Trucks | FoT: New Trucks fund, Flint, Volocopter

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

Today we are announcing our third core fund, Trucks Venture Fund 3 LP (link). We raised this new fund (aka TVF3) over the last year and have already made a number of investments. Most notably, my friend and colleague Puneeth Meruva has been elevated to partner in this new fund. Thank you to our portfolio founders (present and future), our global partners backing us in this fund, and my colleagues at Trucks.

Entering the age of the 'super hybrid' or long-range hybrid (link). Whether you call them EREVs or super hybrids, they are emerging as the 'great compromise' for the coming decade.

Where is the next-generation Apple CarPlay? (link). Promised back in 2022, supposed to debut in 2024.

GM's Super Cruise trips off w/ certain aftermarket stereos (link). From a GM friend and FoT reader: 'As you start introducing Level 2 ADAS, we will have to increase the safety envelope and you will see less freedom around aftermarket. Almost no way to avoid this, which the aftermarket world is starting to realize.' Next step will likely be a 'Works with GM vehicles' certification process for aftermarket if it is at risk of tripping ADAS, for which GM could probably charge more.

Turo's response to the New Year's Day terror attack, which appear to be unrelated to one another but both of which used the car sharing service (link). In both cases these were licensed drivers with clean criminal records, so I'm not sure how any vehicle platform would have prevented against it. I appreciated the way Turo has handled this over the last few days.

Video: Swiss artistic cycling (link). Video: car cover polygon trials, from 16 polygons to over 100,000 (link). Video: Nio's Clearmotion suspension tackles the champagne tower test (link). Video: Norway's bicycle lift (link). Via SD. Video: man arrested after trying to steal a Waymo in Los Angeles (link). Video: miniaturized Tokyo (link). Via Diego.

The world's oldest surving toy is probably this 5000-year old play car (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

The Information's 2025 prediction: Amazon acquires Lyft (link). I bothered a few banker friends while they were on their ski vacations to ask them about this and nobody had heard anything, so this seems like just fun conjecture. Lyft market cap is just about $6B today.

German VTOL startup Volocopter files for bankruptcy (link).

Smart key startup Keyvault raises $1M (link).

Paper battery startup Flint raises $2M (link). Via Pete S.

Hindenburg Research's report on Carvana (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Aurora Innovation: Dara Khosrowshahi leaves board; Shailen Bhatt joins board (link).

Featured Jobs:

Hardware Design Engineer at River in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (link).

Functional Safety Manager at Quadric in Burlingame, CA USA (link).

MobilityJobs is the No.1 job board for auto & transportation companies (link). If you are a startup you can use the job board for free standard listings — just enter 'Trucks' at checkout.

New Stuff:

A shortened list of EVs eligible for US subsidy as of Jan 1, down to 25 vehicles (link). Manufacturers include: Acura, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Ford, Genesis, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Tesla.

NYC becomes first US city with congestion charge (link). 'Car drivers will pay up to $9 a day, with varying rates for other vehicles.' Related: 'the success of this program is a major test for the Democratic party’s ideals' (link).

VW's new Scout brand will have built-in satellite connectivity (link).

Generate any location from the real world in Minecraft (link). Via JW.

Patents & Patent Applications:

Toyota's patent application for an automatic EV charging system (link).

Statistics / Projections:

Almost 1 in 3 new cars registered in the UK last month were full EVs (link). Via Bloomberg / Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

Global EV sales leaders in 2024: Tesla: 1.79M vehicles, BYD: 1.76M vehicles (link). Via Bloomberg. BYD figure includes hybrids.

Tesla's global vehicle deliveries fell in 2024 vs the previous year, for the first time in years (link). Via WSJ.

Driving costs help make transportation the second-largest expenditure for Americans after housing, representing roughly 17% of household income. In the European Union, it’s only 11% (link). Via Bloomberg.

Thank you:

Thank you to Rebecca Field for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Quadric (link), River (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

Take the Underground to Dragonham East,

Reilly Brennan