Trucks | FoT: Altium, Super Cruise, Celadyne

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

Made in Chimex: The US auto industry braces for Mexican manufacturing outposts of Chinese manufacturers, which would still qualify for tax credits (link). 'The trade war then-President Donald Trump started in 2018 helped spur Chinese investment in third-party countries like Mexico. By 2023, Chinese industrial companies were using 9.31 million square feet of Mexican industrial park space, up from 1.28 million square feet in 2019, according to market data from development firm Finsa...Electric vehicles assembled in Mexico can also qualify for a US consumer tax credit of as much as $7,500 under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s signature climate law.'

Interview with Tesla design lead Franz von Holzhausen (link). 'He now runs a team of roughly 300 employees, including designers and sculptors responsible for transforming two-dimensional images into models made of clay. Most of them work out of the Los Angeles-area design studio, an open-floor office located in a converted airplane hangar next to the headquarters of Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX. For years, Musk visited von Holzhausen nearly every Friday to review the team’s latest ideas. Today, those visits are less frequent, with Musk juggling more companies and Tesla’s headquarters relocated to Texas.'

Q&A with Mobileye CEO Shashua (link).

How China built BYD, its Tesla killer (link). 'BYD's sales, over 80% of them in China, have grown by about a million cars in each of the past two years. The last automaker to accomplish that in even one year in the American market was General Motors — and that was in 1946, after G.M. had suspended passenger car sales during the four preceding years because of World War II.'

GM’s Super Cruise expanding to cover 750,000 miles of roads in the US and Canada (link). The automated vehicle story that nobody seems to talk about is an increasing amount of hands-free ADAS coverage.

Understanding the political divide on EVs in America (link).

Waymo recalls and updates robotaxi software after two cars crashed into the same towed pickup truck (link).

Air Force OKs autonomous cargo flights across California after successful test (link).

Video: Joby Aviation's Bony Simi in conversation at BNEF (link). Video: Dr Larry Burns on Autoline After Hours (link). Video: Dodge minivan with turbine engine running 11s (link). Video: Slow motion of a 132 mph bird strike of a Robinson helicopter polycarbonate windshield (link). Video: Murray Walker interviews Enzo Ferrari, 1987 (link).

Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

PCB software designer Altium to be acquired for $5.8B by Renesas (link). 'Altium, which designs tools for creating circuit boards, is one of Australia’s oldest technology companies. It is listed on the Australian stock exchange but is headquartered in La Jolla, California...US company Autodesk attempted a takeover of Altium in 2021 with a A$5.25bn offer that the Australian company rejected as undervaluing its business.'

German visual inspection startup Inspekto acquired by Siemens (link).

Digital freight startup CDL 1000 acquires rival Next Trucking (link).

Danish logistics startup Portchain raises $5M (link). Led by Angular Ventures.

Hydrogen membrane startup Celadyne raises $4.6M (link). Led by Maniv and Dynamo.

GM's Cruise names Steve Kenner as new Chief Safety Officer (link); hardware chief Carl Jenkins resigns (link).

Shell subsidiary closes nearly all of its light-duty hydrogen stations in California, representing about 12% of U.S. public hydrogen fueling stations (link).

Legacy publishing brands, including Evo, acquired by UK ecommerce startup Carwow (link).

Board Changes:

Cummins: John Stone joins board (link).

Trimble: Ann Fandozzi resigns from board (link).

Nikola: Carla Tully joins board (link).

Garrett Motion: Paul Camuti joins board (link).

Monro: Thomas Okray joins board (link).

QuantumScape: Siva Sivaram promoted to CEO, joins board (link).

Hyliion Trucks: Andrew Card, Stephen Pang resign from board (link).

New Stuff:

Kenyan electric bus startup Basi-Go completes its first locally built bus (link). 'BasiGo and KVM are collaborating to launch Kenya’s first high-volume E-Bus assembly line. This dedicated assembly line will deliver 1000 high-quality, locally assembled electric buses to Kenyan bus operators in the next 3 years, creating 300 green manufacturing jobs.'

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi withdraws from California’s AV testing program (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

GM's patent application shows ride-hailing pedestrian gesture identification (link).

Apple's patent application showing cruise control interfaces (link).

Featured Jobs:

Robotics Technician at Teleo in Palo Alto, CA, USA (link).

Software Systems Engineer at JetZero in Long Beach, CA USA (link).

MobilityJobs is the No.1 job board for auto & transportation companies (link). New: any startup can now post standard jobs for free. Just use the code 'Trucks' at checkout.

Statistics / Projections:

Top lithium producer Albemarle downgrades 2030 demand forecast as EV shift slows (link). Via FT. 'Albemarle now expects 3.3M tons of lithium carbon equivalent to be needed globally by 2030, down from its previous forecast of 3.7M tons. The revised figure, treble that of last year’s 1M tons, still presented a challenge for the industry, executives said.'

EVs have about 75 days supply on dealer lots in the US, compared to about 50 for gasoline and 30 for hybrids (link). Via WSJ / JD Power.

More Americans are turning 65 this year than any prior time in history (link). Via WSJ / Bipartisan Policy Center. 'About 4.1 million Americans will reach 65 years old this year, reaching a surge that will continue through 2027, according to an analysis by Jason Fichtner, executive director of the Retirement Income Institute and chief economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center. That is about 11,200 a day, compared with the 10,000 daily average from the previous decade, he says.'

Vehicle owners are experiencing lower levels of vehicle dependability after three years of ownership (link). Via JD Power. 'The rate at which problems have increased between 90 days and three years of ownership has increased to 17%, up 5 percentage points from 12% in 2023.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Jonathon Bell (link), John Casesa (link), Jon Gordon (link) and Ezra James (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Basi-Go (link), JetZero (link), Teleo (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

See you next week,

Reilly Brennan