The Techee

It's currently of no doubt that electric vehicles represent the future for the automobile market, and many automakers have taken heed to that. Tens of billions of dollars in spending have been earmarked for the R&D and production of electric vehicles by global automakers, with efforts spanning battery development, building new factories, charging stations et al. Now, two of the world's biggest automakers, BMW and Ford, have jointly invested in a startup working on battery technology for electric vehicles. That startup is Solid Power, a Colorado-based startup developing solid-state batteries for EVs. Details: Solid Power has raised a $130 million Series B round  co-led by Ford and BMW. The two automakers were joined by green-focused venture fund Volta Energy Technologies in the round. As part of the strategic round, Ford and BMW have expanded their joint agreements with Solid Power to develop solid-state batteries for their use. In a way, the two automakers are funding and o

Electric carmaker Tesla has released its earnings results for the first quarter of this year 2021, showing record sales and profits. It reported $10.4 billion in revenue, up 74% year-over-year, and a net income of $438 million which's over 26 times its net income in the same quarter last year. The revenue and profit stats disclosed by Tesla marks the highest-ever in the company's existence. It's a testament to a growing market for electric vehicles that Tesla has gotten a stronghold on. In Q1 2021, Tesla produced just over 180,000 vehicles and delivered just slightly under 185,000 vehicles to customers. Out of the number delivered to customers, Model 3 and Model Y vehicles accounted for the vast majority with 182,870 deliveries while Model S and Model X, the more premium ones, made up a much smaller 2,020 deliveries. Tesla's sales for the quarter were boosted by the market in China in which it's established a large factory capable of producing up to 450,000 cars an

The main rival of ridesharing heavyweight Uber in the US, Lyft, has followed Uber's footsteps with the sell-off of its self-driving business to an outsider. It's sealed a deal to sell its self-driving business to a subsidiary of Japanese automaker Toyota. Woven Planet Holdings, a subsidiary of Toyota, will pay $550 million in cash to takeover Lyft's self-driving division. Out of that amount, $200 million will be paid upfront while the remaining $350 million gets split into payments over a five-year period. Lyft's deal with Toyota mimics that of its main rival Uber which agreed to a deal to sell off its self-driving business to a well-funded startup named Aurora. Unlike Uber, however, Lyft's sell-off is structured as one where it'll receive a cash payment for the sale and hand off the unit rather than taking an equity stake in the acquiring company as Uber did. When Uber sold its self-driving business to Aurora, it came out with a 26% ownership stake in the com

Nuro, a well-funded self-driving startup launched by ex-Google veterans, has said that it's raised new funding from investors including restaurant chain Chipotle and Woven Capital, a growth-stage fund launched by a subsidiary of Japanese automaker Toyota. The new investments in Nuro came as part of a $500 million Series C  that the company embarked on last year. It adds Chipotle as a strategic investor in Nuro and means we could see food from Chipotle getting delivered by Nuro's self-driving robots sometime in the future. With backing from an offshoot of Toyota, Nuro also has a new strategic investor in the Japanese automaker.  Nuro's new investments came on the heels of the company securing a commercial deployment permit for its autonomous delivery robots in the state of California. The permit has allowed Nuro to operate commercially in two countries near its headquarters in the California Bay Area and the company says it'll soon start delivering there with a yet-unn

Luminar Technologies, a company making lidar sensors for autonomous vehicles that went public through a much-talked-about SPAC merger a few months ago, has added another major lidar supply deal to its package of contracts, this time with a Chinese automaker that's known to be the biggest in the country by the name SAIC Motor. Luminar has entered into a strategic partnership with SAIC Motor that'll see it supply lidar hardware and the accompanying autonomous driving software for a new line of SAIC electric vehicles dubbed R . The contract will kick off next year, 2022, and it's noted that targets exist for Luminar to supply lidars for SAIC's entire vehicle lineup needing it. With its partnership with SAIC, Luminar will open its first office in China in Shanghai, the same city where SAIC is based. From there, the Chinese automaker will provide local support for Luminar as it gets into a foreign market it hasn't been into before. For the new R brand electric car unveil

In a move signaling its increasing commitment towards electrification, German luxury carmaker BMW has unveiled what's its first all-electric sedan, the BMW i4 , that's scheduled to hit the roads by the end of this very year. BMW first teased the all-electric i4 concept at the digital-only Geneva Motor Show last year and has now unveiled a production version that closely matches that concept. The i4 is an electric car that'll come in different versions with the highest having a range of around 300 miles and power of around 390kW (roughly 530 horsepower), BMW says. For now, though, BMW hasn't dished out many details on the all-electric i4 but says it'll do so 'over the next weeks.' However, the car's range and power output have been revealed as disclosed above, being two important pieces of information to note. Notably, BMW has said that it'll offer an M Performance model of the i4. Another notable piece of information is that the i4 will use the late

It's definitely a good day for Northvolt, a Swedish startup making batteries for electric vehicles and a highly-funded one at that with some $3.3 billion in equity and debt financing.  Northvolt has sealed a big contract with German automaker Volkswagen to supply $14 billion worth of lithium-ion batteries for the automaker's electrification efforts over the next 10 years, with Northvolt becoming the strategic lead battery supplier to the Volkswagen Group in Europe. The $14 billion battery deal is a landmark one for Northvolt and brings the total value of supply contracts under its belt to $27 billion, quite unprecedented for a five-year-old startup in its early stages. As part of its supply deal with Northvolt, Volkswagen which was already an investor in Northvolt before now has increased its stake in the company to 20%. As an anchor investor, it'll also be Northvolt's biggest customer marking a significant tie-up between both companies. Northvolt is currently building

Fresh off a public listing through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), electric car startup Canoo has unveiled what's its third vehicle, this time a bubbly-looking electric pickup truck. Canoo's newly-unveiled electric pickup truck sets the company as a contender in the American electric truck market which is one that's predicted for huge growth over time . Now, Canoo will be getting head-on with the likes of Tesla, Rivian, Ford, and Lordstown Motors to capture market share in the American pickup truck market as it's set to transition towards all-electric models over time. Canoo's new electric pickup truck is pictured above. It measures six feet and can extend to a fully enclosed eight feet to give way for more space, thanks to a pull-out bed extension that's demonstrated in the image below. At its front, Canoo's pickup truck features a cargo storage area that can hold tools or gear and also includes a fold-down worktable with electri

Porsche, the popular maker of high-performance cars, definitely has its eyes set on transitioning to an electric future as it's already released its first all-electric vehicle, the Porsche Taycan , which sold over 20,000 units in its first year of mass production being 2020.  Along with producing its own all-electric vehicles, Porsche has also signaled its major interest in the electric car market by investing in Rimac, a Croatian maker of high-performance electric cars. The German carmaker had previously invested a sum in Rimac that gave it a 15% stake in the Croatian electric car startup and now has announced  that it's investing another 70 million Euros ($83 million) to boost its stake to 24%. Porsche's investment in Rimac indicates major confidence in the Croatian electric car startup's operations, as it's made itself Rimac's biggest outside shareholder. Porsche and Rimac are strategic partners in a not-surprising way given that Rimac specializes in making h

The latest global automaker to commit to transitioning to a fully-electric production output in the future is Swedish carmaker Volvo, which has announced plans to become a fully electric car company by 2030. By then, the company says it intends to have phased out any car in its portfolio with an internal combustion engine, including hybrids, and transition to producing fully electric cars. The announcement of Volvo's grand plan comes a year after the company launched its first fully electric car, the XC40 Recharge , around the globe, and with just one fully electric car in its product portfolio now, it's apparent that the automaker would need to put in hard work to achieve a fully-electric portfolio in nine years time. To work towards its goal, Volvo has announced that it'll roll out 'several' additional electric car models in the coming years, the word several making the number indistinct. The Swedish automaker is aiming for fully electric cars to make up half of

Skydio, an American startup that makes autonomous drones, has closed a new funding round of $170 million that values it above $1 billion. The round was led by the famous venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from existing backers Next47, IVP, and Linse Capital, plus a new investor UP.Partners. Andreessen Horowitz led the new Series D round for Skydio from its Growth Fund, and with it, Skydio has now raised a total of over $340 million in external funding and then with a $1 billion+ valuation that makes it the highest-valued drone startup in the US. It seems that Skydio has drawn wide investor attraction after the US government placed China's DJI on a blacklist last year. DJI made its mark as the biggest drone maker globally and the largest in the US market but got placed on a government Entity List last year that barred American companies from supplying it with components. The blacklist was instituted by the former Trump administration due to alleged ties to

Velodyne Lidar, the leading maker of lidars for autonomous vehicles in the US, is in the midst of a leadership tussle that's seen its founder and biggest shareholder David Hall pushed out from his position of Chairman at the company along with his wife Marta Hall who held the position of Chief Marketing Officer at Velodyne. David and Marta Hall were pushed out from Velodyne after a board investigation that brought accusations of the couple behaving "inappropriately" and acting without "respect, honesty, integrity and candor” when interacting with other officers and directors at Velodyne as claimed by the company's board. As they were pushed out, Velodyne named a new Chairman and another new board director. In response to his ouster, Velodyne founder David Hall put out a press statement  accusing his company of staging a "boardroom ambush" to reprimand him and his wife "based on an opaque, secret investigation into baseless, unfounded claims".

After becoming a public company last year through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), electric carmaker Fisker has taken a bold and crucial step towards its planned manufacturing of electric cars with a partnership with Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturing powerhouse famously known for assembling Apple's iPhones. Fisker has announced a partnership with Foxconn that'll see the Taiwanese manufacturing giant build electric cars bearing Fisker's name with projected annual production volumes of 250,000+ units. The vehicle to be manufactured by Foxconn will be Fisker's second electric vehicle and hasn't yet been unveiled. Fisker says that the new electric vehicle to be built by Foxconn is planned to go into production by Q4 2023, roughly a year after the scheduled launch of Fisker's first vehicle, the Ocean SUV . Already, over 12,000 reservations have been booked for the Ocean SUV, wherein Fisker has grand plans to get into a competitive elect

Every new day or so brings new SPAC mergers and today's new merger happens to be Joby Aviation , a maker of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) passenger aircraft, a.k.a air taxis. Joby has announced an agreement to merge with Reinvent Technology Partners (NYSE:RTP), a SPAC formed by a group including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga founder Mark Pincus. With its merger, Joby will become a public company trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Joby's merger deal values the company at $6.6 billion. Through the merger, the company will get roughly $1.6 billion in cash proceeds consisting of $690 million held in trust by the SPAC it's merging with, an extra $835 million from a private placement, and then a $75 million convertible note purchase from the ride-hailing company Uber that's being made under the terms of a  recent deal of Uber selling its flying taxi business to Joby . Joby's $835 million private placement will come from investors inc

Special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have been on a tear as of late, with 2020 and just two months into 2021 collectively drawing hundreds of SPAC listings that have raised tens of billions of dollars. With a SPAC boom, it's such that investors are betting on the use of SPACs to buy into promising companies and looking to make profits from them, and one of the industries to have drawn high positive interest from investors has been electric vehicles. Many companies in the electric vehicle industry, most recently the electric carmaker Lucid Motors , have sealed big SPAC deals and drawn a lot of attention with them. The whole industry is being propped up with electric carmakers taking the lead and complementary businesses such as battery makers and charging network companies following suit. Now, it seems that the latest company in the EV industry to be targeting a SPAC deal is DeepGreen Metals , a company that plans to produce metals with a minimal environmental impact that&#

After months of rumors of electric car startup Lucid Motors looking to go public via the route of a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), it's now officially announced an agreement to merge with Churchill Capital Corp IV (NYSE: CCIV) in a deal that'll hand it over $4.4 billion in cash for its operations and value it at $24 billion Pro-forma. A $4.4 billion cash and $24 billion-value deal isn't in the normal ranges for most SPAC mergers as it's on the high end of the deals sealed by SPACs by valuation. It should be expected in this case, though, as Lucid Motors is an electric carmaker, and investors have been very positive towards publicly-traded electric carmakers as of late. Lucid Motors is one of the most-watched electric carmakers as it looks to ramp up production and begin delivering its first vehicles this year. Led by a former top Tesla engineering executive, the company is looking to establish a foothold in the American electric vehicle marke

As it looks, lidar startups have been major merger targets for special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) over the past year, with a handful of them having sealed deals to go public through SPAC mergers (e.g. Ouster , Luminar , Velodyne, and Aeva ). Now, the latest lidar startup to join that cohort is AEye , a venture-backed lidar maker based in Dublin, California. AEye has sealed a deal to merge with CF Finance Acquisition Corp. III (Nasdaq: CFAC), a SPAC sponsored by the financial services giant Cantor Fitzgerald. The merger is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year. Under the terms of its merger, AEye will be handed over $230 million in cash held in trust by  CF Finance Acquisition Corp. III, and has also secured a $225 million private-investment-in-public-equity (PIPE) funding round that'll bring its total cash haul to $455 million,  a round that'll see participation from investors including GM Ventures, Intel Capital, and Hella Ventures. Following

In what's the latest sign of legacy automakers preparing for a future where electric cars are the norm, the premium and luxury car brand Jaguar has announced that it'll become an all-electric brand by 2025, precisely four years from now. The all-electric push is part of Jaguar's parent company Jaguar Land Rover's plan to become a net-zero carbon business by 2039. Already, Jaguar has a fully-electric car on the market, the  Jaguar I-Pace SUV , and has sold over 40,000 units of the vehicle. However, its sister brand Land Rover currently has no fully-electric vehicle on the market but has now said that it'll produce its first in 2024. Although the Jaguar I-Pace SUV has sold over 40,000 units, it appears to have struggled to thrive in a market with hefty competition from other automakers. Also, the Jaguar I-Pace SUV is actually manufactured by an external contractor and not Jaguar itself, meaning that the luxury brand's just-announced plan to become all-electric soo

The American automaker General Motors (GM) is surely stepping up its electric vehicle game on the backs of its plan to spend $27 billion on electric and autonomous vehicle development from 2020 through 2025. It's just unveiled two new additions to its growing electric car lineup, a usual hatchback and a new compact SUV from its popular Chevy Bolt brand. The new electric vehicles from GM are 2022 models, meaning they'll go into production later this year. With the lineup, GM dropped a surprise with a new Chevy Bolt electric utility vehicle (EUV), essentially a compact SUV. It's the first compact SUV to come from the Chevy Bolt brand and represents GM's bigger rush into the electric vehicle market, with plans to launch 30 new EVs by 2025. GM 2022 redesigned Bolt EV (left) and Bolt EUV (right). Chevy Bolt EUV The 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV is notably the first vehicle from the Chevrolet brand to feature GM's 'Super Cruise' driver assistance system. It's similar