🫨 The tariffs are here

Vol 104

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.

If you’re in LA, come say hello next week at Curbivore on April 10 and 11. It’s one of my favorite ways to stay up to speed around all things curb-related, whether food delivery, scooter parking, or EV charging… You can register here.

This week’s Deep Dive is a short and sweet look at the impact of tariffs on sustainable mobility aspirations in the US.

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

• Accelevate Solutions (Nevada, USA): Energy performance software analytics to optimize fleet operations

• Dacora Motors (New York, USA): Emerging manufacturer of luxury electric cars

• flyvbird (Germany): On-demand electric aviation service for regional airports

• OpenTug (Washington, USA): Software to improve the efficiency of maritime logistics

• Serenity Power (Canada): Solid oxide fuel cells for heavy-duty transportation

• Weav3D (Georgia, USA): Continuous composite forming technology for lightweight automotive parts

💰FUNDING: Capital raises from startups previously featured in Startup Watch

• Evident Battery (Vol 70) raised a $3.2M Seed round from Ibex Ventures, Automotive Ventures, and others

📰QUICK HITS: Notable news from the last two weeks

👩🏽‍⚖️Government, Policies & Cities

🐻 Berlin is considering banning cars from the city center. This comes after Paris voters approved converting an additional 500 streets to pedestrian-only.

🥷 In London, thieves have built a sophisticated system of stealing batteries from Lime scooters to build makeshift e-bikes. As with NYC, battery safety looms large for micromobility.

🚄 London approved final plans to connect the capital to Cologne, Lyon, Frankfurt, and Geneva by high-speed rail. Train operator Virgin is likely to be the first to share the Channel Tunnel with legacy operator Eurostar.

🗺️ New York City has a new subway map that design purists love. It’s the first new map in almost 50 years.

🗽With Trump’s extended deadline to end NYC congestion pricing still looming, Republican state senators in New York have introduced a bill to transform the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and end congestion pricing. Meanwhile, NBA Hall of Famer Walt Frazier is one of the many New Yorkers who sing its praises.

🔥 The January stationary battery storage fire at Moss Landing (California) continues to raise safety questions. Battery storage is a lynchpin of connecting renewables like solar and wind with our growing demand for EVs and data centers, so getting this right is paramount.

🚲 The City of Houston is paying to rip out bike lane infrastructure that Harris County paid for. Residents are frustrated that the city undertook the work without any public notice.

💧The US Department of Energy is considering canceling hydrogen hubs grants, but only those ones in Blue states. For more on the Hydrogen Hubs, see Vol 67.

🔬Markets & Research

🚉 NYU-Marron’s Transit Costs Project released a fantastic report on how to invest smartly in America’s commuter and intercity rail networks. As shown by Caltrain, electrifying rail can vastly improve speeds and drive ridership.

🏭 Corporates & Later Stage

↘️ Tesla had a disastrous Q1, as did Rivian. With Rivian, there’s a credible product plan for the future.

🚐 Chevrolet is offering a massive $25K discount on its slow-selling all-electric Brightdrop vans. The discount preceded the US tariff announcement, so things may change.

🤳🏽 Lyft may be in talks to acquire the FreeNow taxi app from BMW and Mercedes. This would be Lyft’s first step outside of North America.

🛴 Lime CEO Wayne Ting took a bold political stance online, criticizing the US administration and Elon Musk’s Tesla. He’s one of the few CEOs to speak openly.

🇪🇸 Spanish airline Vueling is canceling Madrid to Barcelona flights due to competition from high-speed rail. High-speed rail volumes between the two cities grew by over 30% in 2023.

🐣 Startups & Early Stage

🚲 Rivian spun out a micromobility startup called Also, backed by over $100M in funding from Eclipse. This is an astute way to manage two businesses (automobiles and micromobility) that have significant technology overlap, but vastly different economics.

⚖️ Nikola founder Trevor Milton was pardoned by President Trump. Following his 2022 fraud conviction, Milton made his first six-figure donation to Trump two years later.

🤝 Nash (Startup Watch Vol 4) acquired Singapore’s Kosmo, a last-mile delivery platform. Lots of startups are for sale right now, and other bigger startups are often the most logical buyers.

💦 Syzygy Plasmonics, after slashing about 60% of its staff, is in the midst of a $100M raise. The raise supports a pivot away from hydrogen towards chemicals and sustainable aviation fuel.

DEEP DIVE: THE TARIFFS ARE HERE

In the first few weeks of the new US administration, it became clear that EV policies were on the chopping block. Manufacturers responded accordingly by canceling previously announced plans to build batteries and EVs in the US.

Things entered overdrive earlier this week when President Donald Trump shocked the world with new tariffs. These tariffs will impact everything from geopolitics to kitchen table issues, today and decades into the future.

That includes impacting our ability to build a supply chain for clean manufacturing in the US (e.g., batteries and EVs).

So where are we after this week’s announcement?

• China has retaliated, in part, with export controls of rare earth minerals, critical for use in the battery economy.

• The Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney declared that his country’s historically deep alliance with the US “over.” That’s all the more important given that mineral-rich Canada has significantly more know-how in sustainable mining and processing than the US.

• Word leaked that the US is considering approving deep-sea mining to access critical minerals. Critics argue this is both legally and environmentally dubious.

• Car makers have begun temporarily idling factories; all are evaluating the need for factory closures and increasing prices. Bike makers are scrambling to realign their supply chains.

And how does this all play out? I shared some initial thoughts about this a few years ago:

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