Swire Coca-Cola Named Official Beverage Supplier of Radford Racing School with New Five-Year Partnership

RADFORD RACING SCHOOL -  Radford Racing School, the nation’s foremost driving and racing school, and Swire Coca-Cola, announced today a five-year partnership agreement that will make Coca-Cola® the exclusive beverage provider of the Chandler, Arizona-based performance driving school. Swire Coca-Cola produces, sells and distributes Coca-Cola® and other beverages, across 13 states, including parts of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

“From NASCAR to Formula 1, our new partnership with Swire Coca-Cola connects us with a global brand that embraces the excitement of high-performance driving and racing,” said Kim Wolfkill, Radford Racing School vice president of sales and marketing. “As one of the longest continually operating performance-driving schools in the country, it’s important to partner with companies that reflect our commitment to best-in-class products and services. Coca-Cola is a revered brand with a long history of supporting motorsports and we’re excited to add their products to the Radford Racing School experience.”

In addition to serving as the official beverage of the school, Swire Coca-Cola and Radford Racing School will collaborate on co-marketing programs that help extend their reach to key auto enthusiast and motorsports audiences. The new partnership also includes a uniquely branded ReFuel Lounge that students will have access to while attending their performance driving courses. Swire Coca-Cola's full line of products features over 350 beverage options, including 250 low or no-calorie options, as well as carbonated and non-carbonated sodas, cold teas, bottled water, sports, and energy drinks, with campus favorites of smartwater, Core Power, BODYARMOR, and Dr. Pepper.

“As the local bottler, we are excited to partner with Radford Racing School, a local business with a nationwide reach.” said Scott Walter, Vice President Field Sales, South Region. “We believe in refreshing the communities we call home and partnerships like this are one of the many ways we do that. We’re excited to be a part of the motorsports community.”

StoreDot partners with Polestar on the world's first EV with extreme fast charging battery technology

STOREDOT -  StoreDot, the pioneer of extreme fast charging (XFC) battery technology for electric vehicles, is collaborating with Polestar on an advanced engineering project to technically explore and demonstrate how XFC battery cell technology can be applied to an existing platform, and show what a production-level solution could look like.

The ground-breaking announcement was made at today’s Polestar Day in Los Angeles, California, where StoreDot’s ‘100-in-5’ XFC cell charging was demonstrated, alongside a prototype of a Polestar battery module.

Following Polestar’s investment in StoreDot and as part of an ongoing strategic partnership, the two companies are now already in advanced collaboration and are working to demonstrate StoreDot’s production ready XFC technology at full scale in a Polestar 5 prototype vehicle in 2024. The detailed collaboration includes key integrations such as the engineering design and cooling.

Dr Doron Myersdorf, CEO of StoreDot: “This is a huge step for StoreDot and a strong endorsement that our ground-breaking technology is readying for mass production. We are extremely pleased and proud that Polestar aims to be the first automotive company to showcase our extreme fast charging battery cells in a full-scale, driveable prototype. Polestar is already a strategic investor in our business, but this really cements and builds on our collaboration. We still have lots of work to do to fully integrate our systems into a production car, but our teams are already fully engaged, and we will be demonstrating those results in the coming months.

“We can’t wait to see this technology in the hands of customers taking advantage of such game changing charging speeds. 

Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar: “StoreDot was our first financial investment in another company, and we have been collaborating with them to apply their advanced technology in proof-of-concept Polestar cars. StoreDot’s pioneering extreme fast charging batteries, combined with our upcoming top-of-the-line electric powertrain, can revolutionize the ownership experience for EV owners with the ability to recharge in minutes.”

StoreDot is a world leader in silicon-dominant chemistries that are essential for electric vehicles to be able to charge at extremely high speeds. The company has already unveiled its '100inX' strategic technology roadmap, outlining three generations of StoreDot technologies: Silicon dominant XFC, semi-solid state, and post-lithium architecture. This roadmap reiterates the anticipated milestones over the next decade with ‘100-in-5’ targeted for 2024, ‘100-in-3’ for 2028, and ‘100-in-2’ for 2032.

Palantir Announces Global Enterprise Deal with Stellantis

PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES - Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR, “Palantir”) today announced a partnership with one of the world’s leading automakers and mobility providers Stellantis N.V. Stellantis will deploy Palantir’s Foundry operating system across the company’s brands, business functions and plant locations to accelerate its digital transformation into a sustainable mobility tech company, improve supply chain performance, enhance vehicle quality, speed deliveries and scale marketing and sales efforts.

This agreement will expand Palantir’s previous relationships with Stellantis’ founding companies to a global, enterprise-wide license across the company’s vast ecosystem and 14 iconic automotive brands, with Palantir Foundry powering decisions across markets and functions at what became in 2021 a world leader for a new era of sustainable mobility.

Palantir Foundry is designed to transform the way organizations operate by creating a central operating system for their data, integrating siloed data sources into a common operating picture. Beyond scaling best practices across the merged group, Stellantis will leverage Foundry to build a unified digital twin of its operations and accelerate company-wide synergies.

Foundry will also be used across a variety of functions designed to help improve quality, ensure continued delivery and service in today’s supply-driven world, and contribute to improve margins. For example, the ability to analyze billions of connected vehicle data points through Foundry will give Stellantis the tooling to foresee quality issues and leverage intelligence about the state of vehicles for research and development.

Foundry will also help increase Stellantis’ insight into parts availability and shift its tooling to meet the needs of customers in a supply-driven world. It will also help deliver key sales and marketing insights, leading to a better understanding of profitability drivers and customer trends.

“We are grateful for the confidence of Stellantis that led to the expansion of our collaboration across their enterprise,” said Palantir executive Josh Harris. “In today’s data-driven world, the Foundry operating system is uniquely positioned to offer insight into critical operational and manufacturing functions.”

Palantir’s software is currently deployed in over 50 industries and powers data-driven decisions across a diverse set of use cases in some of the most complex data environments in the world, including in manufacturing and to solve critical supply chain issues.

BMW Group Canada Partners with Cox Automotive Canada to Deliver an Enhanced Omni-Channel Buying Experience for BMW and MINI Retailers

COX AUTOMOTIVE - Cox Automotive Canada is pleased to announce a new strategic partnership with BMW Group Canada. This partnership will leverage Manheim Canada’s proven expertise as a remarketing facilitator and offer BMW and MINI retailers across the country the opportunity to use its new “Upstream Vehicle Management” platform – an omni-channel wholesale buying solution that will deliver many benefits, including improvements to their overall operational performance.

“We’re excited to see Cox Automotive Canada strengthen its partnership with BMW Group Canada as we work closely to offer their retailers this exciting new technology,” said Jack Sulymka, General Manager, National Accounts and Operations, Cox Automotive Canada. “BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and Motorrad retailers now have another effective tool to help them seamlessly and efficiently acquire off-lease vehicles. As brands that always thrive to deliver the ultimate user experience, we’re proud to be part of a journey that drives their vehicle portfolio management into the future.”

This solution empowers BMW Group Canada to deliver a tailored and connected experience specially designed for their retailers across digital and physical channels. By managing off-lease vehicles in a more efficient manner, operational efforts are focused on speed and channel optimization.

“Our decision to partner with Cox Automotive Canada is a key step in our digital transformation,” said Ryan Puskas, Director of Used Car Business, BMW Group Canada. “The digital tools Cox has created for us offers expanded functionality and a simplified user experience for our BMW and MINI retail partners.   Our vision for the future is very much aligned with the Cox Automotive approach: to bring a holistic and fully integrated solution that lets our retailers efficiently manage their used car acquisition and retail processes.  We look forward to realizing the benefits of this platform and our strong collaboration.”

A business of Cox Automotive Canada, Manheim’s robust and fully configurable marketplace solution seamlessly connects buyers and sellers and offers unmatched data and market insights to optimize vehicle portfolio management.

Through this new solution, BMW and MINI retailers across Canada will get a friction-less experience and enhanced self-inspection capabilities, and gain access to a variety of services, including assurance products like Manheim’s Post-Sale Inspections, logistics, decisioning tools and AI-driven reconditioning technologies.