Plus, Chinese robotaxi companies could soon become the global leaders in the autonomous driving market. And Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter is now the worst buyout for banks since the 2008-09 financial crisis. Zoe Thomas hosts.
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[00:00:00] George is giving the Admiral a lift in his new electric car.
[00:00:03] You look happy, George.
[00:00:05] I am very happy.
[00:00:06] George wasn't sure about going electric. He was worried about running out of power on the motorway.
[00:00:11] But now he has Admiral car insurance which can come with out-of-charge EV recovery, should the worst.
[00:00:18] Ha! See what you did there?
[00:00:19] And back at full power! Get quality car insurance from Admiral that can also cover your EV.
[00:00:25] Admiral Insurance. Always looking out for you.
[00:00:27] T's and C's apply. Check Admiral.com for details.
[00:00:31] Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Tuesday, August 20th. I'm Zoe Thomas for the Wall Street Journal.
[00:00:38] Tesla will pay lower import duties on electric vehicles exported from China to the European Union
[00:00:44] after the bloc revised penalties for car makers. The EU has been investigating whether Beijing
[00:00:50] unfairly subsidizes EVs built in China. And in July, launched provisional tariffs to address
[00:00:56] what it said was an undercutting of competition. Beijing rejected the findings.
[00:01:02] Tesla was set to pay a tariff rate of 20.8 percent, but the EU's executive arm said it has verified the
[00:01:09] level of subsidies Tesla received from the Chinese government and lowered the tariffs on the EV maker
[00:01:14] to 9 percent. Chinese robo-taxi companies could soon become the global leaders in a market
[00:01:20] potentially worth more than $100 billion, according to analysts. Chinese cities, including Beijing and
[00:01:27] Shanghai, have been extending testing zones and inviting driverless taxis without human
[00:01:32] supervisors onto their streets in recent weeks. China now has nearly 20,000 miles of roadway open to the
[00:01:39] first generation of robo-taxis. And the billions of dollars that Elon Musk borrowed to buy Twitter
[00:01:46] has turned into the worst merger finance deal for banks since the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
[00:01:53] That's according to data from PitchBook LCD. The seven banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of
[00:01:59] America, collectively lent $13 billion to Musk's holding company to take the social media platform,
[00:02:05] now named X, private. Typically, banks that provide loans for takeovers sell the debt quickly to other
[00:02:12] investors. But the banks haven't been able to do that with this debt without incurring big losses.
[00:02:17] That's largely because of X's weak financial performance. The banks could still make their
[00:02:23] money back if X is able to cover its interest obligations and repay the principal when the loans mature.
[00:02:29] And a heads up, we made a correction to yesterday's Tech Minute. Electra Battery Materials is
[00:02:35] considering building a second cobalt sulfate facility in Quebec and a North American nickel sulfate plant.
[00:02:41] In that episode, we incorrectly said Electra is considering building more facilities in the U.S. and Canada.
[00:02:47] For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Wednesday's Tech News Briefing Podcast.