General Motors

Electric Last Mile Solutions files for bankruptcy liquidation

ELMS van in middle of street at dusk

Battery-electric delivery van startup Electric Last Mile Solutions (ELMS) has filed for bankruptcy liquidation, ending a long slide that included insider trading, an SEC investigation and a bear market that is pummeling newly public transportation companies.

“Unfortunately, there were too many obstacles for us to overcome in the short amount of time available to us,” Shauna McIntyre, interim CEO and president, said in a press release.

In an 8-K filing Sunday with the Securities and Exchange...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/electric-last-mile-solutions-files-for-bankruptcy-liquidation

Is last-mile startup ELMS on its last legs?

An Electric Last Mile Solutions delivery van in the ELMS factory

Electric delivery van startup Electric Last Mile Solutions (ELMS) appears near the end of the line with only enough cash to last through the end of the month, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The ongoing struggles of the company importing bodies from China to marry with electric chassis built in the former General Motors Hummer plant in Indiana continue to worsen.

ELMS is one of many “de-SPACed” startups struggling to survive as investors abandon young companies they...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/is-last-mile-startup-elms-on-its-last-legs

Lordstown Motors closes plant sale to Taiwan’s Foxconn

Front 3/4 view of silver Lordstown Endurance electric pickup truck on display at the Advanced Clean Technology Expo in Long Beach, California.

Lordstown Motors Corp. has sold a former General Motors plant it essentially got for free, netting about $257 million to keep its commercial electric pickup truck production on track. But the new plant owner — Taiwan electronics maker Foxconn — will build the trucks as part of the deal.

The clock was ticking against a Saturday deadline that would have forced LMC to forfeit most of its assets to repay $200 million Foxconn advanced on the plant purchase. 

The cash infusion clears some of the rocks...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/lordstown-motors-closes-plant-sale-to-taiwans-foxconn

Net-Zero Carbon recap: Considering all options is the ‘power of and’

Screen grab of Alan Adler and Larry Burns in firechat chat for Net Zero Carbon Summit

This fireside chat recap is from the FreightWaves virtual Net Zero Carbon Summit.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: The power of and for battery-electric and hydrogen trucks

DETAILS: Larry Burns frequently uses the term “the power of and” when describing technologies or even everyday personal dilemmas. Why, asks the former vice president of research and development at General Motors and current author and business adviser, should we limit ourselves to a single solution to a difficult problem? 

SPEAKER: Larry...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/net-zero-carbon-recap-considering-all-options-is-the-power-of-and

FreightWaves Classics/Fallen Flags: Winton Motor Carriage Company built the first US truck and semi trailer

Unfinished Winton semi trailers. (Photo: clevelandhistorical.org)

Trucks have been around quite a while, coming along shortly after “horseless carriages” arrived in the U.S. in the 1890s. In fact, the first semi-truck was built prior to 1900. 

How? Where? Who?

The Winton Motor Carriage Company was founded in 1896 in Cleveland, Ohio, by Alexander Winton, a Scottish-American designer and inventor. 

Alexander Winton. (Photo: intrans.iastate.edu)Alexander Winton. (Photo: intrans.iastate.edu)

Winton began the Winton Bicycle Company in 1891, but changed from bicycle production when automobiles began to appear....

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsfallen-flags-winton-motor-carriage-company-built-the-first-us-truck-and-semi-trailer

Middle mile meets final mile as Warp joins Urban Freight Lab

Warp joins Urban Freight Lab

Middle-mile technology company Warp is joining the University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab (UFL), the company announced Wednesday.

Warp is the first company focused on the middle mile joining UFL, which is a public-private partnership housed at the UW’s Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics Center. Warp co-founder and CEO Daniel Sokolovsky is familiar with the work of UFL, having served as CEO of AxleHire during a Seattle last-mile delivery pilot conducted by UFL in 2021.

“UFL is doing...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/middle-mile-tech-company-warp-joins-urban-freight-lab

Navistar owner Traton upsizes electrification spend to nearly $3B by 2026

Traton Group, which now includes Navistar International, is upsizing its planned spending on battery-electric trucks to nearly $3 billion between now and 2026 and says some applications of hydrogen-powered fuel cells might make sense, a softening of its batteries-only stance.

Traton, the truck holding company of German automaker Volkswagen AG, said this week it was increasing by 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) its planned spending on electrification from a previously announced 1.6 billion euros...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/navistar-owner-traton-upsizes-electrification-spend-to-nearly-3b-by-2026

Fresh start or folly? Lordstown Motors tries to thread electric pickup needle

Beleaguered startup Lordstown Motors Corp., facing federal investigations and  production costs for a commercial electric pickup truck that exceed the price it can get for the vehicle, is gamely showing up at industry events focused on the future rather than its ignominious past.

Despite more setbacks than successes, including an ousted founder in the crosshairs of Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department probes and financial challenges that led the company to officially...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fresh-start-or-folly-lordstown-motors-tries-to-thread-electric-pickup-needle

Exclusive: Watching Waymo build autonomous Freightliner Cascadias

DETROIT — Manufacturing of Waymo Via robot-driven Freightliner Cascadias, part of the future of long-haul trucking, resides in a century-old industrial building on St. Aubin Street where Chevrolet Gear & Axle operated in the mid-20th century heyday of General Motors. 

But you wouldn’t know it from the sign outside. There isn’t one.

Before the subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet Inc. arrived in 2019, the complex housed American Axle & Manufacturing, a 1990s startup that took over five axle plants...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/exclusive-watching-waymo-build-autonomous-freightliner-cascadias

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