Tag: Financial Results

Japan’s Toyota and SoftBank to form joint venture for new mobility services

Japanese automaker Toyota and tech giant SoftBank announced Thursday that they are forming a joint venture by April 2019 that will use data to optimize supply and demand in the transportation space.

The company, called Monet Technologies, will coordinate between Toyota's information infrastructure for connected vehicles and SoftBank's so-called Internet of Things platform that collects and analyses data from smartphones and sensors, the Japanese corporations said in a joint statement.

In the first phase, Monet plans to roll out just-in-time vehicle dispatch services for Japanese public agencies and private companies to meet user demand. Those services include on-demand transportation and corporate shuttles.

By the second half of the 2020s, the joint venture will roll out an on-demand mobility service that will use Toyota's self-driving, battery-operated electric vehicle called e-Palette for various purposes. They include meal deliveries, where the food is being prepared inside the vehicle, hospital shuttles that can conduct medical examinations on board and mobile offices.

Monet will roll out its mobility services in Japan before focusing on future expansion on the global market.

Toyota launched plans for the so-called e-Palette earlier this year and described the concept as a “fully-automated, next generation battery electric vehicle” that can be customized and scaled for various mobility services.

The companies said that the joint venture will start at 2 billion yen ($17.49 million), and will be increased to 10 billion yen in future. They did not specify a timeline.

SoftBank will own 50.25 percent of the joint venture while Toyota will take 49.75 percent. SoftBank Corp representative director and CTO, Junichi Miyakawa, will be president and CEO of the new joint venture.

That news came after Toyota's rival Honda said it was taking a stake in General Motors subsidiary Cruise Holdings as part of a plan for the two automakers to work together and build an autonomous vehicle. Honda will invest $2.75 billion over the next 12 years, which includes paying GM $750 million immediately as it takes a 5.7 percent stake in Cruise Holdings.

Both Toyota and SoftBank are separately developing technologies that are used in self-driving cars and related services.

The two companies have also invested in major ride-hailing firms: Toyota is invested in Uber and Grab while SoftBank backs both firms as well as China's Didi Chuxing.

Automakers around the world are making multibillion-dollar investments and creating long-range plans for rolling out autonomous vehicles. Many of them are teaming up with other companies to share risks, technologies and expensesassociated with building self-driving cars since it will take time before those vehicles can be mass-produced and sold for a profit.

Many analysts think the widespread adoption of self-driving cars will start to pick up in 2021 or 2022.

— CNBC's Phil LeBeau contributed to this report.

Chevy Bolt EV sales are slumping in the US, GM says production going to Canada and South Korea

GM is scheduled to increase production of the Chevy Bolt EV by the end of the year, but sales are slumping in the US in the meantime. The automaker says that it is because they are focusing production for other markets. Like Tesla, GM decided to stop giving monthly sale numbers and only release quarterly… Continue reading Chevy Bolt EV sales are slumping in the US, GM says production going to Canada and South Korea

GM Cruise and Honda deal show how automakers share risk and high costs to build self-driving cars

Elijah Nouvelage | Reuters
A woman gets in a self-driving Chevy Bolt EV car during a media event by Cruise, GM’s autonomous car unit, in San Francisco, California, U.S. November 28, 2017.

GM and Honda's deal to partner on developing an autonomous vehicle signals that the two companies don't want to take on all the risk, expense and engineering resources needed to develop a self-driving car.

Companies are finding ways to share the burden and keep costs down on what could be a long road to a true autonomous vehicle market — and an even longer haul before it's ready to sell to the masses at a profit.

“Our mission is to deploy this technology safely at massive scale,” GM president Dan Ammann said Wednesday on CNBC's “Squawk on the Street.” “That's going to require a lot of resources — not just financial resources but also engineering resources.”

Kyle Vogt, CEO of GM subsidiary Cruise Holdings, told CNBC the deal will be a three-way partnership among GM, Honda and Cruise. The plan is to assemble a team and build an autonomous vehicle, though he did not give details on a timeline for the project or further details on the specific roles of each organization.

“We have our existing plans in motion to bring self-driving car technology to market, and then ultimately to scale it up,” Vogt said in an interview. “We are going to start with the vehicle we have been working on for a long time, but this is really about what comes next when you remove the human driver sitting behind the wheel.”

Starting with a completely new vehicle will allow the companies to consider all the different possibilities for a self-driving car and design everything else around it, rather than building self-driving tech onto an existing vehicle. Cruise is the group that is adding automated driving technology to GM's electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Bolt.

GM shares jumped more than 5 percent on the news.

Honda will invest $2.8 billion over the next 12 years, beginning with an immediate $750 million investment, and will take a 5.7 percent stake in Cruise Holdings. It follows Japanese conglomerate SoftBank's decision to invest $2.25 billion in Cruise in May.

Honda and GM have had a history of partnering on a number of technologies, such as batteries, powertrains, fuel cells. So it makes sense they would partner again, said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of global forecasting at LMC Automotive, which tracks the auto industry.

“It is not new that they might come together to co-develop or spread the costs around, which is what I really think this play is,” he said. “Everyone is racing to autonomy, but it is a marathon and it is going to take a lot of investment.”

Schuster added the partnership allows them to develop a cutting-edge autonomous car “without burying your current operations, because you still have to make cars today, and you still have to develop new products for today's market.”

It could also be a way for traditional automakers to stake out their territory in an area that has attracted a lot of investment from tech companies and “put them on notice,” he said.

Schuster added that he suspects there will be more of these types of partnerships ahead, given how much capital will be needed before companies see any sort of return.

A recent LMC Automotive report said the firm does not believe that there will be a significant volume of fully autonomous vehicles before 2030. It is so far away, it makes it difficult to predict winners, Schuster said.

“This is a trend we are going to be seeing more of going forward,” said Sam Abuelsamid, senior research analyst at Navigant Research, who studies the auto industry and mobility technologies. “There is going to be increasing consolidation as companies that may have been struggling with their own autonomous driving efforts look to partner with others that are having more success and leverage their resources.”

There are only so many ways to build an automated driving system, just as there have only been so many ways to build other systems on cars in the past, such as antilock braking systems, Abuelsamid said. Several companies tried developing their own systems in-house before realizing they were spending money on systems that did not give them any real competitive advantage over products already available from partners or suppliers.

“So collaborating on this stuff and using the same technology where it makes sense will save everybody a lot of money,” Abuelsamid said.

Pogo Carshare joins Communauto Group

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 19th, 2018 Local company partners to expand carsharing in Edmonton with more cars and lower fares   (Edmonton) Pogo Carshare is proud to announce its partnership with Communauto, the oldest and largest carsharing organization in Canada. The two companies plan to further develop carsharing and promote sustainable mobility solution in Edmonton.… Continue reading Pogo Carshare joins Communauto Group

Peugeot open to new deals as turnaround draws attention -CEO

PARIS (Reuters) – French carmaker PSA Group (PEUP.PA) is open to new industry tie-ups and is attracting attention from competitors after its lightning turnaround and swift progress in restructuring recently acquired Opel, Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said. FILE PHOTO: Carlos Tavares, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Managing Board of PSA Group, poses in… Continue reading Peugeot open to new deals as turnaround draws attention -CEO

UPDATE 2-Tesla worried by China even as deliveries surge

(Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) announced record quarterly car production numbers on Tuesday but warned it was facing major problems with selling cars in China due to new tariffs that will force it to accelerate investment in its factory in Shanghai. FILE PHOTO: A row of new Tesla Model 3 electric vehicles is seen at… Continue reading UPDATE 2-Tesla worried by China even as deliveries surge

Citi downgrades embattled Tesla to sell, says the stock is too risky to buy even after big pullback

Citi downgrades Tesla
7:58 AM ET Fri, 28 Sept 2018 | 01:55

Citigroup downgraded Tesla's stock to a sell rating from neutral Friday, a day after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a fraud lawsuit against CEO Elon Musk.

The brokerage detailed two paths forward for the electric car maker, one with Musk and one without. And both options aren't great for stakeholders.

“There's little question that Mr. Musk's departure would likely cause harm to Tesla's brand, stakeholder confidence and fundraising,” the note said. “If Mr. Musk ends up staying on, the reputational harm from this might still prevent the stock from immediately returning to 'normal.'”

“Ultimately it's a risk/reward call we approach from a 50/50 chance of 'bad' or 'Ok/good' outcomes; we think even after the post-close stock pullback (to $274), risk/reward is still tilted negatively,” state the note.

Citi also cut its price target on Tesla to $225, implying more than 25 percent downside from Thursday's close. Shares fell 13.9 percent Friday, posting their worst day since 2013.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filing in Manhattan federal court alleges that the CEO mislead shareholders on Aug. 7 when he announced he had secured funding for what might have been a corporate buyout.

Specifically, the government holds that Musk issued “false and misleading” statements and failed to notify regulators of material changes at the company.

Musk later explained that he had spoken to representatives of the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund and felt confident that the funding take to the company private was assured at his proposed price of $420 per share.

Musk called the SEC's allegations “unjustified” and said he “never compromised” his integrity.

“This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed,” Musk said in a statement. “I have always taken action in the best interests of truth, transparency and investors.

The SEC is seeking to forbid Musk from serving as an officer or director at any publicly traded company.

The lawsuit, which did not name Tesla as a defendant, comes as the company struggles to mass produce its Model 3 sedan. Since the company started to ramp up production last July, its already-slim cash hoard as dwindled, sparking concerns on Wall Street over whether Musk will need to raise additional capital.

For his part, Musk has repeatedly said Tesla won't need to seek new cash and guaranteed to keep Model 3 production at a steady clip in an effort to help the company turn cash-flow positive and profitable this quarter.

Disclaimer

Making cars separately for UK and EU would impact UK production, PSA warns

PARIS (Reuters) – If Britain’s departure from the European Union disrupts trade to the extent PSA Group (PEUP.PA) has to make cars separately for the two markets, there would “necessarily be an impact” on its UK production, the automaker’s European boss said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: Maxime Picat, Peugeot Brand CEO, speaks during a presentation… Continue reading Making cars separately for UK and EU would impact UK production, PSA warns

NAVYA and Charlatte Manutention joining forces to develop and market autonomous industrial vehicles

1 October 2018 NAVYA and Charlatte Manutention joining forces to develop and market autonomous industrial vehicles Villeurbanne, France, October 1st, 2018 – 6:00 pm CEST – NAVYA (FR0013018041- NAVYA), a leading company in autonomous vehicles and in smart and shared mobility solutions, and Charlatte Manutention, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of electric and combustionbased… Continue reading NAVYA and Charlatte Manutention joining forces to develop and market autonomous industrial vehicles

Opel makes profit again

Tuesday, 07/24/2018 08:31 clock The car manufacturer Opel earns money again under its new French owner PSA. In the first half of the year, the operating result for the Opel division amounted to 502 million euros, as the company announced. Opel had previously been in the red for nearly 20 years. “After many years, the… Continue reading Opel makes profit again