The electric vehicle startup Rivian on Tuesday announced a $350 million equity investment from Cox Automotive, a big industry data and information company.
Why it matters: It's a fresh sign of intense interest in Michigan-based Rivian from deep-pocketed players. It also illustrates how there's lots of money flying around in the EV space as investors look where to place their bets.
Volta Charging, which provides free electric vehicle charging at stations supported by ads, announced Tuesday that it raised another $20 million in Series C funding to fuel the 9-year-old company's expansion.
Why it matters: Availability of plenty of charging is important to the growth of EVs, which remain just a tiny slice of vehicle sales right now.
Volkswagen took the wraps off its ID.3 electric vehicle — one that will be available in Europe and starts at roughly $33,000 for the base model — just ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show yesterday.
Why it matters: The compact EV, which will start deliveries in mid-2020, could be a big step toward production of moderately priced battery-powered cars for a mass market.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting chief scientist says he will investigate if the agency's response to President Trump’s repeated claims that Alabama was at risk from Hurricane Dorian violated its policies and ethics, according to an email obtained by the Washington Post.
The big picture: The agency received backlash from scientists when it issued an unsigned statement that defended Trump's weeklong insistence that he was correct about the storm threatening Alabama. It also rebuked the National Weather Service’s Birmingham division for correcting the president and speaking "in absolute terms."
One big challenge facing Saudi Arabia is that crude prices are well below the roughly $80–$85 per barrel the country needs to balance its budget.
The big picture: Saudi Arabia shook up its oil hierarchy Saturday by ousting Khalid al-Falih as oil minister and replacing him with Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. The kingdom is grappling with the U.S. production boom, sluggish global demand growth, and trade friction that's holding down oil prices.
Typhoon Faxai killed at least 1 person, caused power cuts to 910,000 Tokyo-area homes, over 130 flights to be cancelled and train lines to close after it made landfall near Japan's capital on Sunday, the BBC reports.
After devastating the Bahamas and pummeling North Carolina, Dorian lashed at far-eastern Canada with hurricane-force winds Sunday, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people before weakening and heading into the North Atlantic, AP reports.
The latest: The post-tropical cyclone was packing winds of 60 mph as it headed east-northeast, about 375 miles north of Cape Race, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 11 p.m.
