The Techee

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

Plus, an American-Chinese self-driving truck startup that formerly bore the name Plus.ai , has announced  that it's raised a fresh funding round of $200 million led by new investors Guotai Junan International, CPE, and Wanxiang International Investment, three Chinese firms. Other existing backers such as the Chinese on-demand trucking giant Full Truck Alliance also participated in the round. With its new funds, Plus says that it's working to meet its goal of mass production of self-driving trucks this very year. The company already has extensive testing operations in the US and China and now plans to expand further internationally into Europe and other parts of Asia. The new funds will allow Plus to hire more employees to guide its growth. Plus has made a key partnership with the Chinese truck maker FAW, a partnership that involves the deployment of its self-driving technology on trucks mass-produced by FAW. The company aims for the mass-production deployment to kick off this y

The Elon Musk-led electric car giant Tesla is the latest major company to buy a huge amount of the world's most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. It's purchased a whopping $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, as indicated by a filing  to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As it's made a big bet on bitcoin, Tesla has also said that it expects to begin accepting bitcoin as a payment option for its products "in the near future", but noted regulatory uncertainties in that area. Tesla's $1.5 billion bitcoin purchase perhaps represents the biggest-ever bitcoin purchase by a global publicly-traded company. It isn't that surprising given that the electric carmaker's CEO, Elon Musk, has been a major promoter of bitcoin and a few other cryptocurrencies. Tesla didn't disclose the price at which it purchased its big bitcoin haul for. With its purchase, the electric carmaker joins a few other publicly-traded companies and institutional investors that ha

Ree Automotive, an Israel-based startup that's building modular platforms for electric vehicles, is the latest company from the electric car industry to seal a deal for a public listing through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). It's announced  an agreement to merge with 10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: VCVC) and list on the Nasdaq as a result. The merger will hand over more than $500 million in cash to Ree to fund its operations, consisting of $200 million held in trust by    10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp and an extra $300 million p rivate-investment-in-public-equity (PIPE) round that's been committed by strategic investors including Magna, the automotive parts giant; Indian automotive manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra; and Koch Strategic Platforms, a subsidiary of Koch Industries. Ree's SPAC deal values the company at $3.6 billion. Ree, or Ree Automotive in full, is a startup from Israel that's developing modular pla

Nio, the Chinese maker of electric cars, has posted its sales figures for the month of January 2021, revealing that it delivered 7,225 vehicles in the month, about quadruple what it delivered in the same month last year. Nio sold 352% more vehicles in January 2021 than it did in January 2020, indicating very strong growth prospects for the company. During the month, Nio delivered 1,660 ES8 SUVs, 2,720 ES6s, and 2,845 EC6s. The company has now delivered a total of 82,866 vehicles since its start. For now, Nio only offers electric SUVs, even though that wouldn't stay the same for much longer as the company recently unveiled its first electric sedan , the ET7 (pictured above). The new sedan is expected to enter into production next year. As Nio's business has grown, that growth has reflected very well in the company's affairs on the stock market. In 2020, the company's share price rose by over 1,000%, an unprecedented rise by normal standards, and Nio didn't just sit t

Otonomo, an Israeli startup whose platform is a marketplace of vehicle data drawn from connected fleets of over 40 million vehicles worldwide, is the latest technology company to seal a deal to go public by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). It's announced a deal to merge with Software Acquisition Group, Inc. II (Nasdaq: SAII). The SPAC transaction will hand over well over $300 million in cash to Otonomo, consisting of $172.5 million held in trust by  Software Acquisition and an extra $172.5 million cash infusion committed by a mix of institutional investors  including Fidelity, Senvest Management, BNP Paribas, and strategic investors Hearst Ventures and Dell Technologies Capital. The merger deal values Otonomo at $1.4 billion. Following its completion, Otonomo will become listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “OTMO”. The merger is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2021. Otonomo is a five-year-old startup whose core product is a cloud-bas

The American automaker General Motors is the latest big automaker to make a big carbon neutrality pledge, announcing a plan to become carbon neutral in its global products and operations by 2040. Most of GM's carbon neutrality plan will come from the production of all-electric vehicles. The company says it plans to have 30 all-electric models in production by 2025 and have 40% of its American cars be battery-electric by the same year. As part of its plan, GM says that it'll source 100% renewable energy to power its US sites by 2030 and global sites by 2035. The company says it's already the 10th largest purchaser of renewable energy in the world. GM has said that it'll invest $27 billion in developing electric and autonomous vehicles from 2020 through 2025. The company apparently has its eyes set on a future that'll see the increased adoption of electric vehicles. “General Motors is joining governments and companies around the globe working to establish a safer, gr

Faraday Future is the latest electric carmaker to seal a deal to go public by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The company has reached an agreement to merge with the SPAC Property Solutions Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: PSAC) and raise roughly $1 billion from the deal, money that'll be used to fund its operations.  You may remember Faraday Future as the once seemingly high-flying electric carmaker that got its wings clipped by severe financial issues . The company had debuted a few concept vehicles in 2015 and planned to launch a production vehicle in 2017 but got plagued by financial and operational issues. Now restructured and under new leadership, Faraday Future is apparently betting that it can succeed with its plan to produce electric vehicles and has garnered enough investment interest to the tune of a billion dollars on the public markets.  With its merger, the company will get $230 million in cash held in trust by  Property Solutions Acquisition Corp

Sila Nano, a startup that's working on batteries for electric cars, has raised a fresh funding round of $590 million led by the investment firm Coatue. Other participants included existing backers 8VC, Sutter Hill Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Bessemer Venture Partners, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The new round values Sila Nano at $3.3 billion post-money and adds up the total amount of venture funding the company has raised to nearly $900 million.  With its new funds, Sila Nano says it'll kick off the development of a new North American 100 GWh plant to produce silicon-based anode materials for batteries for its automotive customers.  With partnerships with automakers like BMW and Daimler, Sila Nano aims to start production at the plant in 2024 and have its batteries running in cars by 2025. Sila Nano has set its sights on developing batteries for electric cars that are better than the ones we currently have. As known, battery technology is very crucial to the adop

The British-Dutch oil giant Shell has announced that it's reached a definitive agreement to buy Ubitricity, the largest public electric vehicle charging network in the UK with over 2,700 charge points. The company is paying an undisclosed price to buy Ubitricity in its entirety. As it seems, even oil giants like Shell have seen the writing on the wall that renewable energy leads the future. The company, famous for pumping nearly 4 million barrels of oil each day, has moved to buy a major  electric vehicle charging network to strengthen its position in the renewables market. Shell already operates a large network of petrol filling stations for automobiles in the UK and abroad. With the rise of electric vehicles, it's apparent that the need for public charging stations will continue to rise to fill in the gap for petrol filling stations. Shell has apparently adjusted its strategy towards that and now moved to acquie a major  electric vehicle charging network in Europe. Ubitricit

EVgo, a company that operates a network of fast charges for electric vehicles in the US, has sealed a deal to go public through a merger with the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Climate Change Crisis Real Impact I Acquisition Corporation. The merger will hand over $575 million in cash to EVgo for its operations and value the company at $2.6 billion. EVgo is the latest company from the electric vehicle industry to seal a deal to hit the public markets. The company is itself a subsidiary of LS Power, an employee-owned and independent power and energy company in the US. For its merger, EVgo will get $230 million in cash held in trust by the SPAC it's merging with plus an additional $400 million committed by private investors including PIMCO, BlackRock, and Wellington Management. The merger will see EVgo start trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). EVgo is a major electric vehicle charging network in the US, with more than 800 locations across 34 states. The company