The Techee

LG Group , the South Korean electronics and chemicals giant, is reimbursing a significant amount of money for supplying faulty batteries to one of its biggest customers, American automaker General Motors (GM) . It'll reimburse GM  up to $1.9bn  to cover the costs of the automaker's massive recall of its Chevy   Bolt electric cars containing LG batteries. Apparently, LG supplied faulty battery modules to GM for use in its Bolt EVs. These faulty batteries made all Bolts a significant fire risk that caused GM to organize a total recall, costing the American automaker a considerable sum. Because of the fault found with LG's batteries, the Korean company negotiated with GM and agreed to cover the majority of costs of the automaker's total recall. While the final recall costs haven't been set, GM has said  it'll offset $1.9bn of the $2bn in charges associated with the recall in its next quarterly report, implying LG could pay up to that amount. Separately, two LG Cor

Electric carmaker Tesla is moving its headquarters away from California to the state of Texas. The company made this known in its latest annual shareholder meeting .  That Tesla is relocating its HQ to Texas isn't much of a bombshell. It has been, in fact, major speculation for a while that was spurred by the carmaker's CEO Elon Musk relocating from California to Texas last December . California and Texas are two states where Tesla has enormous operations, though California takes the crown for seeing Tesla grow from a small startup into a carmaking giant. Tesla's California factory was the most crucial to its success, where it cranked up its manufacturing prowess at the smaller stage in preparation for bigger things to come. Though it's relocating, Tesla says it'll retain its vast manufacturing and sales operations in California and continue to expand. "To be clear we will be continuing to expand our activities in California," CEO Musk said. "Our inte

Rivian , an electric car startup that has raised billions from investors including e-commerce giant Amazon, has unveiled its S-1 filing for an initial public offering. The S-1 filing gives great insight into the startup's operations, with information not publicly disclosed before. Rivian is one of the up-and-coming challengers to the dominant electric carmakers in America. It's one of the highest-funded EV startups ever, with nearly $11bn raised pre-production. In its product pipeline, Rivian has two consumer vehicles, the R1T truck and R1S SUV , as well as a cargo van made for Amazon, a strategic investor that has ordered 100,000 units.  Let's have a look at some key stats and information contained in Rivian's S-1 filing, starting with its financial figures. Expectedly, Rivian is recording hefty losses as it's setting up production before it starts selling cars to customers. The company posted a $1bn loss in 2020 and $426mn the year before. In the first half

Lordstown Motors (NASDAQ: RIDE), an embattled electric car startup, has struck a deal to sell its only automotive factory to Foxconn , the Taiwanese manufacturing giant famously known for assembling Apple's iPhones. Foxconn will pay $230mn for the factory and then  invest $50mn in Lordstown to support the EV startup's operations. The factory of concern, located in Ohio , was a former facility of automaker  General Motors that Lordstown bought after it closed down. Notably, GM lent Lordstown $40mn that the fledgling startup used to take the factory off its hands. The Ohio factory was the essential ingredient in Lordstown's operations as it set out to woo investors for capital with a lofty goal of mass-producing electric trucks. Lordstown succeeded in raising capital, in fact, nearly   $700mn from a SPAC merger , but later hit a wall. Soon after the merger, it warned of insufficient capital to fund commercial production and stirred a crisis. After warning of insufficie

You may have seen this script play out before; a short-seller accuses an electric car startup of fraud, usually a publicly-traded startup that hasn't yet delivered much or if any functional production vehicles.  As of recent, it first happened with Nikola  and then  Lordstown Motors , two companies that went public by merging with SPACs. These two companies actually turned out to have many issues of misstatements and overtly ambitious projections that didn't materialize, proving the same short-seller ( Hindenburg Research ) that went after both of them right. Now, this script is playing out again with a short-seller accusing another electric car startup of fraud. The short-seller is Fuzzy Panda Research , a quite obscure firm, and the startup is Workhorse Group (NASDAQ: WKHS) , which was actually founded by the same person who founded Lordstown; Steve Burns .  Noteworthy is that in cases like this, a short-seller stands to profit if the stock price of the accused falls so there

In the American stock markets, many strange things happen. It may be meme stocks with excessive valuations (AMC, GameStop), strange penny stocks (that single restaurant worth $100mn ), or an electric car startup that became more valuable than Ford before it came crashing down ( Nikola ). Today, the strange thing in the stock markets is an acquisition. It's that a company originally focused on financial-tech services is using its stock to buy an electric vehicle startup. The buyer here is Ideanomics , a public company that's changed its name several times in recent years apparently pursuing whatever business was in vogue. Ideanomics is buying  VIA Motors , a Utah-based startup that's working on electric commercial vehicles. The deal is worth $630mn, split into $450mn of Ideanomics stock (NASDAQ: IDEX) upfront and $180mn as potential earnouts. Before we go further, let's have a brief look at Ideanomics and its rocky history.  It was founded back in 2004 under a differe

Rivian , an electric car startup that's raised boatloads of venture money, appears to now have its eyes set on the public markets to raise even more. The startup, backed by investors including Ford and Amazon , has confidentially filed for an initial public offering. Usually, before a company goes public, it submits a confidential S-1 document having in-depth information about its operations, before the document is reviewed by regulators and then made public at a chosen date. In Rivian's case, it's just submitted the draft confidential filing so we won't be getting much-anticipated info about the hot EV startup's business yet. Rivian seems like the most-watched American electric car startup, with hopes of being a challenger to the likes of Tesla and GM. With big ambitions and promises, the company has raised nearly $11bn from investors, including $2.5bn just last month , despite having not mass-produced its vehicles. In its pipeline, Rivian has two electric cars;

Regulators in the US have launched a formal probe into the " Autopilot " driver-assist function of electric carmaker Tesla  after a series of reported crashes while the software was in function. The probe was opened by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which identified at least 17 people injured and 1 dead in crashes where Tesla's Autopilot software was in function. The probe covers all Tesla's current models, an estimated 765,000 cars. "The investigation will assess the technologies and methods used to monitor, assist and enforce the driver’s engagement with the dynamic driving task during Autopilot operation," the agency said. Tesla's Autopilot assisted driving software has been a major selling point of the electric carmaker to its many customers, but there have been concerns of Tesla marketing it with misleading claims, mostly regarding the Autopilot name which kind of implies the vehicle could drive on its own while it actu

The founder of embattled electric car startup Nikola Corp. has been formally indicted on fraud charges by the US Justice Department months after resigning from the company. Trevor Milton by name, he's been accused of securities and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud and mislead investors. Milton is accused of misleading investors by making false statements regarding Nikola's products and capabilities. Notably, most of the investors allegedly misled were on the retail side. The DOJ alleges that Milton made false claims regarding "nearly all aspects" of Nikola's business. Milton founded Nikola in 2014 and led it through a public listing via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) last year. The DOJ threw an apparent jab at SPACs in his indictment, asserting that he made 'many' of his false and misleading claims  during a period where he would not have been allowed to do so under rules that govern traditional IPOs were he

Lordstown Motors , an embattled electric car startup, seems to be finding hope in the current markets. It's secured a funding lifeline after running into major cash woes in its operations. To recall, Lordstown  warned last month that it didn't have sufficient capital to fund the commercial production of its electric truck and thus risked jeopardy of its efforts. But now, the company appears to have secured a $400mn funding commitment, regulatory filings show.  According to the filing, a New Jersey-based hedge fund named  Yorkville Advisors has committed to purchase up to $400mn of Lordstown stock over the next three years, as the publicly traded electric-car startup would get the money to fund its operations. Lordstown and Yorkville have entered into a binding equity purchase agreement for the latter to buy Class A common stock of Lordstown for at least $7.48 a share on the public markets over the next three years. Lordstown stock (NASDAQ: RIDE) currently trades for under $

In the world of supercars, there's major news today. It's that one of the world's best-known legacy supercar makers is merging with a startup that makes electric supercars. The legacy automaker is the popular Bugatti brand owned by Volkswagen and the startup is Rimac based in Croatia. Rimac is combining with Bugatti to form a new company named Rimac Group . The newly formed company will have two divisions - Bugatti-Rimac , the carmaking division, and Rimac Technology , the division continuing Rimac's business of supplying automotive systems to other upscale carmakers. The new Rimac Group will be headed by Mate Rimac, the founder of Rimac Automobili for which the company is named. The headquarters of Rimac Group will eventually be in Croatia at a planned major manufacturing campus costing €200M ($237mn). Before the merger, Bugatti was wholly owned by Volkswagen, which was also a shareholder in Rimac via its subsidiary company Porsche. Now handing over its Bugatti bran

Electric carmaker Tesla has crossed a major milestone in its business of car deliveries. For the first time in a three-month period, it delivered over 200,000 cars to customers, setting a record for itself. Tesla delivered 201,250 vehicles in the second quarter of 2021, compared to nearly 185,000 in the preceding quarter. In the same second quarter, the company produced 206,421 vehicles. While Tesla crossed a major delivery milestone, it slightly fell short of investor and analyst expectations with forecasts ranging from 190,000-231,000 deliveries, data polled from FactSet shows. Of the 201,250 vehicles Tesla delivered, the vast majority as usual (199,360) were Model 3 and Y vehicles while Model S and X made up a minority (1,890). The Model S and X are the higher-end Tesla models so are usually produced much less. Tesla is continuing to build up its production capacity, with new factories under construction in Texas and Germany. Currently, it has two car-churning factories in the US

In the latest episode of the saga with electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors , it's now facing an investigation from the US Justice Department for possible fraud. The pilot of this saga were  fraud accusations from short-seller Hindenburg this March and has made for an interesting series since that time. The Justice Department's investigation into Lordstown Motors was first reported by The Wall Street Journal . It's being handled by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and is in its early stages, the report said. With big ambitions, Lordstown Motors went public last year through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that added $675mn to its cash coffers to fund commercial production of its planned electric truck. But fast forward a few months after and Lordstown warned that it didn't have sufficient cash to fund production, weighing down investor hopes. The warning from Lordstown opened up a storm of backlash that despite raising hundreds o

German automaker Volkswagen has said it'll stop selling combustion engine cars in the whole of Europe by 2035 as it turns its attention towards electric vehicles. The statement came from a board member of the company speaking to the local  Muenchner Merkur newspaper. The board member in person was  Klaus Zellmer , previously the head of Porsche Cars North America. He said Volkswagen will stop selling combustion-engine vehicles in Europe between 2033 and 2035, with the US and China to come "a little later". The stated plan falls in line with European countries working hard to phase out the sale of combustion-engine vehicles to meet climate targets. Some like the UK have banned the sale of gasoline cars by 2030. This is not the first time we'll hear commitments towards electrification from Volkswagen. The German carmaker has said it plans to launch around 70 all-electric car models by 2030, backed up by tens of billions of dollars of investment. Volkswagen has its e

One of the major manufacturing partners of electric carmaker Tesla has sold its large stake in the company. That partner is Japan-based Panasonic , which sold its stake for about 400 billion yen ($3.6bn), the company has confirmed . Panasonic has been a strategic partner and early investor in Tesla for a long time. It bought shares worth $30mn back in 2010, the very year Tesla debuted on the public markets. That stake alone was worth $730mn at the end of March 2020. After investing $30mn in 2010, Panasonic bought more shares in Tesla over time. Now as it's sold all of them for $3.6bn, that's a very high return-on-investment, like many have made on Tesla. Panasonic says the sale of its stake won't affect its partnership with Tesla. The electronics conglomerate is a major supplier of battery cells present in Tesla's cars. Tesla itself has been seeking to diversify its supply chain to not rely majorly on a single supplier like Panasonic. At that, the company has added new

An autonomous driving startup in the US with a focus on trucks has sealed a big deal to go public via the SPAC route. You may have heard this just recently (in the case of Plus ) and wondering if we're repeating previous news, but no, it's another startup, an even bigger one by valuation. Embark Trucks, a self-driving startup founded by two University of Waterloo dropouts, has agreed to merge with a SPAC and go public with a valuation of $5.2bn. It's a pretty lavish valuation for a company still in the R&D phase and making no money. Embark will merge with Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. II (NYSE: NGAB). The deal will hand over to the startup $414mn of cash from the SPAC and then a $200mn PIPE round, making a total of $614mn. Investors that have committed to the $200mn PIPE round include Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and Mubadala Capital. As part of the merger terms, Embark is getting a new board member in Elaine Chao, the former US Secretary of Transportation under

A former high-ranking executive of electric carmaker Tesla is reaping large monetary rewards for his time at the company. He's converted enough Tesla stock to cash that could last a generation or two. Jerome Guillen , a former president of Tesla's Heavy Trucking division, has sold shares worth $274mn over the past two weeks, SEC filings show. He left Tesla this very month after an eleven-year stint at the company. According to SEC filings, Guillen sold Tesla shares in three successive blocks worth $129mn, $90mn, and $55mn. He got those shares from options he exercised, the price he paid for those options being unknown to the public. Executives like Guillen are usually granted stock options that give them the right to purchase company shares at discounted prices and turn around to sell them at higher market prices if they wish. Guillen joined Tesla in 2010, the very year the company went public. Since then, the company's market cap has surged from $1.7bn to $600bn.  As of 20

America's biggest automaker, General Motors (GM) , has once again boosted its monetary commitment towards the development of electric and autonomous vehicles. It now says it'll spend a whopping $35bn on that from 2020 through 2025, a 75% increase from its commitment prior to the pandemic. In March last year, GM first said that it'll spend $20bn on EVs and AVs from 2020 through 2025. Then, in November, it increased its commitment to $27bn. Now, it's been topped up with another $8bn, implying a major commitment on the company's part. The high spending would fund GM's ambitious plan to have made 30 new electric vehicles globally from 2020 through 2025. Like many global automakers, the company has seen the clear writing on the wall that electric cars represent the future of the auto market. Also, developing autonomous vehicles is very important strategically for an automaker looking for future prospects. In that regard, GM has its Cruise self-driving division, wh

At electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors , two of its top executives have resigned shortly after the company warned that it didn't have sufficient cash to kick off production of its electric truck. Those two executives are CEO Steven Burns and CFO Julio Rodriguez, effective immediately. The leadership change at Lordstown follows a pattern at struggling companies. In Lordstown's case, the company says it doesn't have enough capital to fund the production of its electric truck despite raising $675mn from a SPAC merger last year. It's quite a drastic turn for Lordstown which debuted on the public markets last year with ambitious, wild promises to its investors. Even then, the company said it didn't expect to raise further capital after the $675mn from its SPAC deal but now appears to be hurting for cash. In March, Lordstown was accused of fraud by short-seller Hindenburg Research, which alleged highly faked pre-orders and undisclosed production challenges to in

An autonomous driving startup with its major operations in the US and China is the latest tech company that's set to hit the public markets through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). That startup is Plus (formerly Plus.ai), one focused on automated trucking. Plus has agreed to a deal to merge with Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. V (NASDAQ: HCIC) and become a public company. The terms of the merger value the self-driving startup at $3.3bn. From its merger, Plus will get $345mn of cash held in trust by HCIC and then a $150mn PIPE round from investors including BlackRock and the D. E. Shaw Group. That sums up to a cool $495mn for the company to fund its operations. The cash from its SPAC merger is crucial for Plus, as a company that plans to kick off mass production of its product this year.  Plus sells a stack of hardware and complementary software to enable automated driving for trucks. Its main customer base is truck manufacturers, such as China's F