Hungary’s foreign minister says Brussels has failed on Russia sanctions
Hungary’s foreign minister strongly criticized the European Union’s sanctions against Russia, arguing they have damaged its members’ economies more than their target’s as well as failing to stop the war in Ukraine.
“If we make an assessment, an analysis, about the impact of sanctions, it’s obvious that they have not fulfilled expectations,” Péter Szijjártó told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“Because what was the expectation at the beginning of March, end of February, when we discussed the first package of sanctions? That they will put Russia’s economy on its knees, therefore the war will be stopped soon,” he said.
Sanctions imposed by the EU against Russia include travel bans and asset freezes on a host of high-profile individuals; import and export bans on a range of goods; and an oil price cap in collaboration with the G-7 and other allies. The bloc has also aimed to dramatically cut its natural gas imports from Russia.
Szijjártó continued: “Russia’s economy is not on its knees, definitely. We can have different assessments of how badly they perform but they’re not on their knees, and the war is not coming to its end. And Europe’s economy is suffering more from sanctions than the Russian economy.”
“So if you look at it in a practical way, not in an ideological way, what was the impact of sanctions, you see they are more harmful to Europe than Russia. So we should not more forward with the sanctions because simply they have not fulfilled the expectations and target we have put on them.”
The Russian ruble was the worst-performing emerging market currency last year despite holding up for some time after the invasion of Ukraine, and the International Monetary Fund has forecast its GDP will shrink by 3.4% in 2022 with inflation averaging 13.8%, with a further economic contraction this year.
Recent research from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an independent Finnish think tank, estimated the G-7′s price cap had cost Moscow an estimated 160 million euros ($171.8 million) per day.
The war and resultant energy crisis and food supply have also driven up inflation in EU countries and raised the specter of recession, though other factors including the impact of the pandemic on workforces and supply chain issues have also been raised as factors.
Szijjártó said Hungary condemned the war and was standing with Ukraine, but reiterated that he does not believe sanctions are the path to peace.
“At the end of the day, we have to contribute to help reconstruct Ukraine, but if we ruin our own economies we will not be in a position to help Ukraine be reconstructed,” he said.
Asked why Hungary therefore voted in favor of sanctions, he said it had achieved exemptions in areas that were vital to its national interests, such as purchases of oil and gas because it cannot import from other sources due to pipeline infrastructure.
Szijjártó defended Hungary’s decision not to send weapons to Ukraine, as western powers including the U.S. have been doing and which the leaders of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania on Tuesday argued should be increased.
He said it had instead chosen to provide humanitarian assistance to the 1 million Ukrainian refugees that have arrived in the country and would advocate for peace talks, as it did not want the Hungarian community based at the border between the countries to be targeted in the war.
Szijjártó also accused the European Union of withholding money owed to it through European funds tied to bloc-wide economic performance because of, he said “political reasons … because Brussels hates that there is an anti-mainstream, right-wing, patriotic, Christian democratic government in Hungary for more than 12 years now, and it is still successful.”
The European Commission directed CNBC to a comment spokesperson Peter Stano gave regarding Hungary and sanctions on Monday, stating: “All the sanctions decisions in the EU are made by member states in unanimity.”
“Until now the European Union member states have adopted nine wide-ranging packages of sanctions against Russia for its illegal aggression against Ukraine, reflecting on EU policy agreed by the 27 member states that we stand by Ukraine and we stand by them in a number of tracks, economical, financial, military and through putting pressure on Putin’s regime through sanctions and international isolation.”
Stano said these were constantly being reviewed and any future decision would again by in unanimity.
EV sales kept up their momentum in December 2024, with incentives playing a big role, according to the latest Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book report.
December’s strong EV sales saw an average transaction price (ATP) of $55,544, which helped push the industry-wide ATP higher, according to Kelley Blue Book. The December ATP for an EV was higher year-over-year by 0.8%, slightly below the industry average, and higher month-over-month by 1.1%. Tesla ATPs were higher year-over-year by 10.5%.
Incentives for EVs remained elevated in December, although they were slightly lower month-over-month at 14.3% of ATP, down from 14.7% in November.
EV incentives were higher by an impressive 41% year-over-year and have been above 12% of ATP for six consecutive months. Strong sales incentives, which averaged more than $6,700 per sale in 2024, were one reason EV sales surpassed 1.3 million units last year, according to Cox Automotive, a new record for volume and share.
(My colleague Jameson Dow reported yesterday, “In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year … This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.”)
Kelley Blue Book estimated that in December, approximately 84,000 vehicles – or 5.6% of total sales – transacted at prices higher than $80,000 – the highest volume ever. KBB lumps gas cars and EVs together into this luxury vehicle category, so this is where Tesla Cybertruck is slotted.
However, Tesla bundles sales figures of Cybertruck with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi(!) into a category it calls “other models,” so we don’t know for sure exactly how many Cybertrucks Tesla sold in Q4, much less in December. However, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert estimates between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks were sold in Q4, and that’s not a stellar sales figure.
What will January bring when it comes to EV ATPs? What about tax credits? Check back in a month and I’ll fill you in.
To limit power outages and make your home more resilient, consider going solar with a battery storage system. In order to find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and you share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Tesla is now claiming that Cybertruck was the ‘best-selling electric pickup in US’ last year despite not even reporting the number of deliveries.
There’s a lot of context needed here.
As we often highlighted, Tesla is sadly one of, if not the most, opaque automakers regarding sales reports.
Tesla doesn’t break down sales per model or even region.
For comparison, here’s Ford’s Q4 2024 sales report compared to Tesla’s:
You could argue that Tesla has fewer models than Ford, and that’s true, but Tesla’s report literally has two lines despite having six different models.
There’s no reason not to offer a complete breakdown like all other automakers other than trying to make it hard to verify the health of each vehicle program.
This has been the case with the Cybertruck. Tesla is bundling its Cybertruck deliveries with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi deliveries.
Despite this lack of disclosure, Tesla has been able to claim that the Cybertruck has become “the best-selling electric pickup truck” in the US in 2024:
It very well might be true. Ford disclosed 33,510 F-150 Lightning truck deliveries in the US in 2024 while most estimates are putting Cybertruck deliveries at around 40,000 units.
Those are global deliveries, but Tesla only delivered the Cybertruck in the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2024, and most of the deliveries are believed to be in the US.
However, there’s essential context needed here, as we highlighted in our recent ‘Tesla Cybertruck sales are disastrous‘ article.
First off, Tesla had a backlog of over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck that it has been building since 2019. This led many to believe Tesla already had years of demand baked in for the truck and that production would be the constraint.
However, based on estimates, again, because Tesla refuses to disclose the data, Cybertruck deliveries were either flat or down in Q4 versus Q3 despite Tesla introducing cheaper versions of the vehicle and ramping up production.
Again, that’s after just about 40,000 deliveries.
Furthermore, with almost 11,000 deliveries in Q4 in the US, Ford more likely than not outsold Cybertruck with the F-150 Lightning in Q4.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is in damage control here. There’s no doubt that it is having issues selling the Cybertruck.
Inventory is full of Cybertrucks and Tesla is now discounting them and offering free lifetime Supercharging.
Tesla is great at ramping up production, and it’s clear the Cybertruck is not production-constrained anymore. It is demand-constrained despite having over 1 million reservations.
Again, those reservations were made before Tesla unveiled the production version, which happened to have less range and cost significantly more.
The upcoming cheaper single motor version should help with demand, but I have serious doubts Tesla can ramp this program up to more than 100,000 units in the US.
As a reminder, Tesla installed a production capacity of 250,000 units annually and Musk said he could see Tesla selling 500,000 Cybertrucks per year.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway