• Nissan and Honda are reportedly in talks to merge.
• Nissan's lack of hybrids has affected the success of popular models like the Rogue.
• Honda has seen big sales increases for popular models with hybrid offerings.

A potential tie-up between Nissan and Honda could solve one big problem for Nissan: a lack of hybrids.

That's what dealers who spoke with Business Insider said this week amid reports that the Japanese automakers are in talks to create a new global auto goliath. Nissan is one of few car manufacturers in the US without a hybrid or plug-in hybrid offering, despite taking an early lead in EV sales with the Leaf in 2010.

Green car shoppers have turned away from EVs in favor of hybrid models this year, leaving Nissan with unpopular and unprofitable battery-powered offerings in the Leaf and Ariya SUV.

Nissan dealers have dealt with slumping sales all year, particularly for the brand's top seller, the Rogue. Once a segment leader, sales of the Rogue fell 10% through the first nine months of the year compared to the same period last year, according to company data.

And dealers say they're losing customers to Honda and Toyota, which have hybrid versions of their CR-V and RAV4 SUVs.

One dealer with both Nissan and Honda stores says it's "painfully obvious" that Nissan is losing customers to brands with more hybrids. The dealer didn't want to be identified, but Business Insider confirmed his identity.

He said it has become common for a Nissan shopper to migrate to the Honda store after they realize there aren't any hybrids.

Following disappointing sales results in the first quarter, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida acknowledged the hybrid blind spot, saying during an earnings press conference that until last year, Nissan wasn't able to predict the rapid rise in demand for hybrids. The company has said it is shifting efforts toward hybrid offerings, but dealers and automotive industry experts say that change could take years.

Meanwhile, Honda is riding the hybrid wave this year as customers gravitate toward the hybrid versions of the CR-V SUV and Civic sedan. Just this month, Honda said it has plans to double its global hybrid sales to 1.3 million vehicles by 2030, as it aims to create a "bridge" to EV adoption.

Dealer skepticism over another auto merger

While details of a potential tie-up between Nissan and Honda remain scant, some dealers are wary of yet another global auto merger. In separate statements, the companies didn't comment specifically on the reports, pointing instead to a March announcement in which they said they were exploring "various possibilities for future collaboration."

Adam Lee, a dealer in Maine with several major brands, including Nissan, Honda, and Chrylser, said he's grown cynical about promised "synergies" after experiencing several different mergers as a Chrysler dealer.

"Show me a merger where the synergies actually existed, and I'll show you something that doesn't exist," Lee said. "I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I tend to be cynical about anything like this."

Chyrsler-owner Stellantis is in the middle of a tough transition right now, as the CEO who led the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA stepped down suddenly at the start of the month. Before that, Chrysler lived through a messy marriage with Germany's Daimler in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Lee said Nissan could probably use some help with hybrids and other plug-in models but argued: "You don't necessarily need to merge to do that."

OpenAI says it has no plans to release an API for Sora, its AI model that can generate reasonably realistic videos when provided with a text description or reference image. During an AMA with members of OpenAI’s dev team, Romain Huet, head of developer experience at OpenAI, said that a Sora API isn’t in the […]

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Google on Tuesday announced support for third-party tools in Gemini Code Assist, its enterprise-focused AI code completion service. Code Assist launched in April as a rebrand of a similar service Google offered under its now-defunct Duet AI branding. Available through plug-ins for popular dev environments like VS Code and JetBrains, Code Assist is powered by Google’s Gemini […]

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The all-electric 2025 Lucid Air Pure is a dreamy, sexy car that’s no less luxurious for being the cheapest trim in Lucid’s Air lineup. I felt fancy and discerning driving around, but in an understated way – as if I were wearing designer sweatpants.  But does fancy equal value? I spent about 10 days driving […]

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From Selena Gomez to Meagan Good to Lady Gaga, these A-listers said 'Yes!' and are headed down the aisle

• Elon Musk is almost $200 billion richer than Jeff Bezos and worth more than Costco.
• His net worth hit $447 billion after Tesla stock jumped and SpaceX's valuation rose to $350 billion.
• Just five years ago, Musk was worth about $25 billion, and Tesla was valued below $100 billion.

Elon Musk is nearly $200 billion richer than Jeff Bezos, and personally worth more than Costco, after adding $63 billion to his fortune in a single day.

His net worth surged to $447 billion on Wednesday, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after Tesla stock jumped 6% and SpaceX's valuation leaped to $350 billion based on employee share sales.

Musk's fortune has ballooned by $218 billion this year — a sum that exceeds the net worth of every other person on the rich list except Amazon's Bezos ($249 billion) and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg ($224 billion).

Musk is now more than twice as wealthy as Oracle's Larry Ellison ($198 billion), and more than three times as rich as Warren Buffett ($144 billion).

His one-day gain — the largest in the index's history — rivals the total wealth of Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao, ranked 23rd with a $63.2 billion fortune. It also helped to lift the combined wealth of the 500 richest people on the planet to above $10 trillion for the first time, Bloomberg said.

Musk is now worth more on paper than the vast majority of US public companies, including Costco ($442 billion), Home Depot ($419 billion), and Netflix ($400 billion).

His wealth is largely made up of his roughly 13% stake and some contested stock options in Tesla, and his 42% slice of SpaceX. Musk's other businesses include xAI, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and X Corp, formerly Twitter.

Tesla shares have surged more than 70% this year to $425 at Wednesday's close, valuing the company at nearly $1.4 trillion. That figure comfortably exceeds the roughly $1 trillion market value of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and approaches the $1.6 trillion value of Zuckerberg's Meta.

The electric vehicle maker's shares have soared as investors bet it will harness artificial intelligence in revolutionary products such as self-driving cars and humanoid robots.

Musk's prominent role in Donald Trump's campaign, and his emergence as a close advisor to the president-elect who's tasked him with streamlining the US government, have also fueled optimism around his companies.

SpaceX is now valued at $350 billion based on the latest price paid by the company and its backers to buy shares from employees, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The Starlink owner's valuation was previously $210 billion after a secondary share sale in June.

It's worth underscoring how dramatic Musk's wealth jump has been. He was worth less than $170 billion as recently as April, and only about $25 billion five years ago — around 1/18 of his net worth now.

Tesla was worth less than $100 billion during the Covid crash of 2020, or about 1/14 of its valuation today.

Google’s next major AI model has arrived to combat a slew of new offerings from OpenAI. On Wednesday, Google announced Gemini 2.0 Flash, which the company says can natively generate images and audio in addition to text. 2.0 Flash can also use third-party apps and services, allowing it to tap into Google Search, execute code, […]

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Devs expect tech vendors to supply software development kits, or SDKs, alongside their products to make it easier to create apps using those products. But many vendors only offer APIs, which are simply protocols that enable software components to communicate with each other. Alex Rattray, the founder of Stainless, thinks AI can assist, here. Stainless […]

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• Coming EV models include small hatchbacks, pickups, sports cars, and minivans.
• They come from brands like Audi, Cadillac, Lucid, Mercedes-Benz, Rivian, Tesla, and Volkswagen.
• This article is part of "Getting Ready for Electric," a series of guides and practical advice for buying your next EV.

A large number of exciting EVs are headed to market soon.

Several automakers have modified their electrification strategies in recent months, replacing some of their prior electric-vehicle concepts with a focus on internal-combustion-engine and hybrid models.

Even with this strategic change, you can expect to see a lot of EV options in the coming years.

Here's a collection of cool EVs — including small hatchbacks, pickups, sports cars, and minivans — that we can't wait to drive.

• Tiya Gordon worked in design before she pivoted to cofounded It's Electric, a climate tech startup.
• Gordon launched the company in 2022 after struggling to find an accessible EV charger in Brooklyn.
• She shared how they raised $11 million in grants and investment from prominent investors like Uber.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Tiya Gordon, 45, the founder of electric charging startup It's Electric. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm a New Yorker and a staunch believer in public transportation. For most of my life, I never owned a car.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, all the forms of public transportation I used daily were unsafe.

I had to think about how I could transport my then-five-year-old and how I would reach family members if something terrible happened.

I considered getting a car for the first time. I made this list: It was written in Sharpie on a piece of grid paper, and it said, "New?" "Used?" "EV???" However, I had to immediately eliminate electric vehicles from my potential options because, in 2020, there was no accessible place to charge them in Brooklyn.

I realized there was a lack of infrastructure to transition to EV cars and that was the seed idea for my company.

Although my career was in design, I pivoted and cofounded a climate tech startup called It's Electric in 2022. We're focused on scaling electric vehicle charging in densely populated cities.

We're now a company of 10 people and we've received $11.8 million in funding and grants. Uber invested in our seed round. My best advice is to find simple solutions to big pain points and prove your work with receipts.

We found a simple solution for electric charging

When we started building It's Electric in 2021, my cofounder and I conducted research to determine what was preventing EV chargers from being deployed quickly and at scale in US cities.

In a city like London, there are a lot of lampposts that have been retrofitted into curbside chargers because they can handle 220 to 240 volts of electricity. In the US, the power feeds in our lamposts are typically much lower, at 110 volts.

If we wanted to have lamppost chargers, we'd need to upgrade the utility main and corresponding interconnection agreement, load analysis, transformer, submeter, and customer connection box.

We discovered that one asset in cities, that has plenty of power ready to go, is buildings, which we can use to power public chargers.

If a library, home, or commercial building agrees to power a public charger, we share revenue with that building to give them passive income as an incentive. It's a very simple idea. We say it's not deep tech, it's shallow tech.

Running a pilot helped get investors on board

Our business started with just us two founders, but after we raised a $2.2 million pre-seed round in May 2023, we hired our first two employees.

During our pre-seed stage, multiple investors told me that our idea was so simple that it must not work, or surely someone else was already doing it. We had to prove that a simple solution could be effective.

One way we did that was by getting our pilot off the ground in 2023.

We secured our partnership with Hyundai after winning their EV Open Innovation Challenge. Winners were selected based on their potential to expand market access to electric vehicles.

We knew we needed to test in the real world and in a notoriously hard-to-open city. So we approached the New York City Economic Development Corporation to ask if we could pilot our technology on their buildings in the Brooklyn Army Terminal. After much work, this became our first pilot and was crucial to landing investment.

Our work on this pilot was so successful that EDC launched a brand new program based on our pilot.

Have receipts and discuss your wins

Our pilot demonstrated that our solution offsets emissions, and we could collect data from the demo to show it was scalable, low-cost, and quick to install.

The pilot meant I could provide investors with proven results. We'd gone beyond what investors expected of us, which placated their queries and also attracted investors we hadn't yet spoken to.

Having a small-scale demonstration of your solution is more helpful in pitching to a large corporation than trying to sell a concept. It meant we were able to demonstrate a Series A level of progress at a pre-seed level.

So many investors said, "If it is so simple and such a good idea, then why aren't others already doing it?" My answer was, "Because no one else is doing it, we are the first." My advice to founders is to be tenacious but make sure you have the receipts.

We talked about our wins, such as prize nominations and media acknowledgments, to show investors that, by the jury of peers, our solution is winning.

Uber invested in our seed round

In July 2024, we closed our $6.5 million seed round, which was co-led by a Nordic fund, Failup Ventures, and Uber. Now, we're a team of 10.

Our involvement with Uber began when we met representatives from the company at a conference. Everyone thinks of companies like Uber as big corporate giants, but we started our partnership with them by chance. It wasn't a sales or business meeting; it was just two optimistic people working in transportation who had a great conversation.

A big challenge to Uber's zero-emissions goal is that Uber drivers live in cities and don't have garages, so it's really hard to charge electric vehicles. We provided a cheap, fast solution for urban drivers to charge electric cars. Uber needed more drivers to adopt electric cars to reach its goals, and we pitched ourselves as that stepping stone. A series of productive conversations helped us build this partnership.

Having Uber support our solution has been a great validation for our startup. It's also meant we've had access to smart people on their team to understand different policies and how we can help meet city goals.

My advice for founders who want to develop relationships with established companies is to try to solve problems for other people. Don't say you want a partnership because of what it can do for your startup, but put yourself out there as the problem-solver for a larger corporation. You want to find their pain point and point out that there isn't a solution that's already in the market.

The trio participated in a panel — and shared a heartwarming video — from the I Was Feeling Festive 2 convention in Covington, Ga., on Dec. 6

• Pope Francis received the first all-electric popemobile from Mercedes-Benz.
• The G 580 model has a classic white exterior and a swiveling adjustable seat in the rear center.
• The Vatican recently announced plans to transition to a fully-electric fleet by 2030.

Mercedes-Benz has supplied the Vatican with popemobiles for decades — and for the first time, the Pope will ride an all-electric version.

"The first all-electric G-Class combines sustainability, elegant design and maximum functionality," Mercedes-Benz Group AG's chief design officer, Gorden Wagener, said in a release. "It is a great honor for us to be able to present this special vehicle to Pope Francis today."

Mercedes-Benz said it has been working on the vehicle for about a year and it contains four electric motors for each wheel. The vehicle's electric drivetrain was made to accommodate slow rides at public appearances.

The vehicle has a classic white exterior, like former popemobiles. In place of the popemobile's bench seat, the rear now features a swiveling and height-adjustable single seat. Two seats are also on the right and left of the main seat for other passengers.

The company's popemobiles are specially crafted white vehicles used to carry the pope through large crowds in St. Peter's Square while behind bulletproof glass. The new vehicle comes just in time for the 2025 Jubilee, which occurs every 2025 years and is expected to attract millions in Rome.

Mercedes-Benz didn't respond to a request for comment about the vehicle costs, but some estimates have pegged it around $500,000.

While Mercedes-Benz has been the standard manufacturer for years, the Pope ditched his typical popemobile for a Hyundai in 2015. He also previously approved plans for a new electric popemobile made by Fisker, but it's not clear if that was ever delivered and the EV company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.

The new EV popemobile arrives amid a larger push from the Vatican to go all-electric.

Pope Francis specifically has emphasized the need for sustainable development. In his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato si', he wrote about the dangers of the environmental crisis and cited the need for lifestyle changes. In November, the Vatican also announced plans with Volkswagon to transition to a fully electric fleet by 2030.

Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of management at Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said in a press release that it's sending out a "clear call for electromobility and decarbonization."

"Mercedes-Benz not only stands for the special and individual — but also for consistently creating the conditions for a net-carbon-neutral new car fleet in 2039," Källeniu said.

• Jaguar's rebrand has been controversial — but its rollout might also be a genius move.
• Advertising veterans told Business Insider the strategy could help mark a new era for the brand.
• Still, not everyone was convinced: Other marketing experts said Jag's final product might disappoint.

Jaguar has generated a lot of buzz since unveiling its rebranding campaign, culminating this week with the release of a conceptual design for its next generation of electric vehicles.

When the luxury British carmaker debuted its redesigned logo, brand philosophy, and promotional video last month, it stirred up controversy on social media. Some conservative personalities argued that the new aesthetic abandoned Jaguar's heritage and pushed into "woke" politics, while others questioned why the promo video didn't feature any cars.

That first phase of Jaguar's rebrand had some advertising veterans divided on whether the strategy was a smart move for the iconic brand.

And that division carried through to Jag's latest update on Monday, which finally paired images of cars with its "exuberant modernism" vision. Now that concept cars are connected to the initial rebranding video, some marketing professionals are praising Jaguar's "brilliant" strategy — while others remain less convinced.

"Jaguar's paced unveiling is a brilliant strategy to keep people talking and interested in a highly competitive auto marketplace," Jim Heininger, the founder and principal of the Chicago firm The Rebranding Experts, told Business Insider after seeing the conceptual car rollout.

"This is a master class in what rebranding can accomplish for a company — a new forward-facing product and brand, clearly designed for its new customer persona, that everyone is talking about," he said.

Heininger — whose 30-year career includes work for P&G, McDonald's, and Anheuser-Busch — argued that Jaguar set high expectations when it debuted its controversial rebrand last month.

He said the concept car unveiling delivered on those expectations. The car effectively signals the company's "boldly modernistic" vision and "departure from the past," he said. The colors, design shapes, and new logo "feel right when you see it on the concept car."

Greg Andersen, the CEO of the Omaha, Nebraska, creative agency Bailey Lauerman, also lauded Jag's marketing strategy.

"What exceeds expectations is the breadth and depth of the Jaguar brand vision," said Anderson, who's worked for brands such as Google, Levi's, Burberry, and Axe before joining Bailey Lauerman.

"They have revealed much more than a concept car," he said. "It seems it is the beginning of the story of the Jaguar brand vision, which they can easily chapter out and stretch to the production model reveal."

But looking to the future, Andersen said the company's strategy has to remain well-executed when it comes time to reveal its new EV, which the company has said it expects to happen in late 2025 before hitting showrooms in 2026.

"I think the biggest risk for them now is making sure the production model lives up to the promise and doesn't suffer death by a thousand cuts," Andersen told BI. "Rolling out an unapologetic, future-facing brand along with a marginally better car might not go so well."

The proof of success will be in the production model

Still, not all of the ad veterans who spoke to BI had so much praise for Jaguar and its rebranding rollout.

Christos Joannides, the founder and creative director of the luxury branding agency Flat 6 Concepts in Los Angeles, told Business Insider that Jaguar's initial rebranding announcement did too much all at once, "overwhelming and confusing" the carmaker's long-standing audience.

And, in releasing its concept car this week, Jaguar didn't do enough to ground its new ethos in reality, Joannides said.

Joannides, who's worked with Jaguar competitors like Maserati and Lotus, argued that the concept car's features, like the rear with no window and the brass-toned divider running through the middle of the cabin, are impractical and bizarre.

"By showcasing a production model with more realistic features, Jaguar could have conveyed its vision more effectively and provided tangible evidence of its direction," Joannides said. "As it stands, the concept car feels superficial and gimmicky, like a desperate attempt to be different without any real substance or coherent strategy."

Joannides said that while Jaguar's initial teaser video was "certainly audacious," the final product would be what matters.

Richard Brandon Taylor, the founder and CEO of the UK-based brand consultancy firm Brandon, told BI that while Jaguar's rebrand was a smart play in some ways because it got everyone talking, there's still a significant period of time before the first production model comes out to try to maintain that buzz.

"Why they've left a year between concept and car is beyond me — that is a dangerous strategy to play," said Taylor, who's worked with brands like Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, and Kimberly-Clark.

Sunny Bonnell, the cofounder and CEO of the strategic branding firm Motto, said that to hold the audience's attention until the new cars hit the market, Jaguar needs to dive deeper into the "why" behind the rebrand.

"What does 'Copy Nothing' mean in practice?" said Bonnell, who's worked with brands like Google and Virgin. "How will it shape the driving experience, not just the look?" To do that, Jaguar needs a storytelling narrative, she said.

Jaguar's next steps in its rebranding rollout

It's unclear which specific design elements of the new concept will be implemented in Jaguar's forthcoming electric-vehicle models. Jaguar said its concept car was "an indicator of design philosophy and intent for the coming new vehicles," which are expected to be available for purchase sometime in 2026.

The new EV model will use dedicated Jaguar Electric Architecture, have a projected driving range of up to 430 miles on a single charge, and be able to add up to 200 miles of range after 15 minutes of rapid charging, the company said.

And the new EVs are expected to be much more upscale than previous Jags. Though Jaguar has not confirmed a price range, Wired reported, without citing a source, that the new Jag could cost at least $127,000 — a significant increase from current average price of around $70,000.

"We have forged a fearlessly creative new character for Jaguar that is true to the DNA of the brand but future-facing, relevant, and one that really stands out," Rawdon Glover, Jaguar's managing director, said of Monday's concept debut.

Update: December 5, 2024 — This story has been updated with comments from two additional marketing veterans.

• Jaguar has unveiled a concept car as part of its newly rebranded identity.
• Its rebrand stirred controversy for not including any cars — and some argued it was "woke."
• Jaguar said it would reveal a new electric model in late 2025 as part of its all-electric future.

Jaguar unveiled a design concept on Monday for its next generation of electric vehicles — finally pairing an image of a car with its "exuberant modernism" rebranding campaign.

Jaguar's rebrand had drawn fierce criticism over the past few weeks from some who said it was "woke" for featuring diverse models and bright colors. The campaign also didn't feature any cars.

Now, the luxury British carmaker has filled in some of the blanks regarding its new identity by revealing a concept car at Miami Art Week.

The exterior of the concept car — dubbed "Type 00" for zero tailpipe emissions and its status as car zero in the brand's new lineage — features butterfly doors, a glassless rear tailgate, and a panoramic roof.

It's conceptualized in two colors — "Miami Pink," honoring the pastel art deco architecture of the city in which it was unveiled, and "London Blue," inspired by the Opalescent Silver Blue of the 1960s and in honor of the company's British roots, Jaguar said in a statement.

"Type 00 commands attention, like all the best Jaguars of the past," Jaguar's chief exterior designer, Constantino Segui Gilabert, said in the statement. "It is a dramatic presence, channeling a unique spirit of British creativity and originality. It celebrates art and embodies the essence of Exuberant Modernism."

The Jag's exterior design also showcases the redesigned Jaguar "leaper" mark laser-etched into brass ingots that open up to reveal rear-facing cameras when needed.

On the inside, three brass lines run the length of the interior — one on each door and one straight down the middle of the cabin.

Floating instrument panels mark either side of the middle brass line, which is supported by a pedestal of travertine stone, as are the floating seats.

A woven wool-blend fabric surrounds the two seats, sound bar, and cabin floor.

"Just as on the outside, deployable technologies are a hallmark of the interior," Jaguar's chief interior designer, Tom Holden, said in the statement. "Screens glide silently and theatrically from the dashboard, while powered stowage areas slide open softly on demand, revealing hidden splashes of exuberant color."

It's not clear which specific design elements of the new concept will end up being implemented in Jaguar's forthcoming electric vehicle models. Jaguar said Type 00 was meant as "an indicator of design philosophy and intent for the coming new vehicles."

The brand announced in 2021 that it would be moving to all-electric vehicles. The first model of its new lineup — an electric four-door — will be unveiled in late 2025, the company said Monday.

It said the model would use dedicated Jaguar Electric Architecture, have a projected driving range of up to 430 miles on a single charge, and be able to add up to 200 miles of range after 15 minutes of rapid charging.

With the new vehicles expected to become available in 2026, the company is already phasing out production of its internal-combustion-engine cars, converting its Halewood, England, factory to all-electric production and ceasing sales of new cars in the UK.

In preparation for its EV lineup launch, Jaguar debuted its rebranding campaign in November. It included an updated typeface for its "Jaguar" logo, a redesign of the leaping jaguar mark, and a colorful new video advertisement that showed models clad in high fashion and had no cars in sight.

The promo video caught a lot of flak on social media, on late-night TV, and in the media for not featuring any cars, while some conservative personalities accused the company of abandoning its history and pushing into "woke" politics. Elon Musk even weighed in.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Jaguar's managing director, Rawdon Glover, defended the rebrand, saying that the campaign's intended message was lost "in a blaze of intolerance" and that the controversial promo video wasn't meant to be a "woke" statement.

The revamp of the iconic brand — and chosen vehicle of Britain's royal family and prime ministers — also included an introduction to its new design philosophy of "exuberant modernism," which the company defined as "imaginative, bold, and artistic at every touchpoint."

Some marketing and rebranding experts have heavily criticized Jaguar's new identity.

One told Business Insider the rebrand was "bonkers," and another said he wasn't convinced the company was making the right statement.

Still, others were more positive, with one advertising expert saying the rebranding rollout had been relatively successful and another saying it was a "significant disruption" that could eventually work for the company.

It's not just the shift in Jaguar's brand identity that has gotten marketers talking — it's also the apparent pivot in the audience base the company is now trying to target.

As part of the brand's positioning, the newly announced Jags are expected to be significantly more upmarket than the ones being phased out. Car and Driver previously reported that the brand, which is owned by India's Tata Motors, was looking toward Range Rover, its corporate cousin, as inspiration for where it wants to be. The magazine cited a Range Rover that costs about $400,000; most Jaguar models for 2024 had list prices of about $50,000 to $80,000.

"We have forged a fearlessly creative new character for Jaguar that is true to the DNA of the brand but future-facing, relevant, and one that really stands out," Glover said of Monday's concept debut.

• Branding experts have mixed reviews on Jaguar's new identity but agree it's a radical change.
• Jaguar's rebranding campaign sparked debate over its new image — and carless promo video.
• Jaguar wants to target a younger, wealthier audience as it transitions to an all-electric future.

Jaguar's controversial new rebranding campaign has stirred a ton of discussion across social media, late-night TV, and in the news.

Some conservative social media users have railed against the company as going "woke." Others have questioned why Jag's new promotional video didn't contain any cars.

But what do marketing and rebranding experts think of Jaguar's transition? Their reviews are mixed, ranging from one who called it a it a "bonkers" strategy to another who said it was a relatively "successful" rollout.

One thing they agree on: It's a radical change for a legacy brand like Jaguar.

The high-end British carmaker — Jaguar has been an icon of elegance and luxury for nearly a century — first unveiled its rebranding campaign in late November. It included a new typeface for its logo, a redesigned leaping jaguar mark, and a colorful promotional video that featured high-fashion models — and no cars.

The rebrand comes as Jaguar prepares to entirely abandon its internal combustion engines in favor of a new all-electric future.

Will Sears, the founder and CEO of Cincinnati-based marketing agency W.Bradford, said the intent behind Jaguar's new branding rollout is unclear. And he said he was confused by the decision not to include any cars in the video.

Sears, who has worked on campaigns for Eli Lilly, L'Oréal, and Vegas.com, told Business Insider that Jaguar changed too many things at once in its rebrand launch. Updating the logo is a "huge change" on its own, he said, but then combined with the conceptual ad that didn't have any cars — it could all be too much for the consumer to take in.

"So now consumers who follow this are completely unfamiliar with what they're looking at," Sears said. "What has made them a solid brand is the beautiful design and performance of their cars: That is not on display at all — in any even cryptic way. So it's very confusing to the market."

Sears added: "I think we are all hoping, or people who follow this are all hoping, that their next steps in this campaign are remedying what is kind of a bonkers rollout."

Getting attention is success on its own

Another marketing expert said the eyeballs the rebranding has attracted could be considered a win for Jag.

Jim Heininger, the founder and principal of Chicago rebranding firm The Rebranding Experts, told Business Insider that Jaguar has clearly received a lot of attention over its rebrand — and that's a kind of success in itself. (The YouTube video of the Jag rollout has more than 160 million views so far.)

"I think what they're doing is just kind of stirring up some emotions and stirring up some creative kind of look and feel of what the new brand is going to look like," said Heininger, whose 30-year career includes work for P&G, McDonald's, and Anheuser-Busch. "It wasn't necessary that they show cars. They're just trying to get our attention at this point in time, and they're doing that successfully."

It's not just the shift in Jaguar's brand identity that has gotten marketers talking — it's also the apparent pivot in what audience base Jaguar is now trying to target.

As part of the brand's positioning, the newly announced Jags are expected to be significantly more upmarket than the ones that are being phased out. Car and Driver previously reported that the brand, which is owned by India's Tata Motors, was looking toward its corporate cousin Range Rover as inspiration for where it wants to be. The magazine cited a Range Rover that costs around $400,000; most Jaguar models for 2024 had list prices of around $50,000 to $80,000.)

Chris Bowers, the founder and CEO of branding agency CMB Automotive Marketing, which has offices outside Detroit and in the UK, said he's "not 100% convinced" Jaguar's rebranding is making the right statement but said the company is clearly trying to define a new audience.

"The only thing I can guess is that they're intentionally alienating their existing customer base," Bowers said, who has decades of experience building brands for major suppliers, manufacturers, and technology companies from the auto industry.

"They want to make a break from their existing customers to attract a younger, wealthier demographic who are more interested in style and individuality," Bowers said. "They're taking a massive gamble on the existence of a market who will be interested in them — and Jaguar know they can't attract them with the old brand."

Reorienting a brand to an entirely new audience is a "massively difficult" endeavor, Heininger said.

Jaguar is signaling a significant disruption

It can also be very risky, one advertising expert said.

"It's a risk to so radically divorce a brand from its inherent equities," Greg Andersen, the CEO of Omaha-based creative agency Bailey Lauerman, told Business Insider. Before joining Bailey Lauerman, Andersen worked for brands, including Google, Levi's, Burberry, and Axe — and also on several automotive campaigns, including Cadillac and Toyota.

"But at the same time," he said, "I think this work could eventually make sense if their vehicles are going to take the brand and the category in a completely different direction from the norms and dogma of the past. It's obviously a signal of significant disruption."

While the relevance and relatability of Jaguar's rebranding campaign have been much debated, each expert concluded that it represents a massive change for the brand — and change can be hard to accept.

But change is exactly what Jaguar said it wants as it heads into its EV-only future.

"Our brand relaunch for Jaguar is a bold and imaginative reinvention and, as expected, it has attracted attention and debate," the company said in a statement to Business Insider. "The brand reveal is only the first step in this exciting new era, and we look forward to sharing more on Jaguar's transformation in the coming days and weeks."

Jaguar said it would announce more details about its new branding strategy in December, though it's not clear whether that will include specifics about any of its forthcoming electric vehicles.

• JB Straubel told The Wall Street Journal he learned a "huge amount" from Elon Musk.
• He said Musk could serve as an example for business leaders to bring more intensity to their work.
• Straubel's company, Redwood Materials, is on track to make $200 million in revenue this year.

Tesla's cofounder JB Straubel said he learned "a huge amount" from Elon Musk — and we could all benefit from the billionaire's work ethic.

"He has an incredible tolerance for working incredibly hard and for putting in immense focus and hours into all these different projects," Straubel, the CEO of the electric-vehicle-battery startup Redwood Materials, said on Saturday's episode of The Wall Street Journal's "Tech News Briefing" podcast.

Straubel said he learned "incredibly important lessons" at Tesla, including the value of aligning a team around a clear mission and instilling passion within a company — areas in which he said Musk excels.

However, he added that he didn't want Musk to burn out.

"With my personal hat on, I do want to make sure he tries to balance that and doesn't burn himself out and takes at least a moment out here and there so that he can stay at a peak productivity and peak value creation for himself and all the various companies," he said.

Straubel said that, on average, "most leaders and business folks could probably work harder than they do without burning out" and that "humanity is probably underperforming a little bit versus its potential."

"Maybe Elon is beyond the optimum at times, but I think it could be probably a positive example to really crank up the intensity for a lot of other folks," he added.

Straubel said that humans often work harder when they're faced with stressful situations and that part of the decline in performance might stem from people becoming more comfortable as society has developed. He shared concerns about the US in comparison with other nations.

"In my travels and working with groups in different countries, I can definitely see a difference in the level of intensity and work ethic and just the hunger to go and improve themselves and improve their families and improve their next generation's law in life," Straubel said.

When it comes to leadership style and performance, Straubel aligns more closely with Musk's workflow. He favors "aggressive goals," he said, and occasionally is overly optimistic about what can be achieved.

Straubel said he anticipated making hundreds of millions in revenue this year. The CEO disclosed Redwood Materials' estimated revenue to the Journal, saying his company was poised to bring in about $200 million.

He launched Redwood Materials in 2017 to create a "remanufacturing economy," which refers to extracting raw materials from used batteries and returning them to production after processing them. The company, based in Northern Nevada, hopes this can prompt a shift away from mining minerals and bolster the electric-vehicle industry's sustainability.

Redwood Materials has extracted enough nickel and lithium from recycled batteries to "supply 20 gigawatt hours of lithium-ion batteries, or roughly equivalent to 250,000 electric vehicles," the Journal reported.

The company aims to produce enough battery materials for 1 million EVs annually. Representatives for Redwood Materials did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Straubel's efforts come at a time when EVs are struggling in the US despite Tesla's presence and popularity in overseas markets.

EVs have gained traction in countries like China. The advisory firm Automobility found in an analysis that about 27% of new-vehicle sales there in 2022 were electric.

Americans have been slower to warm up to EVs. In a June study by McKinsey & Co., 46% of surveyed EV owners in the US said they would likely return to gas-powered vehicles. Globally, two reasons consumers cited for leaning away from EVs were charging options and high costs.

While President Joe Biden provided a $7,500 EV tax credit, Donald Trump's incoming administration is considering revoking it.

Apple rival Xiaomi, the world's third-largest smartphone maker, launched its first car earlier this year in China. The SU7 starts at less than $30,000 and has proved popular, with the 2024 production run selling out in days. Is the SU7 worth the hype? Business Insider takes a closer look at the EV, which is only available in China.

• Elon Musk's net worth keeps rising.
• Musk's net worth topped $400 billion on Wednesday, making him the first person to reach that mark.
• The billionaire had already gotten $155 billion richer this year, fueled by a rise in Tesla shares.

Elon Musk just keeps getting richer. And now, he's the first-ever person to hit the $400 billion mark.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's net worth skyrocketed to $439.2 billion on Wednesday — an increase of about $50 billion in just one day, according to Bloomberg figures.

The jump comes after an insider share sale at SpaceX boosted the space exploration company to a $350 billion valuation, making it the most valuable private startup in the world. Musk is believed to own about 42% of the firm, NBC News reported.

Prior to the massive boost on Wednesday, Musk's net worth had already soared by an unmatched $155 billion this year, placing him at $384 billion as of market close on Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The index, which has not yet been publicly updated to reflect the latest jump, on Tuesday showed Musk $140 billion ahead of the world's second richest person, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who's worth $244 billion.

The jump comes after the world's richest person broke his wealth record of about $340 billion in late November, which had stood for just over three years.

Musk's soaring wealth also piggybacks on the postelection rally for Tesla stock. Tesla's stock has soared nearly 71% so far this year. Its market cap is $1.23 trillion.

The stock has surged since Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election, as investors wagered the electric vehicle maker would benefit from Musk's close ties to the president-elect.

Mark Malek, Siebert's chief investment officer, previously told BI that "some sort of premium has been placed on the stock as a result of Musk's very public involvement in Trump's campaign."

Tesla could continue to make further gains. Analysts at Bank of America said in a note last week that a recent visit to the Austin factory gave them "increased confidence that TSLA is well-positioned to grow in 2025+ with its core EV business … launch of its robotaxi offering, and longer-term from its investments in Optimus."

Tesla is now significantly more valuable than Warren Buffett's conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, which has a market cap of just under $1 trillion.

Musk has a stake of about 13% in Tesla. His latest $439.2 billion net worth is nearly $100 billion higher than the market cap of Salesforce, valued at $344 billion.

Earlier this month, a Delaware judge slapped down Musk's mega pay package from Tesla for the second time. The company said it will appeal the ruling.

Update: December 11, 2024 — This story was updated with Elon Musk's latest net worth, which topped $400 billion.

• EV battery maker Northvolt has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it said on Thursday.
• The Swedish firm, founded by two ex-Tesla executives, has struggled amid stuttering demand for EVs.
• Northvolt's CEO and cofounder Peter Carlsson will step down as part of the bankruptcy process.

Northvolt, the battery company founded by two former Tesla executives, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after struggling to ramp up production.

Sweden-based Northvolt said on Thursday that it voluntarily entered bankruptcy proceedings in the US, which will allow it to restructure debt and obtain new investment.

Soon after the bankruptcy was announced, CEO Peter Carlsson, one of Northvolt's founders, said he would step down as part of the process.

Bankruptcy documents showed Northvolt had about $5.8 billion of debt, and just $30 million in available cash — enough to fund its operations for about seven days.

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Microsoft were all listed as creditors in bankruptcy documents. It had raised more than $15 billion since its foundation in 2016.

Northvolt said it has secured extra funding of about $245 million, including $145 million in cash, and a $100 million commitment from a customer to provide a debtor-in-possession loan — a specialized credit line for firms going through bankruptcy.

"This decisive step will allow Northvolt to continue its mission to establish a homegrown, European industrial base for battery production," said Tom Johnstone, Northvolt's interim chair, in a statement.

"Despite near-term challenges, this action to strengthen our capital structure will allow us to capture the continued market demand for vehicle electrification."

Northvolt will continue operating during the bankruptcy proceedings.

Founded in 2016 by Carlsson and Paolo Cerutti, Northvolt aimed to revolutionize battery manufacturing but has struggled in recent months.

The firm's bankruptcy comes after difficulties in ramping up battery production at its facility in Skellefteå, Sweden, close to the Arctic Circle. In June, BMW pulled out of a $2.1 billion order for battery cells for its EVs, citing delays to deliveries.

In September, Northvolt said it would lay off about 1,600 staff.

Automakers in Europe are struggling with weak demand for EVs and rising competition from Chinese rivals.

On Wednesday, Ford said it would cut 4,000 jobs in Europe by the end of 2027.

Volkswagen, Europe's largest car company, is considering the closure of factories in Germany for the first time and cutting tens of thousands of jobs. VW faces stuttering demand in Europe and has lost market share in China to local rivals selling cheaper EVs and hybrids.