• Proficient Auto Logistics Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering

    Proficient Auto Logistics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PAL) (the “Company”) today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 14,333,333 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $15.00 per share, for total gross proceeds of approximately $215.0 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company. All of the common stock is being offered by the Company. The underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,149,999 shares of common stock from the Company. The shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on May 9, 2024 under the ticker symbol “PAL.” The offering is expected to close on May 13, 2024, subject to the closing of the Combinations (as described further below) and customary closing conditions.

    Prior to the offering, the Company entered into agreements to acquire in multiple, separate acquisitions (the “Combinations”) five operating businesses and their respective affiliated entities, as applicable, operating under the following names: Delta Auto Transport, Inc, Deluxe Auto Carriers, Inc., Sierra Mountain Group, Inc., Proficient Auto Transport, Inc. and Tribeca Automotive Inc. (collectively, the “Founding Companies”). The net proceeds from the offering will be used to pay the cash portion of the consideration payable to the equity holders of the Founding Companies, expenses in connection with the Combinations and for general corporate purposes, which are expected to include working capital and future acquisitions. The Company will not close the acquisition of any of the Founding Companies unless the Company closes the acquisition of all the Founding Companies. Furthermore, the closing of the Combinations and the offering are conditioned on the closing of each other.

    Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Raymond James & Associates, Inc. and William Blair & Company, L.L.C. are acting as joint book-running managers.

    A registration statement on Form S-1 relating to the offering of these securities was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 8, 2024. The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the final prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from: Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, One South Street, 15th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202, Attention: Syndicate Department, email: Syndprospectus@stifel.com; Raymond James & Associates, Inc., 880 Carillon Parkway, St. Petersburg, Florida 33716, Attention: Equity Syndicate, 1-800-248-8863, prospectus@raymondjames.com; William Blair & Company, L.L.C., Attention: Prospectus Department, 150 North Riverside Plaza, Chicago, IL 60606, by telephone at (800) 621-0687, or by email at prospectus@williamblair.com; or by visiting EDGAR on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

    This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

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  • BMW Group at the 18th Auto China Beijing 2024

    At Auto China 2024 in Beijing, the BMW Group presents the latest progress in its change towards electrification, digitalisation and circularity. World premieres of new BMW and MINI models take centre stage. The BMW Vision Neue Klasse, which heralds the next generation of BMW vehicles, is on show for the first time in China.

    „With the NEUE KLASSE, we are carrying BMW into the future: in design, technology and philosophy. It begins already next year when we will release the NEUE KLASSE onto the market. Not with niche models – but starting in our most successful, highest-volume segments,“ says Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG.

    The BMW Vision Neue Klasse signals the start of a new era of individual mobility and provides a glimpse of the BMW brand’s future model generation. It is rich in digital experiences, locally emission-free and circular in the long term to ensure typical BMW driving pleasure for future generations. Production of the Neue Klasse series models will start in 2025, initially at the BMW Group plant in Debrecen and shortly afterwards in China.

    The brand’s most popular electric vehicle worldwide is currently the BMW i4, the new version of which will celebrate its world premiere at Auto China 2024. The success of the BMW i4 confirms the BMW Group’s open technology approach, which makes it possible to produce vehicles with purely electric drive systems and highly efficient combustion engines on a common platform. In Beijing, the new BMW i4 will be shown to the public for the first time together with the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupé’s combustion engine variants, which have also been further developed.

    The world premiere of the MINI Aceman at Auto China 2024 marks the third member of the brand’s new model family. The all-electric crossover model closes the gap between the new MINI Cooper and the new MINI Countryman.

    “What the NEUE KLASSE is to BMW, the New MINI Family is to MINI: the most desirable product range in the history of the brand and the biggest investment we ever made in MINI. At just over four metres long, the Aceman embodies the basic idea of the original, iconic MINI of 1959: progressive design, optimal use of space and a minimal footprint.,” said Jochen Goller, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Customer, Brand and Sales.

    The Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, in short: Auto China, is one of the most important trade fairs in the international automotive industry. The 18th edition of the exhibition, which alternates with Auto Shanghai, will be held under the theme “New Era, New Cars” and will be open to the public from 25 April to 4 May 2024. At the China International Exhibition Centre in Beijing, car manufacturers, suppliers and service providers from all over the world will present their new models, products and technologies. The BMW Group brands will present their current product range on an exhibition area of around 2,000 square metres.

    China premiere: The BMW Vision Neue Klasse.

    The BMW Vision Neue Klasse combines the BMW Group’s innovative strength and development expe…

    Source

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  • What does hybrid cars cost?

    What’s a Hybrid Going to Cost Me?

    Right now, cars are generally more expensive the more they depend on a battery to go. Here’s a handy chart, using data from the automotive research company Edmunds:

    https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/17810840/embed?full

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  • US opens investigation into Ford crashes

    Two fatal crashes involving Ford’s Blue Cruise partially automated driving system have drawn the attention of U.S. auto safety regulators.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation of the crashes, both involving Mustang Mach-E electric vehicles on freeways in nighttime lighting conditions, the agency said in documents Monday.

    The agency’s initial investigation of the crashes, which killed three people, determined that Blue Cruise was in use just before the collisions.

    One of the crashes occurred in February in San Antonio, Texas, killing one person, while the other happened in Philadelphia in March in which two people died.

    The agency says the investigation will evaluate how Blue Cruise performs driving tasks as well as its camera based driver monitoring system.

    Ford said Monday it is working with NHTSA to support the investigation.

    The National Transportation Safety Board, which already is investigating the Feb. 24 San Antonio crash, determined in a preliminary report that it was operating on Blue Cruise.

    The NTSB can only make recommendations, but NHTSA has the authority to take action including seeking recalls for safety issues.

    Ford says on its website that its driving systems do not replace human drivers, who have to be ready to take control at any time.

    The Texas crash occurred on Interstate 10 in San Antonio. The NTSB report says the Mach E struck the rear of a 1999 Honda CR-V that was stopped in the middle of three lanes around 9:50 p.m. The 56-year-old driver of the CR-V was killed.

    Another driver who was able to avoid the CR-V told investigators that neither its tail nor hazard lights were working at the time.

    The NTSB said it intends to issue safety recommendations to prevent similar crashes. It has said it opened the probe due to continued interest in advanced driver assistance systems and how vehicle operators interact with the new technology.

    The other crash involving a Mach E killed two people around 3:20 a.m. March 3 in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia.

    The Pennsylvania State Police said Thursday that a Mach E was in the left lane when it struck a stationary Hyundai Elantra that earlier had collided with a Toyota Prius.

    The Mach E hit the Hyundai, pushing it into the rear of the Prius. During the crash, the driver of the Prius, who was outside of his vehicle, also was struck and thrown into the southbound lanes, the release said.

    A police spokeswoman said a person from the Hyundai also was on the roadway and was hit. Both victims, males ages 21 and 20, were pronounced dead at the scene.

    A police news release on the crash says a criminal investigation is underway and a charge of homicide by motor vehicle while driving under the influence is possible against the 23-year-old woman driving the Mach E.

    Ford’s Blue Cruise system allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel while it handles steering, braking and acceleration on highways. The company says the system isn’t fully autonomous and it monitors drivers to make sure they pay attention to the road. It operates on 97% of controlled access highways in the U.S. and Canada, Ford says.

    There are no fully autonomous vehicles for sale to the public in the U.S.

    Both NHTSA and the NTSB have investigated multiple previous crashes involving partially automated driving systems.

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  • What’s Ahead At The Beijing Auto Fair?

    Beijing will be center of attention in the global auto industry later this month with the opening of China’s most important exhibition this year, Auto China. The stakes are big for domestic brands such as BYD but also for foreign entrants looking to tap into the world’s largest auto market; sales in first quarter increased by more than 10% from a year earlier. Long-time world leaders, however, face intensifying competition from cutthroat, tech-savvy domestic rivals, particularly for EVs. Among international firms looking to the future, Volkswagen last week announced plans to invest $3.7 billion in the country.

    What are some of the likely trends at Auto China? To learn more, I talked on Thursday to Tu Le, founder of Sino Auto Insights, a consultancy that follows China’s auto industry. Le is a long-time China veteran who relocated to the Detroit area during the pandemic and will be back in China for the show, which opens on April 25. Edited excerpts follow.

    Read further

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  • Small China-made EV has global auto execs on edge

    A small electric vehicle is having a big impact on the global automotive industry.

    It’s not the EV itself that’s making waves but its price — and its potential to disrupt domestic auto industries around the world.

    Seagull, a small all-electric hatchback, starts at just 69,800 yuan (or less than $10,000), and reportedly banks a profit for the increasingly influential Chinese automaker.

    That latter point — EV profits where U.S. automakers have mostly failed to turn any — combined with the expansion of Chinese automakers into Europe, Latin America and elsewhere has automotive executives and politicians, from Detroit and Texas to Germany and Japan, on edge.

    The Seagull could be a “clarion call for the rest of the auto industry,” said Terry Woychowski, a former General Motors

    executive who now serves as president of automotive at engineering consulting firm Caresoft Global. “It’s a significant event.”

    Though the Seagull isn’t yet sold on U.S. soil, BYD is expanding its vehicles globally, and some believe it’s only a matter of time before more China-made vehicles arrive in the U.S.

    There’s fear among global automakers that Chinese rivals like the Warren Buffett-backed BYD could flood their markets, undercutting domestic production and vehicle prices to the detriment of their own auto industries.

    “The introduction of cheap Chinese autos — which are so inexpensive because they are backed with the power and funding of the Chinese government — to the American market could end up being an extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector,” the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a U.S. manufacturing advocacy group, said in a report last month.

    BYD sold 1.57 million battery EVs last year, up from just 130,970 all-electric vehicles in 2020. That sales growth was enough to surpass Tesla to become the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles in late 2023.

    The rise of BYD and other Chinese automakers led Tesla
    CEO Elon Musk in January to warn that Chinese automakers will “demolish” global rivals without trade barriers.

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  • IWD:Hyundai Celebrates Kick Off of Fifth Annual Women in STEM Scholarship Program

     In celebration of International Women’s Day, Hyundai Motor America has opened applications for its fifth annual Hyundai Women in STEM Scholarship. In September, five female STEM students will receive a scholarship in the amount of $10,000 each.

    Since launching the scholarship in 2020, Hyundai has provided $250,000 to the next generation of women leaders, helping to close the gender gap in STEM fields such as engineering, mobility and autonomous driving.

    “Hyundai is dedicated to making a richer journey possible for all,” said Angela Zepeda, chief marketing officer, Hyundai Motor America. “Emphasizing and investing in women in STEM is crucial for shaping the future. With this scholarship, we look to help drive positive change and empower women as they continue their education.”

    For 2024, applicants are to write an essay on how EV technology can help create a more sustainable future and discuss whether the shift towards EVs is the best path for improving global mobility and environmental health. Recipients must be high school seniors or undergraduate students who identify as female, reside in the United States and plan to pursue or are pursuing a STEM-related field of education.

    Applications are open now until June 20, 2024. More information can be found at www.tun.com/scholarships/the-hyundai-women-in-stem-scholarship/.

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  • IWD: Ford Celebrates Car Girls

    “In a world that seeks to put you in a box, tell you who you should be, and what you should like, you’re no stranger to forging your own path, driving in your own lane. You’re a car girl, after all,” says Ford in the newly released “Dear Car Girl” letter in celebration of International Women’s Day.

    This letter, from Ford to women who love cars, is meant to encourage them to continue to show their passion for automotive, push past limits, forge new paths, and redefine expectations. It will also be shared through a film narrated by inspirational women from a variety of auto backgrounds: professional stunt driver Dee Bryant; Ford engineer Fernanda Medina; Bronco ambassador Gabby Downing and Mustang ambassador Lauren Stoney.

    Additionally, women around the world will be encouraged to share what makes them a #CarGirl. Ford will also be mailing physical copies of the letter to customers, employees, and other women.

    Ford’s legacy is rich with women’s contributions, from employing women before they had voting rights to inspiring the iconic Rosie the Riveter during World War II. Women have not only been integral to innovations, including the invention of the rearview mirror, but have also led efforts that shape the future of automotive. As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we honor these trailblazers and their pivotal role in Ford’s history and future. 

    “Dear Car Girl” is just the latest example of Ford elevating and celebrating women’s accomplishments inside and outside the company – expanding what Ford as a brand means to women. Other recent examples include:

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  • Kia Europe re-partners with League of Legends EMEA Championship

    Kia has renewed its partnership with the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) as its exclusive main automotive partner for the sixth consecutive year. This three-year extension takes the sponsorship through to 2026. With esports being the fastest growing sport in the world, League of Legends is currently the most watched esports competition in the world. The synergy between the brand and technology enthusiasts helps to create a meeting place of great diversity bringing together different generations around a common interest.

    The 2024 LEC season will officially begin on January 13 at the Riot Games Arena in Berlin, Germany. The 2024 season finals will take place at the end of August in Munich, Germany. Starting this season, Kia will partner with three LEC awards, given to the most outstanding players: the Kia All-Pro Team, the Kia Player of the Game and the Kia 2024 Season MVP (most valuable player). In addition, Kia will also be a partner of the trophy ceremony, at the end of the 2024 LEC season finale.

    “We are delighted to continue our involvement in the League of Legends EMEA Championship, which sets the benchmark for esports,” said David Hilbert, Marketing Director at Kia Europe. We look forward to bringing unique experiences to League of Legends fans in the years to come. »

    “This will be Kia’s sixth year as a Principal Partner of the LEC, and we couldn’t be happier with what we’ve accomplished together,” commented Charlie Allen, Director of Commercial Partnerships EMEA at Riot Games. “Our partnership not only demonstrates Kia’s commitment to esports, but it also contributes to the sustainability of the LEC as a whole. Strengthening key relationships like this allows us to stay at the forefront of innovation and creativity and continue to deliver entertaining and enjoyable experiences for our fans.

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  • Hyundai presents new IONIQ 5 N NPX1

    Hyundai Motor Company today unveiled the ‘IONIQ 5 N NPX1,’ a concept model equipped with prototype N Performance Parts, at the Tokyo Auto Salon 2024.

    Hyundai Motor Company plans to enhance the high-performance electric vehicle (EV) ownership experience with N Performance Parts, which originally began in 2019 and continues to develop high quality tuning parts for customers. Continuing from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, such as Elantra N, i30 N and i20 N, Hyundai N plans to offer specialized tuning components for all-electric N models including the IONIQ 5 N.

    The ‘NPX1’ concept model previews an array of N-specific enhancements that will be available for purchase from a catalogue of N Performance Parts in the near future. It features a carbon front splitter, side skirts, rear diffuser, rear wing spoiler, lightweight hybrid carbon wheels, high-performance brake pads and lowering springs. The concept model’s interior is further enhanced with Alcantara material and racing bucket seats.

    The prototype N Performance Parts applied to the NPX1 concept will be further developed for production in preparation for sales in 2024. Starting with the IONIQ 5 N, Hyundai N will expand the availability of N Performance Parts products for all N models.

    In 2024, Hyundai Motor Company will take a step forward as a leader in new tuning parts suitable for the high-performance EV era as demonstrated with the ‘NPX1’ concept model.

    Not limited to tuning parts, we are also developing software customization such as sound and vehicle calibration by OTA updates which will open a completely new category of EV customization for an exciting future ahead for the tuning community.

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