Oct 12th, 2017 News of the Day: CarGurus spikes 72% in auto marketplace IPO

author: Lydia   

CarGurus spikes 72% in auto marketplace IPO

Used-car marketplace CarGurus spiked more than 72 percent during its first day of trading.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company had raised more than $150 million after pricing its IPO at $16. By the end of trading Thursday, shares had gone up more than 72 percent, closing at $27.58.

CarGurus does not make money per transaction. Instead, it's a freemium model, with dealers paying for full functionality of the CarGurus platform. In addition to traditional car dealerships, CarGurus competes with TrueCar, Cars.com and AutoTrader.com. TrueCar initially struggled following its 2014 IPO, but turned things around two years ago.

LG to open Europe's largest EV battery factory in Poland next year

LG is opening Europe's largest factory for building lithium-ion batteries destined for use in electric cars, the company announced. Its LG Chem division is going to open the doors for the facility in 2019 in Poland near Wroclaw, per Reuters, and the facility will be able to supply as many as 100,000 EV batteries per year beginning next year.

New Tesla voluntary recall applies to 11,000 Model X vehicles

Tesla is taking a "proactive measure" out of an "abundance of caution," the company says, in handling an issue with a cable used in the adjusting of second-row seating in a small percent of Model X vehicles. The automaker has issued a voluntary recall, which will apply to 11,000 Model X vehicles it would like to inspect — though it believes only 3 percent of those cars actually exhibit the issue.

The problem was discovered via internal testing, per Tesla, and basically involves the cable that controls the reclining of the two rear seats being too tight in some vehicles, which means that when the seats are folded back up from a flat position, they might not fully lock in place again. This could theoretically result in problems if adults are in the seats in case of an accident, though Tesla says that they haven't seen anything related to this issue in the field, or in any customer car as of yet.

Waymo proposed $1 billion Uber settlement with public apology in self-driving car lawsuit

Waymo's lawsuit against Uber this February was surprising given Google and Alphabet's usual hesitancy towards suing. However, Waymo found Uber's alleged actions a particularly large affront. Reuters has now discovered what Waymo demanded from Uber in settlement talks to stop the case from heading to trial.

The settlement included at least $1 billion in damages, though Reuters was unable to learn the exact dollar figure. For comparison, if Waymo were to win the case, it has estimated damages from Uber at $1.9 billion. It's unclear when this offer was made, with no more settlement talks planned. Additionally, the Alphabet division requested a public apology from Uber, as well as the appointment of an independent monitor.

Lydia

Lydia is the project manager of audience development and social media at Futurecar. Lydia started her career in Tokyo at a Fortune Global 500 company before moving to Silicon Valley. Lydia put her bilingual skills to the test by covering the automobile industry and entrepreneurship. Her other journalism experience includes a sports reporting internship at Titan Media and numerous freelance writing gigs. Her professional skills include content optimization, business innovation, and working with industry trends in technology sectors. Lydia holds an M.A in Public Policy from Hitotsubashi University and B.A. in Arts Journalism from Fudan University.