⚡New EV Features in Google Maps

Happy Tuesday, this is Electric Avenue. Think of us as your E-Moblity news barista – we remember your usual order, and today we've got a special blend for you. ☕️

Here’s what we have for you today:

• 2 Pics🖼️: New EV Features in Google Maps

• EV Startup Funding News 📈

• 3 Links 🔗

• Memes of the week 🤡

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Let's dive in!

2 Pics 🌠

Within its latest update for Maps and Hotel search, Google released some nice new features for EV drivers:

• New last-mile navigation instructions on G-Maps (e.g. to navigate to chargers in an underground garage). These are generated by AI from reviews posted by users (see screenshot above)

• New G-Maps view to see chargers with real-time availability while being in navigation mode (see screenshot below; starting to be available in vehicles with Google built-in the coming months)

• Google’s search for hotels was enhanced by an “EV Charger” filter - finally!

EV Startup Funding News 📈

Guess what day it is? It's our monthly Money Monday 🤑  - This month was a little more quite than usual. Here's who secured the bag 💰 and which startups you should keep an eye on 👀:

• Dutch startup ENAPI raised a 2.5M EUR pre-seed round from investors including Project A Ventures, Seedcamp, and helloworld. The company wants build a “new-age” roaming platform that brokers EV charging transactions between CPOs and eMSPs with a focus on ensuring affordability, high data quality and connectivity.

• SWTCH Energy from Canada raised $27.2 million in Series B funding to expand EV charging access in multifamily buildings across North America. Led by Blue Earth Capital AG with participation from Alantra's energy transition fund Klima and existing investor Active Impact Investments.

• German utility Pfalzwerke bought a 22% stake in Austrian charging provider Enercharge. Pfalzwerke already uses Hardware & Software solutions from Enercharge for the operation of 12 charging sites at Hornbach stores in Austria.

• British Breathe Battery Technologies secured a strategic investment from Geely-owned Volvo Cars, in addition to a supplier partnership - very nice!

  

Know any E-mobility companies that raised recently? -> Reply to this email or send us a link to [email protected]!

3 Links 🔗

• Rivian Charging Reliability Score ⭐️: Great new Feature introduction from Rivian this week! Really obvious idea but Kudos to Rivian’s software team for actually implementing this:

  

  Source: RIVIAN

  It requires serious vertical HW/SW integration to collect all the charging session data from vehicles AND do the data analysis needed to turn that into a scoring system that can guide drivers. We know that other automakers have started collecting this data via vehicle telematics and are analyzing it internally. But none have turned it into a customer-facing feature like Rivian. Tesla is probably the closest, but the company simply uses a few hurdle metrics (eg. >90% charging success rate) in choosing which Third-party fast chargers it displays to European customers in its navigation system. Bonus points to Rivian too for integrating the Scores into the trip planner! Whenever possible, the company will prefer A- and B-rated sites for suggested charging stops:

  

  Source: RIVIAN

• New IONITY CEO 👨‍💼: Jeroen van Tilburg (ex-Tesla Head of Charging EMEA from Jan. 2018 until Dec. 2023) will succeed Michael Hajesch (CEO since Nov. 2017) as CEO of IONITY. During Jeroen’s time at Tesla, the EU supercharger network transitioned from a proprietary plug to CCS, became accessible to all EV drivers, and finally opened up for roaming (we reported).

• Tritium Insolvency 🔚: Australian fast charging manufacturer Tritium has declared insolvency (reported in a filing to the U.S. SEC since the company was listed on the Nasdaq through a SPAC merger in early 2022). Restructuring administrators have been appointed to take control of Tritium’s assets and seek potential buyers. We expect the insolvency to become a major challenge for CPOs that deployed Tritium hardware (e.g. IONITY, Shell) as those units need to be maintained with spare parts (broken screens, power units) and require continuous firmware updates to ensure interoperability with new electric vehicles.

Most-clicked link last week: was the EU Commission’s Questions and Answers on the AFIR. Check it out in last week’s AFIR summary → (Link).

Meme of the Week 🤡

🤣🤣🤣

That's a wrap for this week! Let us know how you feel and leave some feedback (We read every single one of these 🙂 ):

Reader Review of the Week

Selected ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ Freakin’ awesome on ⚡AFIR-TIME: The Regulation is Live 🧑‍⚖️ and wrote:

““Good job Boyz!”

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. The Electric Avenue team may hold investments in or may otherwise be affiliated with the companies discussed.