⛴️ Ammonia-powered tugboats and solar-powered rail 🚂

Vol 92

Oct 13, 2024

This newsletter aims to separate the signal from the noise for investment in all things sustainable transportation: Electrification, mode shift, active and public transit, and mobility aggregation, across both people and goods movement.

We’re proud to be partnering with CoMotion!

Attend the world's leading mobility conference, CoMotion LA on Nov. 13-14, exploring the multimodal, decarbonized mobility revolution and don’t miss the OMF Summit on Nov. 12, looking at advancements in mobility-focused data and digital tools like the Mobility Data Specification and Curb Data Specification.
Learn more and register now: www.comotionla.com. For an extra 25% off on tickets apply the promo code: 'sustainablemobility' at checkout.

🌱STARTUP WATCH: Sustainable mobility startups (pre-seed or seed) to keep an eye on

106West Logistics (Colorado, USA): Zero-emissions last-mile logistics
Avatar Mobilite (France): Minimum viable 4-wheeled micromobility
Bedestrian (Michigan, USA): Autonomous delivery solutions for urban environments
ChargeMate (California, USA): Driver-focused software to improve the EV charging experience
Durin (California, USA): Autonomous drilling for minerals used in batteries
MobyFly (Switzerland): Zero-emissions hydrofoil boat manufacturer
Ontra Mobility (New York, USA): Data optimization tools for transit agencies
Vuba (Colorado, USA): Gondola-like autonomous public transport system

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Paren (merged w/EVSession, Vol 52) raised $3M in first-round funding from Base10 Partners, Founders Network Fund, and Luc Vincent
Grounded (Vol 52) raised a $3.5M pre-seed round from Also Capital and The 81 Collection
Salient Motion (Vol 63) raised a $12M Seed round from Cantos Ventures, AE Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and others
New Frontier Aerospace (Vol 65) raised a Seed round (amount undisclosed) from Pacific Bays Capital

📰QUICK HITS: Notable news from the last two weeks

👩🏽‍⚖️Government, Policies & Cities

💪 In San Francisco, a group of Y Combinator founders and friends liberated a stranded Waymo robotaxi. Alas, they used old-fashioned brawn to free the car.

🤖 Seoul got its first nighttime robotaxi service. The provider is KG Mobility, formerly known as SsangYong Motor.

🚲 In London, e-cargo bikes are replacing vans for last-mile delivery. You love to see it.

🚉 California is moving forward linking the private Brightline high-speed rail with the public California High Speed Rail. While still in the wonky planning stages, the impact would be huge, making LA’s Union Station the hub for two different high-speed rail lines.

💺In New York City, Joby said it’s in the final approval stages for an air taxi service to JFK while Uber launched a new microbus service to LaGuardia. The latter is much more sustainable than the former.

🇲🇽 Mexico, smarting after losing out on a Tesla factory, may try to create a domestic EV champion. While launching a car company is insanely difficult, it’s easier now in the Foxconn era.

🇬🇧 The United Kingdom became the first G7 country to retire coal production. Your reminder that EVs get cleaner every day as their supporting grid gets cleaner.

🔬Markets & Research

↘️ McKinsey research shows that venture investment in aviation innovation is falling. Smart founders in zero-emissions aviation have already locked up government contracts to fund development needs.

💧Harvard researchers illustrated how difficult it might be to get cost-effective green hydrogen. Distribution and storage are the big challenges.

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🏭 Corporates & Later Stage

🤝 Waymo and Hyundai are partnering on autonomous vehicles. This is a loss for Hyundai’s Motional autonomy unit. Due to spiraling trade tensions between the US and China, Waymo needed an alternative to its plans for custom-designed vehicles from China’s Geely.

📉 Tesla’s robotaxi reveal was a dud, with shares falling 9%. The hardware for Musk’s Cybercab (e.g., no steering wheel) would require a level of regulatory approval that both Waymo and GM’s Cruise initially pursued and subsequently backed away from. Whether Musk can ethically secure regulator permission for his plan is far from certain.

🕵️‍♂️ Your neighbor’s Tesla may be spying on you. Law enforcement is increasingly eager to get access to Tesla’s camera footage.

👩🏽‍💼Tesla Cybertruck owners are finding it difficult to get their vehicles insured. This vehicle may not be the darling Tesla wanted it to be.

🏠 GM launched its home battery product, taking on Tesla. Whether legacy car makers can do home energy storage as well as Tesla is still TBD.

🍋‍🟩 Amazon’s head of cashier-less checkout has left to become Lime’s new chief technology officer. Another feather in the cap before Lime’s IPO.

🚌 In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Via is running a novel deployment of both fixed-route buses and on-demand shuttle vans. Transportation experts remain divided about the cost/benefit of on-demand shuttles.

✈️ Boeing is laying off 10% of its workforce. See Deep Dive in Vol 76 for why Boeing’s downturn is our climate challenge.

⛏️ Mining giant Fortescue and its manufacturing partner Liebherr have unveiled a 6 MW charger to power their giant off-road trucks. Let the decarbonization of off-road trucks begin.

🇪🇺 Uber has called for the EU to bring forward the phase-out on the sale of internal combustion engines and to let riders in some markets default to EVs. Once again demonstrating that ridehail fleets will go EV faster than individual consumers.

🤬 Enel X abruptly left the North American charging market, leaving thousands of customers stranded. Giving customers 9 days’ notice before chargers go offline is not the best practice, especially for a Fortune Global 500 company.

🔌 EVgo shares jumped after it announced a $1.1B commitment from the DOE Loan Program Office. Many of EVgo’s competitors got snapped up by oil & gas majors with good credit; this lower-interest rate loan helps EVgo compete with their cost of capital.

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🐣 Startups & Early Stage

🗺️ Crosswalk Labs (Startup Watch Vol 45) now allows you to visualize local emissions, primarily from transportation, across time and location. Fascinating to see where pollution hits hardest.

🚞 Sun-Ways (Startup Watch Vol 66) is deploying its solar rail technology in Switzerland. Some great parallels with solar-over-canals approaches.

🎟️ Curo (Startup Watch Vol 72) has joined Y Combinator's F24 batch. Good to see one climate tech company in the fall batch; see last issue’s Deep Dive for more on Y Combinator.

🇫🇷 PE shop Antin Infrastructure Partners backed Proxima, an independent passenger rail business in France. The EU continues its rail liberalization efforts.

🚁 Electric air taxi company Joby snagged an additional $500M investment from Toyota, ZeroAvia completed a $150M Series C, and Germany’s Lilium got a lifeline from French investors. Startups, not Boeing, are leading the shift towards zero-emissions aviation.

⛴️ Near New York’s Hudson River, Amogy demonstrated the first tugboat running on ammonia. The jury is still out on whether batteries, ammonia, or something else will power the ships of the future.

🛸 Serve Robotics and Wing are trailing robot-to-drone delivery. Robots are better in dense urban areas while drones work better in more remote locales.

🥸 A Michigan designed has created an e-bike designed to hide while parked. While a thought-provoking idea, a more realistic solution would be more secure bike parking infra like Oonee.