🎄The 12 Charts of Christmas - Part 1
Vol 70
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.
In this issue’s Deep Dive, we’re winding down 2023 with the 12 Charts of Christmas- part 1. I did this one year ago on a whim and it proved to be quite popular. This time around, we’re splitting it across 2 issues, each with 6 charts.
STARTUP WATCH: Sustainable mobility startups (generally pre-seed or seed) to keep an eye on
Coulomb (India): Predictive battery analytics software
Evident Battery (Connecticut, USA): Automated scan and imaging for EV battery state of health
finev (California, USA): Fintech solution for small/medium businesses to transition to EVs
Freee Recycle (Nigeria): Recycling tires into bricks and other products
Mandarine Robotique (France): Autonomous charging robot for cars
Mythos AI (Florida, USA): Autonomous software for maritime applications
PuriFire Labs (United Kingdom): Green hydrogen and carbon-neutral methanol for maritime decarbonization
Surge (Illinois, USA): Urban EV charging hubs
TripShift (United Kingdom): Automatic carbon tracking system for employee travel and business trip
Universal Fuel Technologies (California, USA): Renewable fuels and chemicals from low-value feeds
💰FUNDING: Capital raises from startups previously featured in Startup Watch
Biped (Vol 17) raised a 1.2M Swiss Franc seed round from Serpentine Ventures and Juchum Foundation
Presto (formerly Chargepass; Vol 48) raised a round from Congruent Ventures and Powerhouse ($ amount undisclosed)
Switch Maritime (Vol 51) raised a $10M Series A led by Nexus Development Capital
Monterra (formerly CarbEngage; Vol 53) raised a $2.5M pre-seed round from Base 10 Partners, Future Climate Venture Studio, and Very Serious Ventures
Fingreen AI (Vol 65) raised a 1M EUR pre-seed round from BlackWood Ventures, Habert Dassault Finance, and Plug and Play Ventures
Gravity Mobility (Vol 68) raised $13M in a seed round led by GV (Google Ventures)
As a reminder, the startup data set is open, for free to subscribers. If you’re a subscriber interested in accessing the Airtable with how these startups raised $1.2 billion in follow-on funding, please let me know.
📰QUICK HITS: Notable news from the last two weeks
👩🏽⚖️Government, Policies & Cities
🇵🇱 Poland’s tricity region of Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Sopot took a growth hacking approach to launching a bikeshare program. It snagged 140k users over 2 months with a free trial and now is charging for access.
🐠 Seattle launched the nation's first City-based incentive program for the electrification of heavy-duty trucks. At up to $180K per truck, that’s real money.
🍑 Is Peachtree City, GA the best example in America of a golf cart-centric city that supports families? Golf carts can dominate retirement communities, so it’s nice to see them support a multi-generational community.
🇪🇺 The European Parliament moved forward with aggressive CO2 standards for trucks and buses in Europe. Next up: The EU Council, Parliament, and Commission will work on a compromise package.
🇺🇸 US car dealers are pleading with the Biden administration to lower the fuel efficiency targets that favor EVs. Remember that Tesla doesn’t use a dealership network.
🔋The US DOE just announced $3.5 billion in funding for the domestic battery economy. Startups in the battery space would be smart to apply.
🔬Markets & Research
A robust new NREL report looks at the decarbonization pathways for mobility. 100% zero emissions vehicle mandates are the biggest lever.
🧂California’s Salton Sea may have even more lithium than previously thought. Ignore those who claim there aren’t enough metals for our battery ambitions; the biggest challenge is getting the mining and processing infrastructure moving faster and scaling battery recycling.
👷🏽♀️New research shows that shared e-scooter adoption starts with a leisure-trip bias but pivots towards utilitarian uses over time. Another data point on why e-scooters can work well as a complement to public transport.
🛩️ Economist Thomas Piketty came out in favor of banning private jets. Lots of headwinds for a carbon-inefficient discretionary purchase that only the wealthy can afford.
🏭 Corporates & Later Stage
📲 Google has launched EV charger reviews. Hard to be a consumer software play like PlugShare without the risk of your business being eventually co-opted by a tech giant.
🤧 Tesla has implemented a congestion fee of $1 per minute for Supercharger usage when the charging level reaches 90%. See Volume 38 for more on why Tesla will continue to stay ahead of others in charging network execution.
🔂 China’s Geely is partnering with NIO on battery swapping. This seems like a bit of a rescue for NIO’s shakier finances; it’s unclear whether this would mean that Volvos and Polestars sold in the US will have swappable batteries.
👨👩👦 The Volkswagen brand’s chronic low profits are threatening the VW Group’s EV transition. At times, the VW brand operates as a jobs factory whose byproduct is manufactured vehicles.
🚕 Following similar integrations in other cities, Uber London has now integrated black cabs into its offering. What was once unthinkable is now natural.
✈️Virgin Airlines just took the first trans-Atlantic flight on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Don’t expect this technology to scale overnight.
All The Rest
India is drafting standards for e-bikes. Ghana has waived import duties on EVs for 8 years. GM is cutting spending at its Cruise unit by hundreds of millions. ChargePoint shares have fallen on a revenue miss and executive shuffle. German mobility company Tier slashed 22% of its workforce and battery startup Our Next Energy slashed 25% of its workforce. The Boring Company may have stalled out. A French startup is growing the sales of its battery-free e-bike.
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DEEP DIVE: The 12 Charts of Christmas: Part 1
In the non-denominational spirit of the “12 Days of Christmas”, here are 6 charts that should orient you to some of the big sustainable mobility issues as we wind down 2023. 6 more charts to come next issue.
New York is a true anomaly in North America, with most cities somewhere between Montreal and Los Angeles. Europe, on the other hand, is incredibly consistent.
Amazon eclipsed FedEx in 2020…and the gap just keeps growing. FedEx has publicly announced taking delivery of 150 Brightdrop electric vans in the US and 50 in Canada. Meanwhile, Amazon has over 10,000 Rivian electric vans in the US.
Kenya, unlike South Africa or Morocco, has never secured a manufacturing plant from a global car company. Instead, Kenya is leading the charge in building local ecosystems of domestically-owned firms doing everything from e-bikes to e-buses, often via meaningful partnerships with Indian or Chinese partners.
It’s early days, but the Cybertruck will probably be closer to the Model S in terms of volumes than the best-selling Model Y and 3.
New Jersey announced it’s joining the party to enact a ban on sales of gasoline powered cars by 2035 by adopting California’s policy. That takes the total to over one-third of the US population.
For a refresher on the stakes related to the first zone-based congestion pricing scheme in the US, see Vol 49.
So there you have it! A bit of an overview to wind down. If you enjoyed this issue, please share with 3 people in your network.