🚗 Automotive
Once one of the next-big-thing EV startups poised to take on Tesla, Fisker declared bankruptcy in 2024, having built about 11,000 examples of its first and only model. (That’s not counting the previous car company started by founder Henrik Fisker, which went bust in 2013 before making 2,500 cars.) A company called American Lease, the largest fleet operator in NYC, swept in to buy up about 2,800 unsold Ocean SUVs; now American Lease rents them to ride-hailing and for-hire car service drivers like Baldera at a rate of $330 per week. So for the next few years, the streets of New York City will be just about the only place in the world where you’re likely to see a Fisker Ocean in the wild. | Bloomberg ($)
Hertz on will start selling pre-owned vehicles on Amazon Autos, a move meant to bolster the car rental company’s retail operations as it looks to bring in more profits. Shares of Hertz soared in premarket trading Wednesday. Under the partnership, customers can browse from thousands of used Hertz vehicles on Amazon Autos, e-sign the paperwork, complete their purchase online and pick up their vehicle at Hertz locations. Customers who live within 75 miles of the four initial cities — Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Seattle — can start browsing on Amazon as soon as Wednesday, and Hertz eventually plans to expand the arrangement to 45 locations nationwide. | CNBC
Car shoppers are going to start coming to dealer lots with a new question: “Where was this vehicle built?” That is because in President Trump’s new tax law, car buyers can qualify for a tax deduction on interest from car loans used to finance the purchase of vehicles assembled in the U.S. The new deduction is more widely available than the $7,500 credit for buying an electric vehicle, which expires at the end of September. It is also less generous, less immediate and harder to estimate. The challenge is to sort it all out. Republicans’ “one big, beautiful bill” created a tax deduction for interest paid on loans for domestically assembled new vehicles purchased from 2025 through 2028. Used cars aren’t eligible. Neither are leased cars. The vehicles must be for personal use. Unlike the current $7,500 EV incentive, the new interest deduction won’t help you pay less at the dealership. Instead, the savings come once a year through your tax return. (Importantly, it can be used even without itemizing deductions.) Any passenger vehicle—electric, hybrid, regular old gasoline-burning—is eligible, at any price, as long as it is assembled in the U.S. Of the 16 million new vehicles expected to be sold in the U.S. this year, 1 million to 1.8 million could qualify the purchaser to take the new deduction, consulting firm AlixPartners estimates. | The Wall Street Journal ($)
It’s an interesting subject, the fob. The way a consumer first interacts with a car is also one of the least relevant details of the driving experience. Yet it serves as a handshake: A good design will communicate brand values, even status. A lot more thought goes into creating a fob than drivers may realize. We’ve come a long way since Cadillac introduced a radio-based keyless entry for the Allanté in the 1980s. A modern fob generally consists of an electronic circuit board, a battery and a switch pack that receives signals from sensors; sometimes a metal emergency key is hidden inside. | Bloomberg ($)
The average auto dealership generated $1,924 in finance and insurance gross profit per vehicle during the second quarter, up 7.6% from a year earlier, according to StoneEagle. Individual dealerships grew average monthly F&I income 8.3% to $220,640 during the quarter, despite the industry’s average monthly deal count rising by only 0.9%, to 115 deals, the F&I menu and analytics provider said. StoneEagle said the average dealership sold 1.57 products per deal during the second quarter, up 3.3%. Service contracts had the highest penetration rate of any F&I product during the second quarter at 45%, up 1 percentage point from a year earlier, followed by guaranteed asset protection at 38%, also up 1 point. | Automotive News ($)
Ever since Toyota entered America in the 1950s, the country has been a vital market for it. The carmaker, which sells more vehicles worldwide than any other, retails around a quarter of its cars in the U.S. That makes President Donald Trump’s 15% tariff on Japanese vehicles a big problem, considering that only around half of the cars Toyota sells in America are made in the country (see chart). In an earnings call on August 7th, Japan’s most valuable company said that American duties cost it ¥450bn ($3bn) in the three months to June. For its full fiscal year it expects the impact to be close to $10bn, the biggest hit reported so far by any carmaker. Toyota could, of course, pass tariffs on to consumers through higher prices. But this brings with it the risk of losing market share to competitors that choose not to do so. Instead, the company is relying on one of Japan Inc’s great strengths: obsessive tinkering. In the second quarter, it revealed a ¥305bn boost to operating profit from various efforts to optimize its business, offsetting around two-thirds of the tariff hit. That included a mix of cost-cutting, marketing to boost sales, particularly of more profitable vehicles, and measures to earn more from add-on services, such as car parts and vehicle financing. | The Economist ($)
Britain experienced a sharp drop in vehicle crime in the 1990s, thanks to immobilizers and other technology. In 2013, Britain had only 2.7 thefts for every 1,000 privately owned cars, according to RUSI Europe. Now it is 4.4. Thefts have risen from 90,000 in 2020 to 130,000 last year. That has fed into a 45% real-terms rise in the cost of car insurance (in the EU it has risen only in line with inflation). The method is typically as follows. To defeat sophisticated security systems, thieves use specialized equipment. Once in, they mask the car with fake number plates and use jammers to override GPS tracking. Then they move it, usually across county lines (collaboration between police forces is often poor), where it will be sold to a group that handles logistics. Sometimes the car is hidden in a shipment of other goods, under a false manifest. More often, the gang employs a third group to give the car a “new identity”—not only paperwork but markers including the vehicle identification number, a unique code stamped on the chassis.This whole process—from theft to container—often takes less than a day. That is partly because Grand Theft Global Inc. is not one outfit but a sophisticated supply chain. It is also lucrative. Consider a Toyota Hilux, which when new costs around £40,000 ($54,000). The group that steals one might be paid £1,500 for a night’s work. If another gets it to west Africa, where Hiluxes are sought after, they can sell it for more than it fetches in Britain. | The Economist ($)
Mercedes-Benz could be about to sell off its vehicle leasing subsidiary to France’s BNP Paribas as a way of gaining a cash injection in challenging economic times for European automakers. The German auto group is in advanced talks to sell its Athlon business, which is currently valued at €1 billion ($1.17 billion), sources tell Bloomberg News. As with other domestic automakers, Mercedes-Benz is being squeezed between the challenges it is facing from U.S. vehicle import taxes together with the increasing competition in Europe from cheaper Chinese products. Athlon, with outlets in 20 countries in wider Europe and North America, had been acquired by Daimler from Holland’s Rabobank in 2016 for $1.1 billion. BNP already owns the vehicle leasing company Arval, which is currently more focused on private individual lease arrangements so the acquisition of Athlon could greatly bolster its offerings in the fleet sector. | Wards Auto
How much are Japanese automakers paying for President Donald Trump’s tariffs? When it comes to the import duty damage, it seems the bigger they are, the harder they hurt. Collectively, the six Japanese carmakers selling in the U.S. are bracing for a tariff tab totaling ¥2.6 trillion ($18.2 billion) in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2026. And the costs could keep climbing. | Automotive News ($)
In the last eight months, General Motors has made nearly a dozen hires from top tech companies—from Google to Meta to AWS—with the aim of building a small but elite AI center of excellence, much of it based in Mountain View, Calif. For many companies, the challenge posed by artificial intelligence rests in how to make practical use of it in operations. For a company like GM, that could mean incorporating AI into back-office workflows, but also into future fleets of autonomous vehicles, manufacturing robots and even motor sports. Currently, the team is less than 20 people and the intent is to keep it small, Richardson said. It’s already helping GM executives from manufacturing to engineering use AI more effectively. The new team’s remit is much broader than just autonomy, assisting the organization everywhere from factory production lines to the NASCAR racetrack. The team will consult on AI uses, help individual groups build their own AI workforces, secure partnerships and negotiate vendor contracts. | The Wall Street Journal ($)
Roughly 1 in 3 adults and half of all children are considered highly susceptible to motion sickness, which can be triggered by all sorts of things, such as riding backward and sniffing certain smells. What’s more, passengers are much more likely to get it than drivers. In large part, that is because they don’t have control of the car, so they can’t anticipate all the moves it will make and adjust their bodies accordingly. Their senses tell their body to expect one thing, but the car does another. That is a problem for the autonomous-car business—because everyone is a passenger, and nobody continuously controls the car. What’s more, one of the big promises of autonomous vehicles is that you can use your travel time to work, read or take in a movie. Those are precisely the things that can make motion sickness worse. To keep motion sickness from becoming an obstacle to a self-driving-car future, companies and researchers are working on ways to make rides smoother and less triggering for passengers. They are trying everything from minimizing erratic driving behavior during the ride to changing the interior design of the cabin to make it as stomach-friendly as possible. | The Wall Street Journal ($)
⚡️ EVs
Affordability, or the lack thereof, has long been a major stumbling block for electric vehicle adoption. But with a wave of deeply discounted offers, EVs, on average, are cheaper to lease than gas-powered cars. Car companies are offering screaming deals on battery-powered machines in a push to lock in loyal customers before losing federal tax credits of up to $7,500 per transaction at the end of September. | Bloomberg ($)
Leases now comprise nearly three out of four EV transactions and that’s largely by design. Car dealerships and buyers alike realize that lease contracts have fewer restrictions when it comes to qualifying for federal subsidies. And for the wide swath of drivers who are both curious about and skeptical of EVs, a lease is far easier to swallow than an outright sale. | Bloomberg ($)
China is dominating the electric vehicle market globally, accounting for more than 70% of global manufacturing in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Its EV makers have pulled ahead of U.S. car companies on both price and technology. Case in point: the five-minute charger. This past spring, two major Chinese companies announced breakthroughs in battery technology that will enable electric vehicles to drive hundreds of miles on a five-minute charge. After traveling to China to test drive new fast-charging cars sold by BYD, Patrick George, the editor in chief of InsideEVs, said Chinese models were “pretty much a generation or two ahead of the rest of the world.” It’s easy to imagine how five-minute charging might transform U.S. drivers’ attitudes toward electric vehicles. Widely available power sources and a charge time roughly the same length as a stop to fill up a gas tank would go a long way to alleviate the range anxiety many cite as a hurdle to going electric. But car buyers in the U.S. aren’t likely to get access to five-minute charging any time soon, analysts say. Here’s why. | The New York Times ($)
🇨🇳 China
Xiaomi may not be a household name in the US, but in China, its products are everywhere. Already one of the world’s top mobile phone manufacturers, the technology company also makes everything from toothbrushes to watches—even mattresses. Now it’s betting big on electric vehicles, having already succeeded where even Apple failed. The Chinese company’s new push has proven quite lucrative, helping it gain some $120 billion in market value over the past year. Why is a Chinese tech giant that many in the West have never heard of making such a dramatic pivot—and how could this be just the beginning? | Bloomberg ($)
Richard Truett from Automotive News argues that one major reason the Chinese industry can produce a vehicle for thousands less than its competitors is because of a government entity ― little known in the West ― called CATARC, short for China Automotive Technology & Research Center. CATARC creates performance, reliability and other standards for components, and rules that manufacturers must follow to be certified to sell in China. The approach leads to commonization of hundreds of components across brands and vehicles — confirmed by Caresoft in its vehicle teardowns. High-volume output lowers the cost of parts. America needs its own version of CATARC. Since Ford is taking the lead in producing a low-cost vehicle using in large part the manufacturing strategies pioneered by Tesla and Chinese automakers, Ford Motor Company is the logical leader in convincing other automakers that it is time to start developing common components. | Automotive News ($)
Chinese companies involved in the electric vehicle industry invested more overseas than domestically for the first time in 2024, although foreign projects face higher costs, delays and risks. Companies in the supply chain invested around $16 billion overseas last year — mostly in battery production, and just ahead of the $15 billion spent at home, according to a report by research company Rhodium Group released Aug. 18. The figures represent an “historic shift” after years of directing around 80 percent of investment domestically, Rhodium said in the report. Chinese companies are being driven to expand globally as overcapacity and a long-running price war at home squeeze margins all along the supply chain. They are also seeking to skirt punishing tariffs in Europe and the U.S. by building production facilities there, and bowing to pressure from foreign customers for more localized production. | Automotive News ($)
Many people want to compare Tesla and BYD – understandable because they are the two largest EV makers in the world. But their core DNA is not the same. BYD started as a battery company, then moved into the business of making cars. Tesla is a technology company that wraps metal, glass, and wheels around a supercomputer, juiced by powerful software. | The Free Press
Volkswagen has expanded its relationship with Chinese EV specialist XPENG by agreeing to adopt the company’s electronic architecture for VW brand’s future combustion-engine cars developed for China. VW has leaned on Xpeng for a wide range of electric-focused technology since buying a 5% stake in the Tesla rival in 2023. This is the first time, however, that VW will integrate Xpeng’s tech in its core combustion-engine range, which accounts for a majority of the group’s sales in China. Having an advanced, easily updatable electronic architecture is seen as essential for the software-defined cars that tech-savvy Chinese customers increasingly demand. VW announced in 2024 that it would switch to the China Electronic Architecture developed by Xpeng along with the Volkswagen Group China Technology Company (VCTC) and its software arm, CARIAD, for all VW brand electric cars developed in China, with the first due in 2026. | Automotive News ($)
Rare earths are rare only in the sense that they tend to be found in very low concentrations and are chemically difficult to isolate. Their production, in contrast, is highly concentrated, with Chinese firms accounting for 69% of the ore dug up, over 90% of the refined minerals produced and nearly all of the manufacture of rare-earth magnets. In April, after America slapped China with 54% tariffs, China began to restrict exports of seven rare earths. Lately some shipments have resumed, but the West remains anxious. Rare earths are a buzzword at intergovernmental summits. The Pentagon is investing in projects to mine them. Is the world hostage to China’s near-monopoly and, if so, can it free itself? | The Economist ($)
🤖 Autonomy, Robotics & AI
Waymo has been granted a permit to test its autonomous vehicles in New York City, the first such approval granted by the city. The company told TechCrunch it plans to start testing “immediately.” The company is allowed to deploy up to eight of its Jaguar I-Pace SUVs in Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn through late September. Waymo’s vehicles must have a trained safety operator in the driver’s seat, with at least one hand on the wheel at all times. The company cannot pick up passengers (since it would need a license from the city’s NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission) and it has to regularly meet with and report data to the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT), according to the mayor’s office. The permit brings Waymo one step closer to launching a robotaxi service in the city, which would be arguably its most challenging to date. The company currently operates in San Francisco, Austin, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. All of those are warm-weather cities, and only San Francisco comes close to the complexity of operating in New York City. | TechCrunch ($)
✈️ Aviation & Space
Slowing climate change might be possible with the help of something long considered a lead contributor: existing jetliners. According to new research from the University College of London, the world’s existing fleet of jetliners could be retrofitted to cool global temperatures through stratospheric aerosol injection—a proven concept that has been researched for decades. The findings are detailed in “Low-Altitude High-Latitude Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Is Feasible With Existing Aircraft,” recently published in the journal Earth's Future. | ASME
SpaceX’s impressive track record, including the construction of the Starlink satellite-internet network and its innovation on reusable rocket technology, has had a deep impact on the space industry and US space policy. It has also made SpaceX among the most highly valued private companies in the world. Since its inception, SpaceX has made highly visible test flights that sometimes fail in spectacular ways something of a calling card, with cinematic broadcasts on X, Musk’s social-media platform. Its process is designed to learn from failures fast. Yet Starship’s recent struggles are revealing how rapidly updating rockets that cost hundreds of millions to make can lead to a cascade of expensive issues. | Bloomberg ($)
For the past three years, Elon Musk has steadily elbowed his way into the booming market for in-flight Wi-Fi, with his Starlink service signing up blue-chip carriers from Air France to Qatar Airways to United Airlines. Musk has his eyes on an even bigger prize: the Middle East, home to some of the most trend-setting airlines in the industry and a global connecting hub for long-haul travel. SpaceX has been in conversation with Emirates, the Dubai-based airline that commands the world’s biggest long-haul fleet of Boeing and Airbus SE aircraft, Bloomberg has reported. Members of Musk’s team have also pitched Starlink to other carriers including Gulf Air and flydubai, and are now in advanced talks with Saudia, the region’s No. 3 airline, according to people familiar with the matter. | Bloomberg ($)
By any measure, the space race is back. But unlike the Cold War-era competition, decided by the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, the moment of triumph will be less distinct than Neil Armstrong’s and Buzz Aldrin’s planting of the U.S. flag at Tranquility Base — and ultimately more consequential. Victory in this new contest — with entrants including the United States, China, Russia and India — will go to the program that first masters nuclear-powered space travel. This capability will determine who leads in space exploration, in space mining and manufacturing, in national security, and in scientific discovery for decades to come. Chemical propulsion and solar power, mainstays of space exploration, are no longer sufficient for reaching deep space or practical for frequent lunar travel. Nuclear propulsion and power systems, whether thermal or electric, will offer transformational capabilities that conventional technologies cannot match. | The Washington Post ($)
⚓️ Marine
U.S. military leaders, seeing the outsized impact of maritime drones in the Ukraine war, have repeatedly said they need autonomous swarms of aerial and maritime drones to hinder a potential advance by China across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan itself has begun acquiring its own maritime drones. The drones being developed in Ukraine, which often look like speedboats without seats, and are capable of carrying weapons, explosives and surveillance equipment, are primarily remote-controlled and cost close to $250,000 – making them optimal for kamikaze missions that have effectively neutralized Russia's Black Sea Fleet. The U.S., meanwhile, is aiming to build an autonomous naval fleet that can move in swarms and without human command – a more ambitious task at a higher price point; as much as a few million dollars per speedboat. But, recent test failures highlight the challenges facing the Navy's effort to deploy the nascent technologies, said Bryan Clark, an autonomous warfare expert at the Hudson Institute. It will need to adapt its "tactics as it better understands what the systems can do and what they can’t do." | Reuters ($)
🚘 Car of the Week
Our Automotive Ventures "Car of the Week": a 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO. | RM Sotheby's Have a great week, Steve Greenfield
📺 In The News
📢 Steve caught up with Paul Daly from ASOTU. | ASOTU
📢 Steve caught up with Lois Tuffin from MOTOR to discuss best practices around sourcing good automotive industry information. | MOTOR
📢 On this week's "Future of Automotive" segment on CBT News, we discuss the downstream implications of Hertz' decision to retail used vehicles on Amazon. | CBT News ($)
👀 Automotive Ventures Company to Watch
🌟 Privacy4Cars enables the automotive ecosystem to delete personal information from vehicles in a fast, traceable, and cost-effective manner to reduce liability, meet regulatory requirements and improve customer satisfaction. | Privacy4Cars
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