In partnership with
Ramming Speed
Stellantis has a new plan, a whole whack of new partnerships, an aggressive set of sales targets and yeah, they’re still bringing back the HEMI.
Read the full article here: Ramming Speed
China’s Automotive Expansion
BYD Atto 3
Updated BYD Atto 3 launched in China with an extra 120 km of range and flash charging, priced from around $16,600 USD. carnewschina.com
VW and Xpeng launch new co-developed ID. Unyx 07 starting at 16,200 USD. carnewschina.com
Xiaomi’s new YU7 undercuts Tesla Model Y by $4,350 with 50 km more range. electrek.co
NIO returned to a net loss of 496.0 million yuan in the first quarter after posting its first-ever profit. wsj.com
Chery, China’s largest car exporter, hopes to enter the US market when it is “suitable” to do so. reuters.com
Great Wall Motors is pushing ahead with plans to enter the US market while also ramping up its European operations with seven new EV and PHEV models. autonews.com
Nissan is considering importing around 3,000 vehicles per year from China to Canada. autonews.com
Must-Know Musk News
SpaceX’s Starship V3
SpaceX’s test flight of its massive Starship V3 rocket was mostly a success. nbcnews.com
SpaceX’s IPO filing revealed extensive commercial and financial ties among Elon Musk’s companies, ranging from Cybertruck purchases and shared private jets to stock investments. reuters.com
Goldman Sachs named lead underwriter for SpaceX IPO. reuters.com
Who will benefit most from SpaceX’s IPO? Mostly Elon and a few from his inner circle. techcrunch.com
Elon shared his review of Amazon Prime’s “The Boys” finale, calling it “fake and gay.” forbes.com
Tesla Cybercab: hate it or love it, it is the most efficient EV ever. electrek.co
Tesla plans to roll out its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driver assistance software in Lithuania. reuters.com
Tesla brings Full Self-Driving (Supervised) to China. cnbc.com
Roughly one in every 29 passenger cars on Norwegian roads is now a Tesla Model Y. teslarati.com
Tesla asked to recall 14,575 Model Ys because of a missing sticker. electrek.co
Meta partnered with Canadian energy infrastructure giant Enbridge on a new solar energy initiative near Cheyenne, Wyoming, that will use Tesla’s Megapack battery technology. teslarati.com
Rise Of The Machines
Hypershell’s X Ultra S
E-Hiking is here with the Hypershell’s X Ultra S and similar personal exoskeletons; AI takes on the great outdoors. wsj.com
Xynova Robotics unveiled its second-generation dexterous hand, aiming to improve humanoid robots’ ability to perform human-like manipulation tasks in real-world environments. interestingengineering.com
Horizon Robotics has released an open-sourced AI model, named HoloMotion-1, designed for whole-body humanoid robot control. interestingengineering.com
At robot learning centers in China, people teach machines how to work in a variety of scenarios. cnbc.com
Energy
Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz
Three supertankers were crossing the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, carrying oil bound for Asian markets, after waiting in the Gulf for more than two months with 6 million barrels of Middle East crude on board. reuters.com
Oil prices settle higher on slow progress in US-Iran peace talks. reuters.com
The Donald’s administration is preparing for a fresh round of military strikes against Iran, according to sources with direct knowledge of the planning, even as diplomacy continued on a potential peace deal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that indirect negotiations over a potential deal to end the war with Iran had seen “a little bit of movement, and that’s good.” cbsnews.com
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was on site at Quebec’s Matawinie Mine this week to break ground on a project billed as the biggest graphite mine in the G7. ctvnews.ca
The development of “off-grid” behind-the-meter (BTM) power generation is booming in Texas as data center developers seek to deploy facilities faster than energy companies can complete grid connections. reuters.com
But Wait, There’s More
Honda’s Super-ONE EV
Honda’s Super-ONE compact EV went on sale in Japan on Friday, starting at about $21,000. electrek.co
Mercedes shut down Los Angeles’ 6th Street Bridge, turning it into a Hollywood Autobahn on which their new EV, the AMG GT 4-Door Coupe, was ripping burnouts up and down the concrete just after sunset, with Brad Pitt and George Russell sitting shotgun. Then Blink-182 did a 30-minute set and made a lot of dick jokes. jalopnik.com
Ford plans new models in Europe to boost flagging sales and fend off competition from China. reuters.com
GM plans to assemble the Chevrolet Groove and Aveo in Mexico for the local market, while continuing to produce parts in China. reuters.com
Cadillac expands into Brazil as GM’s global ambitions and F1 plans converge. electrek.co
VW Canada completes the 1st phase of their parts warehouse and headquarters expansion in Ontario. autonews.com
Hyundai has a hybrid power control unit problem. reuters.com
Audi to launch the new Matrix LED headlights in its Q9 and SQ9 SUVs later this year. theverge.com
Volvo Cars faces legal threat in Thailand after two new EX30 battery fires. reuters.com
A camouflaged Lucid Cosmos prototype was spotted on public roads near the Lucid factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. electrek.co
Vinfast’s plan to sell its two main factories and shift $7 billion in debt off its books has raised regulatory concerns. reuters.com
North Carolina sues VinFast over its unbuilt factory. caranddriver.com
Waymo suspended its service on US freeways and paused operations in Atlanta while it updates its vehicles’ software to improve performance around construction and flooded roads. theverge.com
Uber is putting its own autonomous vehicles back on the road as part of its new AV Lab project to collect data for its dozens of robotaxi partners. theverge.com
UAW leaders called for better pay and a deal requiring carmakers to build where they sell, ahead of CUSMA negotiations. reuters.com
The New York Times asks: “With gas prices through the roof, more travellers are considering alternative vehicles to control costs. But how much will you really save?” nytimes.com
Global EV market goes K-shaped as the US gets left behind. techcrunch.com
The GTM bets that shouldn't have worked, and did
One grew revenue 50x after half his team quit over the strategy. One brought in 50K signups in a single day with no paid budget. One generated 100M+ views from a stunt that took 50 hours to conceive. One asked every prospect to demo the product themselves instead of demoing it for them.
None of them followed the safe playbook. They treated GTM like an experiment, moved before they had proof, and made bets most founders would never get approved.
HubSpot for Startups documented all 6 stories in the free Bold Bets Playbook. The risks they took, why it was risky, and what it returned.