Hyundai puts $1 billion into AV startup Motional, and Elon pulls the plug on Tesla Supercharger team

Welcome back tabout TechCrunch Mobility – Your central hub for news and insights on the way forward for transport.

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Starting an electrical vehicle Fisker laid off more employees to “preserve cash” as bankruptcy loomed; transport company Ola fired about 180 employees and ousted CEO Hemant Bakshi just 4 months after he was appointed to the position; and Lidar company shine reduced its 700-person workforce by 20% as a part of a restructuring to adopt an asset light business model.

Oh, and then it was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, which laid off the automaker’s global Supercharger network team. This perplexing decision comes just as drivers of non-Tesla electric vehicles gain access to the grid.

This will not be to say that the entire transportation sector was surrounded by economic storm clouds. There were also brighter moments. Let’s go test it out!

Little bird

In the wake of the big Tesla Supercharger culling, we talked to a number of people small birds, including those that were laid off and people working for other automotive manufacturers. As I discussed above, Elon Musk gutted Tesla’s global supercharging organization of about 500 people. Insiders at several different automakers – all of that are implementing Tesla’s charging technology – said they do not expect this to occur. “Shocked” and “stunned” are the most typical expressions I actually have heard.

For employees, there was an absence of communication from HR in the hours immediately following the mass layoff. Some told me that neither they nor their former co-workers received details about the severance package and that communication had completely fallen through. Several of those people received severance emails by Friday. Everyone I contacted still couldn’t understand why Musk fired the Supercharger team, a corporation that is prime to Tesla and its electric vehicle sales. Others surmised that only Elon and perhaps the former Supercharger team principal, Rebecca TinucciI’ll ever know the answer.

Offers!

It’s been a minute since we heard about an autonomous vehicle startup raising a big amount of cash – or any money in any respect. Everything modified this week when Moving due to the company’s kindness, he achieved a big, multi-million victory Hyundai.

Hyundai’s total commitment is $1 billion, but there are necessary details. Here’s the way it breaks down. Hyundai invested $475 million directly in Motional as a part of a broader deal that included the buyout of three way partnership partner Aptiv. Hyundai is spending one other $448 million to purchase Aptiv’s 11% stake in Motional.

Slightly history: Motional was founded in 2019 as a $4 billion three way partnership between Hyundai and Aptiv. Motional has spent the last several years developing autonomous vehicle technology, working toward a goal of launching a robotaxi service using Hyundai Ioniq 5 autonomous vehicles in 2024. As Motional and Hyundai grow closer, the corporations announced production-ready co-development plans in November versions of the all-electric robotaxi Ioniq 5 – it looks like Aptiv has begun to grasp its own financial constraints. In January, Aptiv president and CEO Kevin Clark signaled that the company would scale back its stake in Motional and stop allocating capital to the enterprise on account of the high costs of commercializing a robotics business and the long path to profits.

This decision, although not particularly surprising to the industry insiders I talked to, still put Motional and Hyundai in a difficult situation. Will Hyundai raise the bar? Would outside investors step in? Hyundai answered the call.

My query is: will Motional, with Hyundai’s blessing, search for other investors? It will all depend on how much capital Motional burns through and whether it continues to pursue the same robotics goals. If so, it appears the company will eventually need more capital.

Other offers that caught my attention…

LiNova EnergyCalifornia-based startup developing polymer cathode batteries has raised $15.8 million in a Series A financing round led by Catalus Capital, joined by Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergys, Chevron Technology Ventures and a consortium of investors.

Rivian received a powerful $827 million incentive package from the state of Illinois, which might be used to construct production lines for its next-generation electric vehicle, the R2.

Viking holdingsa luxury cruise operator backed by private equity firm TPG and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, raised $1.54 billion in its IPO.

Brzeg XSwedish electric boat manufacturer founded in 2016, collected EUR 8.5 million recent funding from several anonymous existing donors, including founder Konrad Bergström.

Noteworthy reading and other interesting facts

ADAS

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration initiated an investigation into Ford BlueCruise hands-free driver assistance system after it was found to be lively during two recent crashes that resulted in multiple deaths.

NHTSA has taken one other big step for the industry and finalized a brand new one Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard which is able to enable automatic emergency braking, including the possibility of detects and mechanically brakes in front of a pedestrian, which might be standard on all passenger cars and light trucks by September 2029. The agency said this safety standard will significantly reduce rear-end collisions and pedestrian accidents. NHTSA doesn’t select the technology that automakers must use. Many computer vision and lidar corporations have contacted me to find out how this may benefit their business models.

Autonomous vehicles

Co-author of the most lively contributor Tim Stevens takes us behind the scenes of the first part Autonomous Racing League an event in Abu Dhabi during which an autonomous automotive faced a Formula 1 driver. His approach? Yes, there have been fights; he also noticed a whole lot of progress.

Electric vehicles, charging and batteries

Think back to last yr Henry Fisher proudly debuted two prototypes that may catapult his eponymous electric vehicle startup into the mainstream? TC reporter Sean O’Kane has learned that the engineering company that helped develop the vehicles is suing Fisker for $13 million in damages. Read more to find out about this process and some others.

This week’s wheels

Image credits: Emma Hall

I passed the baton to the associate of the most lively contributor Emma Hall this week for a test drive of the recent, fully electric Acura ZDX Type S. You can read the entire review here and I also suggest you watch her video advanced hands-free driver assistance system in the vehicle. For those that want to try an extended read, here’s the gist.

Hall expected joy and delight. Instead, it was more meh. Here’s one reason. The Type S weighs over 6,000 kilos. Even if the weight is evenly distributed from front to back, it’s a whole lot of weight to barter a corner. She liked the firm controls, but there wasn’t much feedback.

“Torque is always good coming out of corners and body roll is controlled, but I don’t feel the delight,” she wrote, adding that the Type S’s 275/40 Continental Premium Contact 6 summer tires offer loads of grip, but the low-profile sidewall combined with the harder run-flat rubber compound meant the ride was a bit harsh.

Hall’s pursuit of a totally electric SUV that is fun to drive around the corners continues.