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The United Autoworkers strike continued to dominate the information cycle. And the strike, now in its third week, is escalating.
After GM and Ford CEOs went on the assault, UAW chief Shawn Fain responded by saying the strike would increase. Workers walked off the job at a Ford plant in Chicago and GM’s Lansing, Michigan meeting plant. Stellantis wasn’t a part of the expanded strike after making a last-minute concession.
With tempers and tensions working excessive, it’s laborious to see how it will get resolved anytime quickly.
Before we bounce into the remainder of the information, right here’s the most recent episode of the Equity Podcast. OK, let’s goooooo.
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Micromobbin’
Bird has lastly been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. The official purpose was that the corporate failed to take care of a market cap of over $15 million for 30 consecutive days, however Bird has had a tough time retaining its inventory value above $1, as nicely. The firm will proceed to commerce over-the-counter, and will enchantment the choice.
The timing is awkward, given Bird acquired Spin out from Tier solely per week earlier than its delisting. In a Ztoog+ piece, I analyze whether or not the Spin acquisition will probably be sufficient to avoid wasting Bird from crashing solely.
We don’t know the way a lot runway Bird has with out entry to Spin’s steadiness sheets. But Spin’s reported income is barely a couple of fifth of Bird’s, and primarily based on Bird’s personal working bills, money owed, income and out there money — to not point out its turbulent historical past — I’d say the corporate has a troublesome street forward to regain investor confidence.
A fast phrase on battery fires. Rep. Ritchie Torres launched laws to Congress that may require a nationwide security customary for lithium-ion batteries for micromobility units. The invoice happened partially as a result of on-line retailers like Amazon proceed to promote unsafe batteries, regardless of the rise in battery fires through the years.
Deal of the week
I’m undecided if this sector will preserve its buzzy standing without end, however for now traders appear pleased to pour cash into electrical boat startups. Arc is a type of.
The Los Angeles-based EV boat startup simply raised $70 million in a Series B spherical from a bevy of returning traders, together with Eclipse, Andreessen Horowitz, Lowercarbon Capital and Abstract Ventures. New investor Menlo Ventures — particularly long-time associate and self-proclaimed boating fanatic Shawn Carolan — additionally joined in. Arc has raised greater than $100 million, to this point.
Flush with contemporary capital, co-founders Mitch Lee and Ryan Cook are planning to scale up with a brand new higher-volume electrical boat designed for wakeboarding, wakesurfing and different watersports resembling tubing. That focus may show profitable as most EV boat startups are producing hydrofoil-styled boats, which don’t create wakes massive sufficient for use for watersports.
Other offers that bought my consideration this week …
H55, a Swiss developer of electrical propulsion and battery administration programs for aviation, raised about $49 million in Series C funding fromND Capital, Tippet Venture Partners, RTX Ventures and different “prominent” personal traders.
Kneron, which is creating AI chips to energy self-driving vehicles, amongst different autonomous machines, raised $49 million in an extension to its Series B spherical from traders together with Foxconn, Alltek, Horizon Ventures, Liteon Technology Corp., Adata and PalPilot. The firm has raised $190 million, to this point.
Line Man Wongnai, an on-demand supply app in Thailand, is getting prepped for an preliminary public providing in Bangkok that would elevate round $300 million, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.
Sierra Space raised $290 million in a Series B spherical to scale its Dream Chaser spaceplane and business area station tasks. The business area transportation startup is now valued at $5.3 billion.
Notable reads and different tidbits
ADAS
Contributor Emme Hall examined Mercedes’ hands-off, eyes-off automated driving system on a traffic-laden Los Angeles freeway. Here’s the way it went.
Autonomous autos
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters union despatched a letter to U.S. auto security regulators urging the company to disclaim a petition by General Motors to grant an exemption to subsidiary Cruise to construct its Origin AV with out conventional automobile requirements like a steering wheel.
Electric autos, charging & batteries
Ford has halted work on its deliberate $3.5 billion EV battery plant in Michigan that was alleged to make cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries utilizing tech from China’s CATL. The manufacturing unit has been controversial with native residents in addition to on the nationwide degree, the place Republican lawmakers proceed to push the automaker to share extra paperwork in regards to the settlement with CATL. Ford insists it has shared every part.
Side be aware: Ford’s timing is curious. Many have linked the choice to the UAW strike. But maybe it’s one thing else. One concept floating round my circles is that Ford noticed the U.S. Commerce Department’s just lately launched interpretation of overseas entity of concern for the CHIPS Act and is anticipating comparable language from the Treasury Department for the Section 30D Credit below the Inflation Reduction Act. In different phrases, it doesn’t count on for the plant to satisfy necessities to obtain incentives.
Honda touted its huge EV associate community within the U.S. Now it wants to begin promoting EVs within the nation.
Lucid Group opened its first worldwide manufacturing unit in Saudi Arabia, the house of its largest shareholder. For now the manufacturing unit will re-assemble Lucid Air automobile kits which might be pre-manufactured on the firm’s U.S. manufacturing unit in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Volkswagen’s $2.1 billion plan to launch a devoted electric-vehicle manufacturing unit in Wolfsburg, Germany is kaput. The automaker will as a substitute modify two present crops within the nation.
Gig financial system
Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub obtained a blow to their enterprise in New York City after a decide dominated to permit the implementation of the minimal pay price of $18 per hour for town’s meals supply staff.
Speaking of Uber, the ride-hailing firm struck a multiyear partnership with Los Angeles Yellow Cab and its 5 associate taxi fleets in Southern California. Under the association, taxi drivers may have entry to Uber journey referrals in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. (I discover it fascinating to look at how Uber and taxi corporations are actually working collectively)
People
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit towards Tesla, accusing the automaker of violating federal regulation by tolerating widespread and ongoing racial harassment of its Black staff and subjecting some staff to retaliation for opposing harassment.
Reminder: the lawsuit from the federal company accountable for implementing civil rights legal guidelines towards office discrimination is certainly one of a number of towards Tesla for racial bias. The California Civil Rights Department sued Tesla in 2022 over comparable allegations.
Volkswagen’s software program unit Cariad went by way of a shakeup earlier this yr and now it’s beginning to put the items again collectively again. Cariad simply employed Sanjay Lal — who most just lately led the event of Rivian’s infotainment and next-gen middleware throughout the automobile and cloud — to tackle the two.0 model of its software program structure that will probably be an working system designed for all VW Group manufacturers. Specifically he’ll lead the institution of the so-called SDV Hub, the place software program builders and tech consultants from Cariad, Volkswagen and Audi will work collectively to develop the two.0 platform. Yup, that’s an enormous job.
You may bear in mind Lal’s title. Prior to his VP of software program platform job at Rivian, Lal labored held a number of engineering management positions at Cisco, Tesla and for Android Automotive at Google.