Auto industry

The to-do list for the electric-vehicle maker will be funded in part by its IPO -- the sixth-largest in U.S. history. Rivian shares soared 22% Thursday in their second day of trading, creating a stock-market value of more than $100 billion. Two months after delivering its first pickups, largely to employees, Rivian now has a market valuation exceeding that of General Motors Co.

The Japanese automaker premiered its Solterra, built on the new “e-Subaru Global platform,” at a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday. The platform, developed in conjunction with Toyota, is dedicated to battery-electric cars. The model will be sold in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China and Japan by the middle of next year, along with Toyota’s bZ4X.

Before the year is over, Elon Musk wants to start production at Tesla’s new electric-vehicle factory outside Berlin. While he’s cautioned that ramping up Model Y output at the facility in the small town of Gruenheide will be challenging, the development is the talk of the German auto industry nonetheless.

Addition Capital, Coatue Management and serial entrepreneur Elad Gil led the funding round in the Mountain View, California-based company, now worth $3.6 billion -- nearly triple the valuation from another round last year.

Arity, a mobility data and analytics company founded by Allstate in 2016, has made its nearly 100 million driving risk scores exclusively available on Transparent.ly, a platform for auto insurance marketers to leverage leads and target shoppers.

The move suggests Apple is plowing ahead with attempts to develop self-driving technology, a high-stakes race with automakers such as Tesla. Moore is joining a division known for its secrecy -- Apple has never publicly laid out its car plans -- and frequent turnover. The head of Apple’s car project, codenamed Titan, departed the company earlier this year to lead technology efforts at Ford Motor Co.

In other news: AgentSync acquires Finvera; Cart.com teams up with Extend; SkyWatch launches usage-based insurance with Global Aerospace.

Lynk in June started deliveries to seven European countries including Germany, Sweden and Spain and so far has 29,000 customers -- more than three times this year’s target, Chief Executive Officer Alain Visser said in an interview. About 95% of them are choosing to subscribe rather than buy a vehicle.

The company expects to pay the fine in installments, with a final deal subject to further negotiations with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said Thursday as it reported third-quarter financial results. The agency has been examining claims by a short-seller that Nikola deceived investors about its business prospects.

Success demands an innovation-driven formula with four main components: speed, accuracy, scale and customer experience. To do this and change the economic equation, here are five efficiency strategies recommended by Verisk.

In other news: Zurich releases cyber risk survey results; Hertz and Uber to add 50,000 Teslas to network; Amica selects Shift Technology.

Taken together, the deals represent a trifecta of aggressive and innovative initiatives with the potential to upend the car-rental business and hasten the transition to greener transportation. The car order on Monday, the largest-ever for EVs at $4.2 billion, was such as watershed moment that it propelled Tesla Inc.’s valuation past $1 trillion.

Tesla jumped as much as 6.7% to a record high of $970.84 in New York, before paring gains to 4.4%, with the company’s market valuation around $955 billion.

Marshmallow, a car insurance app which recently became the U.K.’s second black-founded firm to reach a billion-dollar valuation, won’t be working from its current Old Street digs for much longer. It’s moving to a nearby office with triple the space after headcount grew more than threefold during the pandemic and as it plows ahead with expansion plans into Europe.

The partnership provides Lyft drivers with the opportunity to select an auto insurance policy that is built for rideshare drivers. Policyholders are also eligible to get money back with each ride using the Lyft platform.

The agency launched a probe of Tesla’s Autopilot program in August after almost a dozen collisions at crash scenes involving first-responder vehicles.

In other news: Allstate closes $400M sale of New York life, annuity business; USAA partners with Blink by Chubb; Zurich North America implements Chisel AI.

Honda’s vision of how people will work, travel and spend leisure time in the future will help expand its business beyond cars, lawn mowers and motorcycles. The efforts are a key component of Honda’s “2030 Vision” to broaden the definition of mobility and to improve peoples’ daily lives.

Keynova Group released its Q3 2021 Mobile Insurance Scorecard, which evaluates the mobile websites and mobile apps from the 12 largest U.S. property and casualty firms. Geico placed first overall and leads scoring in mobile web and app.

In other news: Amerisure implements One Inc ClaimsPay tech; California drivers report distracted driving is getting worse; HSB adds social media income to home cyber protection.