A Tesla Co-Founder Returns, TuSimple Restructures Again And Uber Stickiness Strategy

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Unsurprisingly, Tesla was one of the transportation industry’s main attractions during another busy week. The company’s CEO, Elon Musk, reportedly provided some thoughts and morsels during the annual shareholder meeting. There were several noteworthy and news-making events, even though some were just recycling previous information.

Leading the list? Former CTO and co-founder of Tesla, JB Straubel, has rejoined the board.

Other things that caught my attention were a further delay for the next-generation Roadster, hints of two impending EV goods, and Musk’s decision to “try a little advertising.” Here is a summary of everything we covered.

Speaking of Musk, he just failed in a bid to reverse a 2018 deal with the SEC that mandates control of some of his tweets about Tesla. The result is that the Twitter sitter (as the position has been referred to) must continue.

That’s good, then. Onward!

Micromobbin’

Bike Month in May and National Bike to Work Day on Friday serve as reminders that bicycles are a practical mode of transportation in addition to being used for sports and enjoyment. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re cheating if you don’t ride a push bike to work because it is especially true for e-bikes. But remember that e-scooters and motorcycles must be handled carefully and responsibly.

There is a disturbing video of an e-scooter catching fire in a London residence. The scooter’s owner purchased it from Gumtree, a website akin to Craigslist, and was charging it indoors when the battery caught fire and spread quickly. This is a PSA about using electric scooters safely!

The finest advice for owning and storing a scooter is provided here. A handful that is particularly significant are:

1. Purchase a scooter from a reliable manufacturer whose batteries adhere to international standards.
2. Batteries shouldn’t be charged overnight, while you’re sleeping, or while you’re gone from home.
3. Batteries should be kept from regular recycling bins or household trash. Locate a company that recycles batteries.
4. E-scooters and e-bikes should be kept from being charged or stored near communal spaces or escape routes in multi-occupied buildings.

And now for the news highlights.

A new British firm called BackPedal charges a monthly membership to provide e-bike theft insurance. This subscription includes features like a retrieval team that tracks your stolen bike and calls the police on your behalf and an integrated GPS with LTE.

I have a question for the business: Do the police, currently overworked due to an upsurge in crime in big cities, genuinely assist individuals in finding their bikes?

According to a survey Bolt paid for, around half of the Netherlands, Germany, and Portugal population favors fewer parking spaces for cars and more spaces for micro-mobility. Same.

The city of Christchurch in New Zealand may be the first nation to support an initiative for e-bike subsidies. For ten years, Citi Bike has been in existence. Before it belonged to Lyft, the renowned bike-sharing program was a mainstay in NYC and other cities.

A super-cute little electric pickup from General Motors is being built for the Chinese market in collaboration with SAIC-Wuling and is projected to cost roughly $14,000. It’s around the size of a Fiat 500 and might be a fantastic option for city artisans.

To spread the incentive among more vehicles, India is considering reducing its electric two-wheeler subsidies from 40% of the retail price to 15% (link to paywall site).

To build and maintain high-quality public areas in underserved neighborhoods, such as plazas and Open Streets, New York City published a $30 million request for proposals.

There have been indications that Tier is considering an acquisition, as I mentioned last week. Sifted revealed this week that Tier and Bolt, a major European mobility app, are in late-stage takeover negotiations.

According to Sifted, which quoted an insider at the company, Tier had also apparently been in M&A discussions with Lime. Tier was contacted, but she refused to respond. The business only acknowledged that most of its current investors recently helped it raise a convertible note.

Lawrence Leuschner, CEO of Tier, said, “We are well financed for 2023, and we are aiming to achieve EBITDA profitability this year.”

Yamaha unveiled a limited-edition model to commemorate its 30th year of e-bike production. The $6,499 YDX-MORO 07 features a dual twin frame supporting Yamaha’s new, lighter, and smaller PW-X3 drive unit with strong torque. A minimalist display, small control switches, and one-finger braking are features of this all-mountain bike.

Deal Of The Week

How about focusing on several deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars this week? According to PitchBook data, companies in the automotive sector raised $402 million from investors in April, a 2% rise from the prior month. The flat result is reason for celebration because investment activity has been falling throughout the year.

In January, startups in the automotive sector raised $1.16 billion. These sums decreased to $690.5 million and $394.1 million in February and March, respectively.

This does not mean that everything is magically immediately unicorns and rainbows. Entrepreneurs in the mobility sector are vying for investors’ attention and money even though the upheaval surrounding the Silicon Valley Bank may have decreased as other trending topics like generative AI take off.

Other Offers This Week That Caught My Eye

Bird has implemented a reverse stock split to regain compliance with the New York Stock Exchange after receiving a delisting warning for trading too low. Thursday saw the stock of Bird close at $0.11. Bird started trading on a 1/25 split-adjusted basis when the market opened on Friday. About 286.8 million shares of Class A common stock and 34.5 million shares of Class X were outstanding as of May 1. Following the reverse stock split, the bird will have roughly 11.5 million Class A shares and roughly 1.4 million Class X shares.

Folding bike manufacturer, Brompton raised £19 million in equity finance, with investor BGF acquiring a minority share.

Silicon Valley-based business Ethernovia, which develops automotive ethernet chips, has raised $64 million in a Series A fundraising round from backers, including Porsche Automobil Holding, Qualcomm Ventures, and VentureTech Alliance.

Private equity firm InfraBridge contributed $25 million to Phantom Auto’s funding. According to one report, the pre-raise valuation of the business for remote driving was $500 million. Additionally, the CEO of ConGlobal, the startup’s client and the InfraBridge-owned train terminal operator, has joined the board.

The Bosch Group’s corporate venture capital arm, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, has invested in AutoCore.ai, which creates automotive middleware. The size of the investment was kept a secret by the corporation.

Stellantis purchased a 33.3% share in Symbio, a provider of zero-emission hydrogen vehicles. With a 33.3% ownership each, Faurecia and Michelin will remain stockholders.

Since its establishment in 2016, the Toyota Research Institute claims that its collaborative research program with American academic institutions has supported $100 million in research and resulted in more than 1,250 paper submissions.

The startup fund for Volvo Cars made an undisclosed investment in the smart home energy provider dcbel.