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The transportation beat just keeps on truckin’ — or scooting along, depending on your preferred vehicle and speed. And this week, our coverage ran the gamut from Amazon’s latest pilot and two cyberattacks to a Cybertruck roadside attraction and several startups landing investments from VCs. Let’s go!
A little bird
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin
Little birds are continuing to give us updates on Fluid Truck, the startup founded to disrupt the commercial vehicle rental industry. You might recall last month Rebecca Bellan wrote about the dramatic behind-the-scenes fight over the company between ousted sibling co-founders James Eberhard and Jenifer Snyder and two minority investors on the board.
It seems there is a fresh complaint against the company for breach of contract, Bellan recently discovered after perusing new court filings.
California company ServiceUp is alleging that Fluid Truck owes it close to $100,000, with interest accruing daily, after the company sent 150 invoices between January and July 2024 for arranging vehicle repairs. ServiceUp says Fluid’s alleged breach of contract and refusal to pay has caused its own business to incur costs and expenses related to the services it performed under its agreement.
Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.
Deals!
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin
I thought the electric two-wheeler market in India had peaked. I was wrong.
Ather Energy, an Indian electric scooter manufacturer that competes with recently listed rival Ola Electric, plans to raise about $530 million in its initial public offering.
The Bengaluru-based startup is targeting a valuation of $1.5 billion to $2 billion, people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The company said it will sell new shares worth $370 million in the IPO and up to 22 million shares from existing investors.
India’s electric vehicle market — largely made of two-wheelers — has been white-hot thanks to a combination of rising fuel prices and government incentives aimed at reducing tailpipe emissions. Still, the road isn’t exactly smooth for Ather or others grappling for market share. Competition abounds!
A couple of other notable deals …
Cowboy, the Brussels-based company that designs and sells electric bikes, closed a small, strategic funding round of €5 million (around $5.5 million at current exchange rates). That includes €1 million in debt facilities. Cypress Capital led the round.
Dongchedi, the car information and trading app under TikTok parent company ByteDance, is raising as much as $600 million, Bloomberg reported. Joint investors include General Atlantic, HongShan, KKR & Co., and Gaorong Ventures.
Forterra, an autonomous vehicle developer formerly known as Robotic Research Autonomous Industries, raised $75 million in a Series B funding round led by Moore Strategic Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, and Hedosophia Venture Capital. New investor Standard Investments, along with existing backers Crescent Cove Advisors, Enlightenment Capital, and Four More Capital, also participated.
Specter, the Belgian manufacturer of e-bikes with powerful motors, raised €2 million ($2.2 million) in a round led by Fundracer Capital.
Tesla has discussed sharing revenue with another of Elon Musk’s companies, AI startup xAI, in exchange for use of the startup’s AI models, the WSJ reported. Musk has disputed the report and said Tesla doesn’t need to license xAI models.
Thunder Power Holdings, an EV startup that went public on the Nasdaq exchange in June through a SPAC, is now trying to raise up to $100 million more through a share sale deal. That’s not the eye-popping part. The fundraising effort is happening even as CEO Wellen Sham has been indicted by the Taiwanese government on 11 criminal charges.
Spare, a Vancouver-based startup that developed a software-as-a-service product to help cities better serve disabled residents, raised $30 million (CA$42 million) in a Series B round led by Inovia Capital, with participation from Kensington Capital and Nicola Wealth.
Notable reads and other tidbits
Autonomous vehicles
Nuro is pivoting. The startup, which has raised more than $2 billion, is moving away from its on-road autonomous delivery bots and will instead try to license its core autonomous vehicle tech to automakers and mobility providers like ride-hail and delivery companies. That means the Nuro R3 bot, which BYD was supposed to make, is dead. It also puts Nuro in direct competition with Mobileye and the buzzy startup Wayve.
Electric vehicles, charging & batteries
Amazon is experimenting with a delivery service that combines electric road and rail transport.
Amber, the EV warranty startup founded last year, is starting to scale. The company is taking its aftermarket warranty product for Tesla vehicles to 47 states and rolling out a new remote diagnostic scan tool described as “telehealth for EVs.”
Stellantis plans to invest more than $406 million in three Michigan facilities to support its “multi-energy strategy.” Importantly, the Ram 1500 REV, the company’s first electric light-duty truck and the range-extended all-new 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger will be built at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in Michigan. The Ram 1500 EV is launching in late 2024.
Lucid Motors said its upcoming vehicle — dubbed Gravity — will have Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) built right in, making an adapter unnecessary.
A disabled Tesla Cybertruck became a fleeting tourist destination in Seattle.
In-car tech
Cariad, the VW software unit, is in trouble. Or I should state, in more trouble than usual. The Financial Times has a great report digging into the chaos at Cariad before and after a software-focused joint venture deal was struck between EV startup Rivian and Cariad parent company VW Group. One line item that made me gasp: Since launching Cariad four years ago, VW has invested almost 12 billion euros ($13.2 billion) into building in-house car software.
Security
Avis said thousands of car rental customers had personal data stolen in a cyberattack.
Transport for London (TfL), the government body that runs the U.K. capital’s transit system, is still dealing with a cyberattack. Although the transit system remains operational and unaffected by the cyber incident, some TfL online and digital customer services remain offline.
This week’s wheels
What is “This week’s wheels”? It’s a chance to learn about the different transportation products we’re testing, whether it’s an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike, or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle. Future vehicles include some e-bikes and the GMC Sierra EV.
