Well, it seems the EV market is a tad more cutthroat than anticipated, with pricing pressure mounting like the suspense in a bad thriller movie.
Most interesting startup stories this weekStaying in the world of automotive, there’s been a lot of movement from the avant-garde of EV manufacturers.
These price adjustments from Ford and Lucid come hot on the heels of EV industry poster child Tesla’s price reductions, suggesting that the EV market is maturing and that customers are becoming more price conscious.
Despite all their rage, they’re still just a rat in a Faraday cage: Struggling EV startup Faraday Future owes the landlord of its Los Angeles headquarters nearly $1 million after missing the last two months’ rent.
This week’s big trend: The AI train keeps rumblin’ alongOpenAI has introduced a new generative AI model named Sora, capable of creating videos from text descriptions or still images.
This is the third round of layoffs for the EV company since July 2022 when Rivian cut 6% of its workforce.
On a full-year basis, Rivian reported revenue of $4.4 billion, up from $1.66 billion in 2022.
It brought in about $39 million in the fourth quarter and $73 million for the full year from the sale of regulatory credits.
On an adjusted basis, it reported a loss of $1.1 billion compared to a $1.5 billion loss in the same year-ago period.
“We took significant steps towards driving greater efficiency in 2023 gross profit per vehicle improved by approximately $81,000 when comparing the fourth quarter of 2023 to the fourth quarter 2022,” Scaringe said on an earnings call Wednesday.
What went wrong at Cruise, a pivot at Vroom and a home for Tesla’s Dojo supercomputerTechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox.
Autonomous vehicle and EV startups — even those that have since gone public — are trying to cut costs in hopes of extending their capital runway.
Now, a few little birds are telling us that Canoo and Faraday Future — both EV startups that went public via mergers with special purpose acquisition companies — are either reducing salaries or furloughing employees.
So what went wrong at Cruise?
Cruise also revealed that the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have also opened investigations into the company.
Tesla reported operating income of $2.06 billion in the fourth quarter, a 47% decrease from the same year-ago period.
Tesla spent $1.1 billion on research and development in the fourth quarter, a 35% from the same period last year.
Tesla was able to claw back some of its automotive industry-leading margins in the fourth quarter, thanks in part to a push to further reduce costs.
Energy GrowthWhile Tesla was cautious about vehicle growth in 2024, the company remains bullish on the growth of its energy storage business.
Storage deployments were up 125% year-over-year, even with a slower fourth quarter.
Tesla says EV sales growth may be “notably lower” in 2024 The automaker's earnings show a company at a profit-growth crossroadsTesla’s strategy to drive sales through price cuts combined with the cost of bringing the Cybertruck into production put pressure on profits in the fourth quarter, according to earnings reported Wednesday.
Tesla reported operating income of $2.06 billion in the fourth quarter, a 47% decrease from the same year-ago period.
Tesla spent $1.1 billion on research and development in the fourth quarter, a 35% from the same period last year.
Energy GrowthWhile Tesla was cautious about vehicle growth in 2024, the company remains very bullish on the growth of its energy storage business.
Storage deployments were up 125% year-over-year, even with a slower fourth quarter.
Tesla says EV sales growth may be “notably lower” in 2024 The automaker's earnings show a company at a profit-growth crossroadsTesla’s strategy to drive sales through price cuts combined with the cost of bringing the Cybertruck into production put pressure on profits in the fourth quarter, according to earnings reported Wednesday.
Tesla reported operating income of $2.06 billion in the fourth quarter, a 47% decrease from the same year-ago period.
Tesla spent $1.1 billion on research and development in the fourth quarter, a 35% from the same period last year.
Tesla was able to claw back some of its automotive industry-leading margins in the fourth quarter, thanks in part to a push to further reduce costs.
Analysts had expected the company to earn around $25.62B billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Yahoo Finance data.
This week, read about Amazon, EV startup Fisker, electric boats, a bunch of new funding deals and my time driving the all-new Kia EV9.
Remember Lordstown Motors, the EV startup that went public via a SPAC and has since filed for bankruptcy protection?
Steve Burns, who founded and was then ousted from Lordstown Motors, is back with a new EV startup called LandX Motors.
Northvolt, the Swedish battery startup, secured a $5 billion debt deal to help pay for the expansion of its first gigafactory.
The Kia EV9 comes in five trims with the cheapest — the rear-wheel drive EV9 Light — starting at $54,900.
The ousted founder of bankrupt EV startup Lordstown Motors has launched a new company called LandX Motors, that prominently displays the same electric pickup truck he once promised would beat Tesla, Ford and General Motors to market.
While LandX Motors doesn’t explicitly refer to the trucks as the Endurance, a video on the website shows EV trucks that have the Lordstown badge.
A LandX Motors spokesperson responded to an email, but didn’t provide any further information and declined to answer questions.
He founded Lordstown Motors in 2019 after leaving a different struggling EV startup, Workhorse.
Of the 16 employees who list LandX Motors as their employer on LinkedIn, 13 of them used to work at Lordstown Motors.
