Volvo Cars' pricing, Gogoro's latest investment, and Hertz's EV fleet: |
1. Volvo Cars CFO Johan Ekdahl said the company will not follow Tesla and Ford in lowering prices for electric vehicles. Ford dropped the price of the Mustang Mach-E by an average of $4,500 after Tesla's price cuts in January. Q: Volvo sold 66,749 battery-electric models globally in 2022. Will the automaker surpass its EV sales this year while other automakers adjust prices amid supply chain normalization? Share your thoughts. |
2. Hertz revealed it had 48,344 Tesla vehicles in its fleet at the end of 2022, out of an order of 100,000 units. The rental company has a total fleet of 428,700 vehicles across brands. Q: Hertz observed a 28% YoY increase in corporate travelers in January. Do you think the company will be able to beat the $8.7B in revenue generated last year? Share your thoughts. |
3. Indian moped company Zypp Electric announced it raised a $25M Series B led by Taiwanese moped battery-swapping network Gogoro. The investment adds to Gogoro's presence in India after partnerships with Hero MotoCorp and the state of Maharashtra. Q: Gogoro stock is down 51% since its IPO in 2021. Do you think Gogoro's expansion throughout Asia will recover its share price? Share your thoughts. |
4. Universal Hydrogen completed ground tests for its hydrogen fuel-cell modified De Havilland Dash 8-300 aircraft. The company plans for the aircraft to be fully certified and to start service in 2025. |
5. Shyft plans to invest $16M into its Blue Arc Class 3 EV manufacturing plant in Charlotte, Michigan. The company expects an output of 3,000 vehicles per year at the plant. |
6. Vertical Aerospace and Rolls Royce received a combined £113M ($136M) investment from the U.K.’s Aerospace Technology Institute. Vertical plans to use its portion of the funds to prototype a propulsion battery system for eVTOLs and other aircraft, while Rolls Royce plans to build a zero-emission liquid hydrogen combusting jet engine. |
7. China saw sales of 5.92 million plugin electric passenger cars (including PHEVs) in 2022. The top models were the BYD Song Plus, Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV, and the Tesla Model Y. |