The hype surrounding Tesla, the market value of which has now surged to more than $ 1.2 trillion this year, hides a little what is otherwise going on. One IPO followed the next in 2021; and most newcomers took the express route through a construct called Spac. Electric car and air taxi manufacturers were particularly popular. The race for the future of the global mobility market has shifted to Wall Street this year. For investors, however, almost all stocks turned out to be a disaster. With the exception of Lucid (plus 280 percent), almost all of them end the year in deep red. We took a closer look at the Spac data – and present: The biggest flops of the year.
Admission to the Lufthansa pilot school was the start of a golden career for a long time. From the school desk it went straight to the cockpit. Then Corona came, CEO Carsten Spohr saved, the training of the young elite was stopped. Almost 200 prospective pilots went to court. My colleague Felix Stippler spoke to some of them – and to the headmaster Matthias Spohr, the younger brother of the CEO: Uprising of the young pilots.
Cariad, the somewhat hesitant software subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, has recently been receiving medical treatment from CEO Herbert Diess. In cooperation with the map service TomTom, Cariad should now develop a new navigation system. In this case, the one who misses out is the Here map service, which was once bought together with the other car manufacturers. Here could use exactly such deals before the planned IPO.
In Grünheide, something like the construction site of the year, is approaching for Tesla the start closer. In the state government, you can see that all the requirements for a final building permit for the plant have been met. Elon Musk could tweet about the start of production this year.
For GM boss Mary Barra, autonomous driving plays a central role in her ambitious growth plan. Now she has abruptly moved away from the CEO of her robotic investment Cruise separated.
And things are going well at Canoo too. The electric start-up founded by former BMW board member Stefan Krause leave three other co-founders, including Head of Technology Peter Savagian.
Number of the week: 11 billion
That’s how much taxes Elon Musk pays this year, at least he claims on twitter. Since November, he’s sold $ 14 billion worth of shares in it. When he said on Wednesday that that was “enough”, the Tesla rate jumped seven percent. Including wealth effect for Mr. Musk. Practical.
Collecting old, if in doubt, smelly cars may go against the spirit of the times. They are always beautiful. Kearney auto world boss Christian Malorny has built a “cathedral” for his oldtimers in his home in Berlin Grunewald – and dreams of a super garage on an aircraft carrier, which one would then talk about at parties in New York. My colleague Sonja Banze is immersed in it High society of classic car collectors.
New mobility: Voi ++ Via
The Swedish electric scooter supplier Voi gets fresh capital: $ 115 million for the attack also with rental bikes. We spoke to CEO Fredrik Hjelm. He claims: It is enough if a scooter is used one to one and a half hours a day to be able to operate it profitably.
The American mobility start-up Via, with which Daimler operates the transport service joint venture Via Van in several German cities, wants to submit a secret application to the US stock exchange. Via offers on-demand shuttle services and software and was most recently valued at $ 3.3 billion.
Deep Drive: Study of the Week
“Chip crisis” is probably on the shitlist for word of the year. The missing semiconductors have paralyzed entire car factories and endanger the companies’ sales plans, even though the demand is actually there. And because the word will also be on the shitlist for 2022, here is a link to a recent paper the consulting firm Roland Berger.
That the Finns are a little wilder? Clear. The guy above, Tuomas Katainen, however, seems to be a particularly determined Finn. With 30 kilograms of dynamite he blew up his Tesla Model S, perfectly staged and professionally filmed. Allegedly because the necessary 20,000 euro repair was too expensive for him. Regardless, the YouTube video in the Finnish original sound See here – Otherwise there will be a ban on firecrackers for the remainder of 2021.
With the best Christmas wishes we say goodbye in a short break. I wish you an eventful and healthy start to the new year!
Sincerely, your Lukas Heiny.