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General Motors slashes another 1,000 jobs to cut costs

Sean O'Kane — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 16:20:46 +0000

General Motors is laying off nearly 1,000 workers in the U.S. as part of a cost-cutting bid, just three months after cutting 1,000 software jobs. The company told TechCrunch that cuts won’t affect hourly workers at any of its factories, but declined to specify which teams were affected. A significant majority of the layoffs were […]

The $7,500 EV tax credit is on Trump’s chopping block

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 20:50:15 +0000

Republicans have long opposed the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles contained in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Now, it seems President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has made that a priority with plans to end the tax credit as part of broader tax reform legislation, Reuters reported citing two unnamed sources. TechCrunch has confirmed […]

The Rivian-Volkswagen joint venture deal is now up to $5.8B

Sean O'Kane, Kirsten Korosec — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 21:11:54 +0000

Rivian and Volkswagen Group have finalized a multibillion-dollar joint venture to develop software, paving the way to let the German auto giant leverage the EV startup’s more technical chops in the coming years. Volkswagen will invest up to $5.8 billion by 2027, about 16% more than when the deal was first announced in June. Volkswagen […]

Tesla is part of the trillion-dollar club again

Kirsten Korosec — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 17:50:10 +0000

Tesla shares have popped since the U.S. election as investors bet that a Trump presidency will benefit the automaker led by ally Elon Musk. Tesla’s shares have rallied nearly 30% since Tuesday, including an increase Friday morning that pushed the company’s market cap past the $1 trillion mark. The share spike is largely related to […]

Rivian takes major revenue hit as supplier problem persists

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 21:16:02 +0000

Rivian reported Thursday revenue of $874 million in the third quarter — more than 12% lower than analysts’ estimates — as the EV startup struggled to resolve a component shortage that disrupted production of its recently overhauled flagship R1S and R1T vehicles. Last month, Rivian lowered its annual production guidance to 47,000 to 49,000 vehicles […]

Lucid Motors starts taking orders for its existential Gravity SUV

Sean O'Kane — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 15:05:41 +0000

Lucid Motors has officially started taking orders for its electric Gravity SUV, a critically important vehicle that’s supposed to go into production by the end of this year. Interested buyers can now place $1,000 refundable deposits on the “Grand Touring” trim, which starts at $94,900, on the company’s website. Similar to the company’s current model, […]

Canoo’s CFO and top lawyer are the latest executives to leave

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 22:34:27 +0000

EV startup Canoo has lost its chief financial officer and its head lawyer, the latest in a string of executive departures as the company continues to struggle to find mass adoption of its electric work vans. CFO Greg Ethridge and general counsel Hector Ruiz both resigned from Canoo on October 31, the company announced Tuesday […]

Ford pauses F-150 Lightning production as Tesla Cybertruck heats up

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 18:06:50 +0000

Ford will pause production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck starting in mid-November for almost two months as it struggles with decreased demand, increased competition, and losses in its electric vehicle business. “We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” a Ford spokesperson told TechCrunch. The news was […]

Rivian’s chief software officer says in-car buttons are ‘an anomaly’

Sean O'Kane — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 22:16:56 +0000

The trend of big touchscreens in cars has left many yearning for the not-so-distant days when most user interactions happened with physical buttons. But Rivian’s chief software officer Wassym Bensaid believes using buttons in a car is an “anomaly.” “It’s a bug. It’s not a feature,” Bensaid said Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “Ideally, you […]

GM CEO Mary Barra on the politics of EVs, the future of AVs, and moving away from China

Rebecca Bellan — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:26:04 +0000

“I never thought the propulsion of a vehicle would become a political issue,” GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra said onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Tuesday. While the executive didn’t expand on this statement, former president Donald Trump has railed against EVs and claimed, wrongly, that there is a mandate to make and sell electric […]

Mary Barra still thinks GM will make an AV with no steering wheel

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 19:30:44 +0000

General Motors CEO Mary Barra still believes an autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel and pedals is “definitely” in her company’s future, despite recently suspending work on the purpose-built Origin. Barra told the crowd at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday that she still has an eye on a robotaxi with no steering wheel but that […]

Jon McNeill’s insights on Tesla’s robotaxi and why EV startups fail

Rebecca Bellan — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Jon McNeill — a former Tesla and Lyft executive and current CEO at DVx Ventures — spread the word last week at the World Business Forum on what he calls the “Tesla innovation method” of radical simplification. After his presentation, we sat down to chat about Tesla’s automation goals, its new robotaxi, and why building […]

VW spinoff Scout reveals its EV vision and it includes a model with a gas-powered generator

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 22:47:13 +0000

Scout Motors, the Volkswagen Group spinoff, unveiled Thursday two EVs it hopes will hook American customers with modern-meets-rugged styling that downplays digital and embraces the mechanical. The catch? The company will also offer variants to its all-electric Scout Traveler SUV and Scout Terra Truck that will come equipped with a built-in gas-powered generator using a system […]

Tesla’s $25,000 EV flip-flop, explained

Sean O'Kane — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 19:00:53 +0000

The idea of a $25,000 Tesla has persisted for years — in part, perhaps, because CEO Elon Musk said he was “very confident” the company could do it at an event in 2020. But on Wednesday night, during Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, Musk said the idea of a $25,000 car with a steering wheel and […]

Zero Motorcycles is raising $120 million

Sean O'Kane — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 18:24:07 +0000

Electric motorcycle company Zero is in the process of closing a new funding round for a little bit more than $120 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing shows that Zero has sold around $100 million of the equity round so far from two undisclosed investors. The company […]

I just spent my first week ever with an EV, the Chevy Equinox — here’s what it was like

Matt Rosoff — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 19:30:00 +0000

The funnest car I ever drove was the original Tesla Roadster. This was in 2011, back when Elon Musk’s EV company was courting press instead of denigrating us, and they offered me a test drive. I took the car up I-280 — a beautiful, mostly deserted highway with perfectly banked curves that seemed designed for Silicon […]

Fisker owners get help with recall repairs as court approves liquidation plan

Sean O'Kane — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 18:52:46 +0000

Fisker’s plan to liquidate its assets has been accepted by the bankruptcy court in Delaware. And with it, the issue of who should pay for labor costs associated with a pair of recalls on the bankrupt EV startup’s SUVs is finally settled. Fisker has also reached a deal with American Lease, the buyer of its […]

Tesla’s Robotaxi reveal, Palantir owns some of Faraday Future, and the Strava for EVs

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Your usual host Kirsten is out on vacation, but she didn’t leave without writing up This Week’s Wheels. But for the rest, you’ve got me, Rebecca Bellan, […]

Palantir now owns nearly 9% of EV startup Faraday Future — here’s why

Sean O'Kane — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:46:04 +0000

Palantir now owns 8.7% of struggling electric vehicle startup Faraday Future, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The data-mining company was granted more than 800,000 shares in the EV startup on October 2 “as payment for certain outstanding receivables” — the equivalent of roughly $2.4 million judging by Faraday […]

Fisker bankruptcy hits major speed bump as fleet sale is now in question

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:53:15 +0000

Fisker’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy has hit a major snag, as the company buying the startup’s remaining fleet of electric SUVs says it might not complete the purchase because of a surprising technical issue. The buyer, a New York-area leasing company called American Lease, says in a new filing that Fisker now believes there is no […]