Kia PV5 electric van concept

Kia reveals new commercial EV lineup at CES 2024

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Kia PV5 electric van concept

Image Credits: Kia

Kia is following up a strong year for its passenger EVs by sharing what it wants to do for businesses looking to go electric. The Korean automaker just unveiled at CES 2024 a forthcoming lineup of electric vans, trucks, ride-hailing and last-mile delivery vehicles all set to be built on a new modular platform.

And it appears to already have its first customer. The company announced during the Monday press conference that is has formed a global partnership with Uber, according to Pierre-Martin Bos, vice president of Kia’s new so-called PVB business division.

Not only will the underlying electric powertrain be modular — similar to other skateboard-style designs that have become popular across the industry — but the tops of these vehicles will be as well. What that looks like in practice, according to Kia, are vehicles with fixed driver cabs that can have the rest of the vehicle’s cabin swapped out.

Kia commercial van EV PBV lineup
Kia PBV Concept Lineup. Image Credits: Kia

These cabins (Kia calls them “life modules”) connect to the chassis using both mechanical couplings and electromagnets, though Kia was light on the details about how that will work.

Kia was light on specs, but said it is building a dedicated plant to make them in South Korea that it claims will be operational in 2025. Kia expects an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles but said that could grow to 300,000 globally.

Kia PV5 electric concept at CES 2024
Image Credits: Kirsten Korosec

The first model to be made will be the Kia PV5, a three-row van with futuristic styling slated to hit the road in 2025 at a price tag of around $35,000. Kia also showed renders of a larger version (the PV7) due in 2027 and a smaller, more Smart Car-sized option (the PV1). The company shared that it plans a robotaxi version could come in 2028, and that vehicles built on the platform may eventually be available to regular consumers.

The look of the vehicles is fairly stark and utilitarian. None of them are remotely as adorable as sibling company Hyundai’s head-turning Staria van. Design-wise, they are not all that dissimilar from what struggling EV startup Canoo has spent the last few years promising to offer at scale. Hyundai and Canoo were once involved in a partnership that was abruptly called off by the EV startup’s CEO, who made vague allusions at the time about protecting his company’s IP.

This post has been updated with details from Kia’s CES 2024 press conference.

Read more about CES 2024 on TechCrunch

Kia PV5 electric van concept

Kia reveals new commercial EV lineup at CES 2024

by with No Comment Tech

Kia PV5 electric van concept

Image Credits: Kia

Kia is following up a strong year for its passenger EVs by sharing what it wants to do for businesses looking to go electric. The Korean automaker just unveiled at CES 2024 a forthcoming lineup of electric vans, trucks, ride-hailing and last-mile delivery vehicles all set to be built on a new modular platform.

And it appears to already have its first customer. The company announced during the Monday press conference that is has formed a global partnership with Uber, according to Pierre-Martin Bos, vice president of Kia’s new so-called PVB business division.

Not only will the underlying electric powertrain be modular — similar to other skateboard-style designs that have become popular across the industry — but the tops of these vehicles will be as well. What that looks like in practice, according to Kia, are vehicles with fixed driver cabs that can have the rest of the vehicle’s cabin swapped out.

Kia commercial van EV PBV lineup
Kia PBV Concept Lineup. Image Credits: Kia

These cabins (Kia calls them “life modules”) connect to the chassis using both mechanical couplings and electromagnets, though Kia was light on the details about how that will work.

Kia was light on specs, but said it is building a dedicated plant to make them in South Korea that it claims will be operational in 2025. Kia expects an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles but said that could grow to 300,000 globally.

Kia PV5 electric concept at CES 2024
Image Credits: Kirsten Korosec

The first model to be made will be the Kia PV5, a three-row van with futuristic styling slated to hit the road in 2025 at a price tag of around $35,000. Kia also showed renders of a larger version (the PV7) due in 2027 and a smaller, more Smart Car-sized option (the PV1). The company shared that it plans a robotaxi version could come in 2028, and that vehicles built on the platform may eventually be available to regular consumers.

The look of the vehicles is fairly stark and utilitarian. None of them are remotely as adorable as sibling company Hyundai’s head-turning Staria van. Design-wise, they are not all that dissimilar from what struggling EV startup Canoo has spent the last few years promising to offer at scale. Hyundai and Canoo were once involved in a partnership that was abruptly called off by the EV startup’s CEO, who made vague allusions at the time about protecting his company’s IP.

This post has been updated with details from Kia’s CES 2024 press conference.

Read more about CES 2024 on TechCrunch

Chef Robotics eyes commercial kitchens with $14.75M raise

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Image Credits: Chef Robotics

In the past several years, the kitchen has increasingly become a focal point for the world of automation. Miso, for instance, has made a name for itself with Flippy, a hamburger cooking arm that has found its way into chain restaurants like White Castle. Others, including Zume Robotics, have been less successful — the pizza robot firm shut its doors last year after attempting a major pivot into Earth-conscious food packaging.

Chef Robotics has been kicking since 2019. The founding was unquestionably fortuitous timing, just ahead of COVID-related closures and resulting labor shortages that continue to this day in industries like fast food. This week, the San Francisco–based firm announced that it has closed a $14.75 million combo equity/debt round.

The new cash infusion follows a raise of $7.7 million in 2021, bringing the total funding up to $22.5 million. That figure includes $18.2 million in equity and $4.25 million in debt. MaC Venture Capital, MFV Partners, Interwoven Ventures and Alumni Ventures joined existing backers, Construct Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Promus Ventures and Red and Blue Ventures.

Much of the money will go toward deploying Chef’s go-to-market strategy, which is based around a RaaS (robotics-as-a-service) plan. RaaS is proving to be an extremely popular model in the world of industrial automation, as the upfront cost of a big robot is far too steep for many companies to foot. The company will also be hiring engineers and technicians, growing a headcount that currently numbers around 30.

Chef founder and CEO Rajat Bhageria tells TechCrunch that Chef distinguishes itself from the likes of Miso by focusing on food assembly, rather than cooking specifically. The company is also touting ChefOS, the underlying software driving its robot arm’s decisions. “[F]ood is very highly dimensional: depending on how you prep the ingredients (e.g., julienned onions vs. chopped), cook the ingredients (e.g., sautéed, baked, broiled), store the ingredients (e.g., cooked, room temp, frozen), the material properties radically differ,” the company notes. “And these properties change daily based on who is prepping and cooking. To deal with this, Chef uses various sensors — like cameras — to collect training data and then trains models that help the company learn how to manipulate a large corpus of ingredients.”

Part of the reason the company places such emphasis on the software/AI side of things is that most of Chef’s hardware components are off-the-shelf. There is, after all, a philosophy among many roboticist that if existing solutions do the job, there’s no reason to reinvent that specific wheel.

Chef isn’t revealing specific sales figures, only saying that it has “robots at food companies in five cities around the U.S. and Canada,” including “Fortune 500 food companies.” Bhageria also tells TechCrunch that it has quadrupled “recurring revenue from 2022 to 2023,” though, again, nothing more specific than that.

eBay Inc. signage is displayed at the entrance to the company's headquarters in San Jose, California

eBay enters trading card commercial agreement with Collectors, acquires Goldin

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eBay Inc. signage is displayed at the entrance to the company's headquarters in San Jose, California

Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty Images

As eBay continues to invest in the trading card space, the e-commerce company announced Wednesday three significant commercial transactions with Collectors, the parent company of PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator), the third-party authentication and grading provider in the collectibles industry.

The transactions include a trading card commercial agreement that aims to provide trading enthusiasts a seamless buying, selling, grading and storage experience. As part of the partnership, eBay and PSA plan to introduce a “customer-centric product experience” over the coming months. Plus, PSA is launching a new service for customers to list trading cards on eBay as soon as the card is graded in order to accelerate the selling process.

Additionally, eBay acquired Collectors’ auction house Goldin, a significant move that will greatly benefit collectors. The sale helps eBay expand the range of inventory for buyers as well as give Goldin sellers a wider audience.

eBay is also selling the eBay vault to Collectors, creating a new offering that merges the existing vault services. Launched in 2022, the eBay vault allows collectors to store trading cards that are valued at more than $750 in a secure, temperature-controlled vault.

The financial terms of the deals weren’t publicly disclosed. All three transactions are anticipated to close simultaneously in the second quarter of 2024.

“The deals announced today further our mission of reinventing the future of e-commerce for enthusiasts, and we are excited to partner with PSA to offer a simpler, more personalized experience for passionate collectors,” eBay CEO Jamie Iannone said in a statement. “PSA is a premier player in trading cards and collectibles with unmatched capabilities, and we believe our shared expertise will inspire even more people to sell, shop, and collect with confidence.”

Wednesday’s announcement comes four months after eBay partnered with sports trading card company COMC, which allowed eBay customers to easily digitize their inventory.

Last year, the company bought collectibles platform TCGplayer for $295 million.

eBay is acquiring trading card marketplace TCGplayer for up to $295M

eBay will now authenticate trading cards worth $750 or more

Motional Hyundai Ioniq 5

Motional delays commercial robotaxi plans amid restructuring

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Motional Hyundai Ioniq 5

Image Credits: Motional

Motional, the autonomous vehicle startup borne out of a $4 billion joint venture between Hyundai and automotive supplier Aptiv, will pause its commercial operations and delay plans to launch a driverless taxi service as it undergoes a restructuring, TechCrunch has learned. The aim is to make progress on the core technology and the business model, while preserving capital, according to sources familiar with the changes.

Motional has pushed its plan to launch a commercial driverless robotaxi service with its second-generation AV — the Hyundai Ioniq 5 — to 2026, two years later than planned.

The company told employees Tuesday during an all-hands meeting that the changes will include layoffs, but did not provide a figure of how many people would be affected, according to sources who spoke to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity. Motional began notifying employees if they were laid off shortly after the meeting ended. The company employed more than 1,300 people prior to a 5% cut in workforce in March 2024.

Motional will halt its commercial operations, which today includes taxi rides in autonomous Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles in Las Vegas via the Uber and Lyft network. The company will also end deliveries for Uber Eats customers in Santa Monica using its autonomous vehicles. A human safety operator is behind the wheel in all of its commercial operations.

Instead, Motional plans to put greater resources towards building out the core technology. That will mean more testing, which will likely include an expansion to other cities, one source familiar told TechCrunch. Motional tests its technology in Boston, Pittsburgh and Las Vegas. Motional CEO Karl Iagnemma also published a blog post shortly after the meeting ended that outlines its plans “to focus resources on the continued development and generalization of our core driverless technology, while de-emphasizing near-term commercial deployments and ancillary activities.”

“Driverless vehicles will enter the market when the technology has evolved, and — just as importantly — when the business case for autonomous deployment is clear,” Iagnemma wrote in the blog. “While we’re excited by our pace of technical progress, and our initial commercial deployments have yielded valuable insights, large-scale deployment of AVs remains a goal for the future, not the present.”

Employees were told that the stubbornly high cost of running commercial operations coupled with pricey autonomous vehicle technology components makes the business case challenging today. During the all-hands, Iagnemma told employees that the vision had not changed and that Hyundai’s recent investment into Motional is a sign of the company’s support and belief that they’re on the right track, according to sources who listened to the call.

The restructuring comes less than a week after Hyundai Motor Group invested nearly $1 billion in Motional as part of a broader deal that included buying out a portion of joint venture partner Aptiv. About half of that amount, $475 million, is going directly into Motional’s coffers. The remaining $448 million was used to buy 11% of Aptiv’s common equity interest in Motional.

Hyundai’s new investment puts Motional’s valuation at $4.1 billion, according to sources on the call. That’s about the same valuation as Motional had in 2020.

Earlier this year, Motional’s future was put in doubt after Aptiv announced plans to reduce its ownership interest and stop allocating capital to the venture due to the high cost of commercializing a robotaxi business and the long road ahead to profits. Aptiv expects to reduce its common equity interest in Motional from 50% as of March 31 to about 15%, leaving Hyundai with the remaining 85% control.