Future of transportation acceleration

Hey folks,

Been a minute since I rounded up recent news across the space for y’all. Here’s a good whack of what caught my attention last week and weeks prior.

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ONE STORY IN (TWO) SENTENCE(S) AND (TWO) CHART(S)

• This is a redundant story for me at this point but it’s also the area where I’m most bullish on emissions reduction progress: Waymo, with its all-electric self-driving vehicle operation, now claims a larger market share than Lyft in San Francisco (it’s also closing in on the 1 million rides per month target I offered earlier this year). Its utilization per vehicle is also through the roof in comparison to Lyft and Uber, as its total operating fleet is <2,000 vehicles. Link. Link. Link. Link.

NEWS ACROSS SUSTAINABILITY AND ENERGY

THE GOOD

• Continuing on the autonomy front, China deployed the world's largest fleet of 100+ autonomous electric mining trucks powered by Huawei's 5G-A technology at a Huaneng Group facility in Inner Mongolia. The trucks are also set up for battery swapping, which makes (more) sense when working with much larger batteries. Link. Link.

• Tesla also plans to launch autonomous services in Austin this month. I’m eager to track the rollout here, as Tesla’s vehicle sales are faltering in several markets (down significantly in Europe, for instance), and it could use a boost from new business segments. Link. Link.

• The European Union is on track to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 54% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, basically in line with its legally-binding target of 55% emissions reduction. So far, it has reduced its emissions by 37% since 1990, while its economy has grown 70%. That said, there is some concern that the rate of decarbonization has dampened industrial productivity and made grids less reliable, as was on display in the Iberian Peninsula during blackouts in late April. On the whole, this is encouraging in a world where most countries and companies aren’t making good on emissions reduction targets. Link.

• California approved 31 transmission projects to the tune of $4.8 billion in investment to keep up with electricity demand growth and drive greater emissions reduction in its power sector. California's battery fleet is also now up to 15.7 GW of installed capacity; the state added another 5 GW since crossing 10 GW about a year ago. Link.

• Also on the battery energy storage front, PG&E's Elkhorn battery storage plant in Moss Landing resumed operations after catastrophic fires in January at a neighboring battery energy storage plant operated by Vistra (300 MW facility) sparked fly ash contamination considerations. That restores 182.5 MW/730 MWh of storage capacity to the Silicon Valley grid before the summer. The Elkhorn plant utilizes 256 individual Tesla Megapack containers spaced across the property, unlike Vistra's plant, which features more densely packed battery rows that exacerbated the rapid spread of the fire at that facility. Link.

• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved NuScale's second small modular reactor design at 77 MW ahead of a July deadline. While no SMRs have been built in the US and previous deployment plans were abandoned in 2023, NuScale's CEO hopes to sign a deal by the end of the year and have an operational plant by the end of the decade. Link.

• Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced a deal with early-stage startup Valar Atomics to host a prototype small modular reactor. The state and the company have a hyper-aggressive timeline of reaching criticality within a year at the state-owned San Rafael Energy Research Center in Emery County. I have a hard time seeing the company hit that deadline without breaking a dozen or so regulations and laws, but I wish them luck! Link.

THE INBETWEENS

• BYD, the Chinese automaker, slashed prices by 34% in its home market, deepening a rolling global price war that’s seeing other automakers cede market share to Chinese competitors while kicking off a new round of fiercer competition within the country itself. As I’ve often said, all other global vehicle manufacturers are on notice. Link.

• Nippon Steel's proposed $15 billion acquisition of US Steel has moved toward regulatory approval, following guidance from the Trump administration toward a "partnership" structure that would see US Steel maintain American CEO control, a U.S.-majority board, and government "golden share" veto power over key decisions. Nippon Steel will also have to make an additional $14 billion in U.S. investments, including building a new electric arc furnace for Pittsburgh area facilities (to the tune of a $2.4 billion investment). The company is also building three new electric arc furnaces in Japan. Overall, the deal could also extend the life of blast furnaces, and there is no guarantee that it will go through in its current form. Link. Link. Link. Link.

• President Trump signed four nuclear energy executive orders aimed at speeding reactor testing at DOE national laboratories, allowing the DOE and DOD to build nuclear reactors on federal land, overhauling the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with 18-month licensing deadlines, and boosting US uranium mining and enrichment capabilities. The administration also unveiled a target of increasing nuclear capacity from 100 GW to 400 GW by 2050. NVO’s take: That’s all cool; that said, I’d love to hear from anyone who thinks the 400 GW goal is more than political posturing. Happy to be disabused of my skepticism! Link.

• US operating oil rigs declined week-over-week and are down 32 (5.6%) compared to a year ago and down to its lowest count since November 2021. Shale producers are pulling back as oil prices remain subdued and federal economic policy remains a toss-up on many fronts. OPEC+ members are also expected to add another 411,000 barrels per day in July. Tis ’a far cry from “Drill baby, drill.” Link.

• The Supreme Court transformed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in an 8-0 ruling that limits the law's scope and cuts off future avenues for challenging energy and infrastructure projects, ruling that federal agencies almost never need to analyze second-order environmental effects of their decisions. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that courts should defer to federal agencies when reviewing NEPA studies rather than "nitpicking" them, stating "the goal of the law is to inform agency decision-making, not to paralyze it," giving the Trump administration and future administrations greater leeway to approve energy projects. Link.

THE BAD

• The DOE terminated $3.7 billion in Biden-era awards for emissions-reducing technologies and first of a kind industrial decarbonization projects across 24 sites, including projects like a $540 million grant for Calpine to integrate carbon capture at natural gas plants in California and Texas and $331 million to Exxon Mobil to producer lower-emission hydrogen at a Baytown, Texas chemical facility. The DOE cited a lack of economic viability and that approval processes had been rushed. The economic viability claim is a bit asinine, as many of these projects were implicitly designed to gauge economic viability. Alas. Link.

• Honda scaled back its EV investment by 30% to $48.4 billion and dropped its target for EVs to account for 30% of sales by 2030. Instead, it will focus on hybrids; it has 13 new hybrid models planned by 2027, and it aims to sell ~2.3 million hybrids by 2030 (868,000 sold last year). The company also delayed the completion of a C$15 billion (~$10.9 billion) EV production facility in Ontario, Canada, by two years due to slowing demand. Link.

• Vineyard Wind's offshore wind project has only 4 operational turbines despite nearly three years of construction work (originally slated for mid-2024 completion). The company has gone silent on completion timelines amid federal investigations following blade failures last July. While other offshore wind projects, like Revolution Wind, are on track for completion, offshore wind on the whole is more or less entirely dead in the water by my estimation if tax credits get cut in the new budget bill. Link.

• Li-Cycle, once a leader in EV battery recycling, entered bankruptcy proceedings, with Glencore providing a $40 million stalking horse bid for assets, after the company failed to complete its recycling hub in Rochester, New York. The company had five operational spoke facilities processing up to 40 kilotons of batteries annually and a $475 million DOE loan it never drew on due to its inability to secure additional private funding. Link.

• As if this story wasn’t bad enough yet: Post-bankruptcy, Northvolt also faces gross manslaughter charges after a 25-year-old worker's death on December 15. The employee suffered severe burns from a production line explosion in November at one of Northvolt’s gigafactories. Production at Northvolt facilities was initially halted after two separate fatal incidents in December, which exacerbated existing delivery delays. Link.

• Climeworks, the Swiss direct air capture pioneer operating pilot DAC facilities in Iceland and elsewhere, cut more than 20% of its 500-person workforce due to "macroeconomic uncertainty" and lack of clarity for its next U.S. facility. Link.

• Microsoft's carbon emissions grew 23.4% since 2020, despite its long-term net-zero goal. The company still aims to reduce Scope 3 emissions by more than half by 2030 (emissions were 11.5 million metric tons in 2020). Link.

• Coal mines emitted more methane than the gas sector in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency's Global Methane Tracker. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds:

Incumbent fusion companies have continued raising massive rounds:

• Commonwealth Fusion Systems, based out of Devens, MA, raised a $1 billion round led by an undisclosed hyperscalar data center developer to build compact magnetic confinement fusion power plants. The company also noted it achieved certain development milestones with a demonstration reactor back in March. Link. Link.

• TAE Technologies, based out of Foothill Ranch, CA, raised over $150 million in an ongoing “Series 12” round for its fusion energy business. Existing investors including Google, Chevron, and New Enterprise Associates, invested. The company may raise another $50 million through August and has raised $1.2 billion since 1998. Link. For more on nuclear fusion, I wrote about the space at large and other key players back in April.

Elsewhere, fission companies have faired well of late, too:

• Radiant, based out of El Segundo, CA, raised a $165 million Series C led by DCVC to make portable nuclear microreactors to replace diesel generators in defense and commercial applications. Link.

• The Nuclear Company, based out of Lexington, KY, raised $51.3 million in Series A funding led by Eclipse to develop large-scale nuclear power plants using existing reactor designs at pre-permitted sites. Link.

• Zeno Power, based out of Washington, DC, raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Hanaco Ventures to make compact nuclear batteries for deep space, underwater, and other remote environment applications. Link.

Medium-sized funding rounds:

• Heron Power, based out of Santa Cruz, CA, raised $38 million in Series A funding led by Capricorn Investment Group to make solid-state transformer systems for use on power grids. Link.

• Realta Fusion, based out of Madison, WI, raised a $36 million oversubscribed Series A, led by Future Ventures, to make compact “magnetic mirror” fusion reactors. The company achieved a world-record 17 Tesla magnetic field strength and aims to develop an operating prototype by 2028 for industrial customers. Link.

• Converge, based out of London, raised $22 million in Series A funding led by ABN Amro for its concrete monitoring sensors and AI platform designed to help construction companies and builders measure material performance and reduce emissions. Link.

• Reflect Orbital, based out of Hawthorne, CA, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Lux Capital for satellite technology that reflects sunlight to Earth for more continuous nighttime illumination for solar panels in off-grid and “mission-critical” environments. Link.

• Solestial, based out of Tempe, AZ, raised $17 million in Series A funding led by AE Ventures to make lightweight solar panels for space environments (think satellites, orbital platforms). Link.

• SparkCharge, based out of Somerville, MA, raised $15.5 million in Series A1 funding led by Monte's Fam and $15 million in debt to develop portable EV charging systems for commercial fleets. Link.

• OroraTech, based out of Munich, raised ~$13.7 million in an extended Series B funding round led by BNP Paribas for its thermal-sensing satellites that can help detect and forecast wildfires for faster emergency response services. Link.

• Rivan Industries, based out of London, raised ~$13.6 million in equity funding led by Plural to make modular systems that produce synthetic fuel from captured CO2 and green hydrogen for commercial and industrial use. Link.

• Gridcare, based out of Redwood City, CA, raised $13.5 million in equity funding led by Xora for its software that helps detect underutilized energy assets to optimize grid performance. Link.

• LIS Technologies, based out of Oak Ridge, TN, raised $11.9 million in equity funding for its laser-based technologies designed to enrich uranium for use in nuclear reactors and defense applications. Link.

• Volteras, based out of London, raised $11.1 million in Series A funding led by Union Square Ventures to provide EV developers and fleet operators with data streaming tools. Link.

Smaller funding rounds:

• Finwave, based out of Waltham, MA, raised $8.2 million in equity funding co-led by Fine Structure Ventures and Engine Ventures for its gallium nitride-on-silicon semiconductors designed for use in high-power RF switches and power amplifiers. Link.

• Freshflow, based out of Berlin, raised ~$7.5 million in equity funding from World Fund, Capnamic, Venture Stars, and Caesar Ventures to help grocery retailers reduce food waste by predicting demand and optimizing inventory. Link.

• Atomic Canyon, based out of San Luis Obispo, CA, raised $7 million in seed funding led by Energy Impact Partners to make generative AI tools for the nuclear industry professionals to search, retrieve, and parse complex technical documentation. Link.

• Sention Technologies, based out of London, raised ~$5 million in seed funding led by Twin Path Ventures for its ultrasound technology designed to monitor internal conditions in lithium-ion batteries to detect faults early and extend battery life. Link. We wrote about a similar company a couple of years ago here.

• Clear Current, based out of Albuquerque, raised $4+ million in seed funding led by Rho Ignition to develop AI-powered systems to help businesses track and control energy use and improve efficiency. Link.

• Sublime Systems, based out of Somerville, MA, raised $3 million in equity funding led by Suffolk Technologies to produce lower-emission cement. Link.

• Voltra, based out of San Francisco and Waterloo, Canada, raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding led by Contrary for its unified API platform designed to simplify control of EV chargers, batteries, and microgrids. Link.

Funds

• Planeteer Capital, based out of New York, raised a $54 million first-time venture fund to invest in pre-seed and seed-stage climate tech startups. Congrats, Sophie! Link.

The above bucks what has otherwise been a tough year for closing new VC funds:

Ciao for now,

Nick