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Recharge Wrap-up: Lyft partners with Didi Kuaidi, Cadillac uses ultracapacitors

Lyft and Chinese on-demand transportation venture Didi Kuaidi have announced a partnership. Additionally, Didi Kuaidi is investing $100 million in Lyft. The two ridesharing companies will share technology and provide interoperability between platforms. For users, this means it will be easier to get around when traveling between the US and China. "In today's rideshare environment, where every region presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities, partnering with the homegrown leader is the winning approach to Chinese expansion," says Lyft President and co-founder John Zimmer. Learn more in the video above, and in the press release below. Car2go has announced service in Miami Beach, FL. Beginning October 1, the one-way carsharing service will expand its boundaries beyond its current Miami service area to include neighboring Miami Beach. "We're thrilled to see car2go expand to Miami Beach," says Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine. "Miami Beach residents and visitors are increasingly seeking new, environmentally conscious options to move around North, Middle, and South Beach, and carsharing is an important part of realizing that vision." Read more from Car2go. ClipperCreek has added the HCS-30 EVSE to its product line. The 24-amp, 240-volt Level 2 charging station is designed for residential and workplace duty. It allows for faster charging without the customer having to upgrade their electrical service panel. Delivering about 20 miles of range per hour of charging, the HCS-30 EVSE can charge most EVs in about four hours. Pricing begins at $565. Read more from ClipperCreek. Cadillac will use ultracapacitors in its stop-start systems for 2016. Rather than relying on battery power to run electrical systems while the engine is not running, the utracapacitors can provide a stable flow of energy without losing lifespan to repeated cycling. Supplied by Maxwell Technologies, the ultracapacitors are also lighter than batteries and, according to Cadillac, provide smoother restarts. The 2016 models to use the updated stop-start technology as standard will be the ATS and CTS, with the exception of the V performance variants. Read more at Green Car Reports. Lyft and Didi Kuaidi Announce Strategic Partnership, Building Toward a Collaborative Global Ridesharing Alliance - Didi Kuaidi Invests $100 million in Lyft - Companies Introduce Ridesharing Coverage Between the U.S.

Frustrated GM investors ask what more Mary Barra can do

DETROIT — General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra has transformed the No. 1 U.S. automaker in her almost five years in charge, but that is still not enough to satisfy investors. Ahead of third-quarter results due on Oct. 31, GM shares are trading about 6 percent below the $33 per share price at which they launched in 2010 in a post-bankruptcy initial public offering. The Detroit carmaker's stock is down 22 percent since Barra took over in January 2014. After hitting an all-time high of $46.48 on Oct. 24, 2017, the shares have declined 33 percent. In the same period, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed 7.8 percent. Several shareholders contacted by Reuters said GM could face a third major action by activist shareholders in less than four years if the share price does not improve. "I've been expecting it," said John Levin, chairman of Levin Capital Strategies. "It just seems a tempting morsel to somebody." Levin's firm owns more than seven million GM shares. Barra has guided the company through the settlement of a federal criminal probe of a mishandled safety recall, sold off money-losing European operations, and returned $25 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks from 2012 through 2017. GM declined to comment for this story, but the company's executives privately express frustration with the market's reluctance to see it as anything more than a manufacturer tied mainly to auto market sales cycles. GM's profitable North American truck and SUV business and its money-making China operations are valued at just $14 billion, excluding the value of GM's stake in its $14.6 billion Cruise automated vehicle business and its cash reserves from its $44 billion market capitalization. The recent slump in the Chinese market, GM's largest, and plateauing U.S. demand are ratcheting up the pressure. GM is one of the few global automakers without a founding family or a government to serve as a bulwark against corporate raiders. In 2015, a group led by investor Harry Wilson pressed GM to launch a $5 billion share buyback, and commit to what is now an $18 billion ceiling on the level of cash the company would hold. In 2017, GM fended off a call by hedge fund manager David Einhorn to split its common stock shares into two classes. Einhorn, whose firm still owned more than 21 million shares at the end of June, declined to comment about GM's stock price. Other investors said there were no clear alternatives to Barra's approach.

Cadillac SRX likely to see next-gen built in China

Here's some shocking news to no one: People love crossovers, including those living in China. Since introducing the Cadillac SRX there in 2009, the model's sales have gone through the roof. Now, the brand is considering moving some production of the next-generation model in China to eliminate import tariffs and make it an even bigger player in the market.
According to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, the crossover is leading Cadillac's Chinese growth, despite its US-equivalent price of over $67,000 after the country's high import tariffs. The CUV's sales are up 23 percent there so far this year, and it's responsible for over 40 percent of the brand's sales. John Stadwick, General Motors' VP of sales, service and marketing in China, told the WSJ that GM could "very possibly" build the next-gen model there.
The SRX is Cadillac's golden goose in China, and it just keeps pushing the brand's sales forward. "It's the vehicle that took us out of being a small niche in the market," said David Caldwell, Cadillac Communications Manager, to Autoblog. Before the CUV, Caddy was selling a little over 20,000 cars a year there, but partially thanks to the crossover's success, the brand sold 50,000 vehicles last year and could reach 60,000 this year. "The SRX is the most popular Cadillac in that market," he said.