The electric Ford has a total output of 580 hp. Also: Why the Nvidia boss is enthusiastic about Mercedes and why Elon Musk is again fighting the US Securities and Exchange Commission on the Twitter deal.
Good morning! Even during the weekend, work in the digital scene continued in many places.
The top topics:
Electric-based pickup trucks are in demand in the USA: Ford, Tesla and Rivian are companies that have models in their program. However, Rivian is having delivery problems and Tesla’s Cybertruck won’t go into production until 2023 at the earliest. Ford has beaten Tesla by far, because last week the carmaker delivered its first electric pickup: The F-150 Lightning went to a car fanatic in Michigan who already owns a Tesla Model 3 and made a down payment for a cybertruck . But he no longer needs the latter, as he points out Twitter wrote.
Ford relies on its decades of manufacturing and supply expertise and its extensive network of dealers to beat its competitors in the highly competitive electric pickup space. Pickup trucks are among the best-selling vehicles in the United States, and the F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle for 40 years. [Mehr bei Bloomberg und The Verge]
on Founder Scene: Quits every year Tesla-Chef Elon Musk that his cars would soon be able to drive fully autonomously across the country. So far nothing has happened. The entrepreneur recently announced that he wants to buy Twitter. Another time he speaks pompously about the success of his portfolio company Solarcity. It’s all just hot air, says our torque columnist Don Dahlmann. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
And here are the other headlines of the night and the past few days:
NvidiaCEO Jensen Huang spoke about the German carmaker in a virtual press conference Mercedes-Benz enthused, with which the US chip manufacturer cooperates. “Mercedes is an incredible partner. I can’t think of a better partner,” he said. In his opinion, Mercedes will become the most valuable luxury brand on the planet. The Germans are also very far ahead in terms of technology. In his opinion, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius is a visionary. The statements were made during a conversation about the group’s quarterly figures, which were rather weak. Nvidia expects revenue of $8.1 billion in the current quarter due to supply chain issues. Thus, the company does not meet the expectations of the analysts. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt und Handelsblatt]
Die Twitter-Take over by Tesla-Chef Elon Musk has to take another hurdle. The US Securities and Exchange Commission, which has often clashed with Musk in the past, is now targeting the deal. Musk should have made some mandatory announcements regarding his Twitter involvement in early April, but missed the deadline. Musk is now being accused of market manipulation and securities fraud. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal]
Rivian is reorganizing its management team: The hype surrounding the US electric car manufacturer has cooled down significantly after the successful IPO in November. As the new Chief Operating Officer, Frank Klein is now to help with the restructuring and realignment of the company. Klein was previously President at Austria-based automotive supplier Magna Steyr. At the same time, Rivian loses the head of production engineering, Charly Mwangi. The automaker manufactured just over 2,500 vehicles in the first quarter and delivered more than 1,200. This means that production for the rest of the year must be increased more than tenfold in order to reach the annual target. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]
Infineon wants to invest much more frequently in the future and expand its production capacities faster than before. This was announced by Rutger Wijburg, the production director of the Munich semiconductor manufacturer, in an interview with the “Handelsblatt”. In the past, the Dax group only built a new factory every four or five years, but now the pace of investment has to be increased so that it can react to the rapid growth. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt]
Investment: The former Disney-CEO Bob Iger takes a stake in Australian design firm Canva and has also agreed to act as an advisor to the company. Iger and Canva declined to comment on the size of the investment. Canva raised money in September and was valued at $40 billion at the time. The Sydney-based graphic design software company was ranked #4 on CNBC’s annual Disruptor 50 list, released earlier this month. Since stepping down from Disney in December, Iger has invested his personal fortune in several companies, including delivery startup Gopuff and toymaker Funko. [Mehr bei CNBC]
Our reading tip on Gründerszene: Getir, Gorillas, Klarna and Co: One Wave of mass layoffs has a firm grip on the start-up scene in this country. We have created an overview of the mass layoffs in the German startup scene, which we will continue to update and keep up to date. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
Don’t want to miss anything? Then subscribe our start-up scene newsletter! It appears every morning at 8:30 a.m. and brings you all the important news straight to your inbox.
Have a good start into the week!
Your Gründerszene editors
Source: https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/business/ford-schlaegt-tesla-elektro-pickup/
