Swiss National Bank to face Credit Suisse and climate protests at fraught AGM
The Swiss National Bank has come into the spotlight following its assistance in UBS’ takeover of Credit Suisse.
Bloomberg / Contributor / Getty Images
The Swiss National Bank will hold its annual general meeting in Bern on Friday against a backdrop of protest over its action on climate change and its role in the emergency sale of Credit Suisse to Swiss rival UBS.
The central bank played a key role in brokering the rescue of Credit Suisse over the course of a chaotic weekend in March, as a flight of deposits and plummeting share price took the 167-year-old institution to the brink of collapse.
The deal remains mired in controversy and legal challenges, particularly over the lack of investor input and the unconventional decision to wipe out 15 billion Swiss francs ($16.8 billion) of Credit Suisse AT1 bonds.
The demise of the country’s second-largest bank fomented widespread discontent and severely damaged Switzerland’s long-held reputation for financial stability. It also came against a febrile political backdrop, with federal elections coming up in October.
While the SNB will no doubt face questions and grievances from shareholders about the Credit Suisse situation on Friday, the country’s network of climate activists will also be seeking to use the central bank’s unwanted spotlight to challenge its investment policies.
Unlike many major central banks, the SNB operates publicly-traded company, with just over half of its roughly 25 million Swiss franc ($28.1 million) share capital held by public shareholders — including various Swiss cantons (states) and cantonal banks — while the remaining shares are held by private investors.
A shareholder walks past a giant inflate balloom during a protest by climate activists ahead of the general meeting of shareholders of UBS bank in Basel, on April 5, 2023, following the takeover by UBS of Credit Suisse hastily arranged by the Swiss government on March 19 to prevent a financial meltdown. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images
More than 170 climate activists have now purchased a SNB share, according to the SNB Coalition, a dedicated pressure group spun out of Alliance Climatique Suisse — an umbrella organization representing around 140 Swiss environmental campaign groups.
Around 50 of the activist shareholders will be in attendance on Friday, and activists plan to make around a dozen speeches on stage at the AGM, climate campaigner Jonas Kampus told CNBC on Wednesday. Protests will also be held outside the event.
The group is calling for the SNB to dispose of its stock holdings of “companies that cause serious environmental damage and/or violate fundamental human rights,” pointing to the central bank’s own investment guidelines.
In particular, campaigners have highlighted SNB holdings in Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Enbridge and Duke Energy.
Members of a Ugandan community objecting to TotalEnergies’ East African Crude Oil Pipeline, will also attend on Friday, with one planning to speak on stage directly to the SNB directorate.
As well as a full exit from fossil fuel investments, activists are demanding that the SNB implement the “one for one rule,” — a capital requirement designed to prevent banks and insurers benefiting from activities that are detrimental for the transition to net zero.
In this context, the SNB would be required to set aside one Swiss franc of its own funds to cover potential losses for each franc allocated to financing new fossil fuel exploration or extraction.
Ahead of the AGM, the central bank declined on legal grounds to schedule three motions tabled by the activists, and said on Wednesday that it would not comment on protest plans, instead directing CNBC to its formal agenda. Yet Kampus suggested that just the process of submitting the motions itself had helped expand public and political awareness of the issues.
“From all sides, there is public pressure and also political pressure that the SNB needs to change things. At this moment, the SNB is really far behind in terms of their actions taken compared to other central banks,” Kampus told CNBC via telephone, adding that the SNB takes a “very conservative view” of its mandate regarding price stability and financial stability, which is “very narrow.”
The shareholders’ cause is also backed by a motion in parliament, with support from lawmakers ranging from the Green Party to the Centre [center-right party], which demands an extension of the SNB’s mandate to cover climate and environmental risks.
“While other central banks around the world are going well beyond the steps taken by the SNB in this respect — the SNB has repeatedly taken the position that its mandate does not give it sufficient leeway to take climate risks fully into account in its decisions and monetary policy instruments,” reads the motion, filed on March 16 by Green Party lawmaker Delphine Klopfenstein Broggini.
“The present parliamentary initiative is intended to ensure this leeway and to make it clear that the SNB must take climate risks into account when conducting monetary policy.”
The motion argues that climate risks are “classified worldwide as significant financial risks that can endanger financial and price stability,” concluding that it is in “Switzerland’s overall interest that the SNB proactively address these issues” as other central banks are seeking to do.
Kampus and his fellow activists hope the national focus on the SNB after the Credit Suisse crisis provides fertile ground to advance concerns about climate risk, which he said poses a risk to the financial system that is “several times larger” than the potential fallout from Credit Suisse’s collapse.
“We feel that there is also a window of opportunity on the SNB side in that they maybe this time are a bit more humble, because they obviously also have done some things wrong in terms of the Credit Suisse crash,” Kampus said.
He noted that the central bank has always asserted that climate risk was incorporated into its models and that there was “no need for further exchange with the public of further transparency.”
“Very central to the SNB’s work is that the public just needs to trust them. Trust is something that is very important to the central bank, and to demand trust from the public without leading up to it or supporting it with further evidence that we can trust them in the long run is quite scary, especially when we don’t know what their climate model is,” he said.
The SNB has long argued that its passive investment strategy, which invests in global indexes, is part of its mandate to remain market neutral, and that it is not for the central bank to engage in climate policy. Activists hope mounting political pressure will eventually force a change in legislation to broaden the SNB’s mandate to accommodate climate and human rights as risks to financial and price stability.
UBS and Credit Suisse also faced protests from climate activists at their respective AGMs earlier this month over investment in fossil fuel companies.
The HD arm of Hyundai has just released the first official images of the new, battery-electric HX19e mini excavator – the first ever production electric excavator from the global South Korean manufacturer.
The HX19e will be the first all-electric asset to enter series production at Hyundai Construction Equipment, with manufacturing set to begin this April.
The new HX19e will be offered with either a 32 kWh or 40 kWh li-ion battery pack – which, according to Hyundai, is nearly double the capacity offered by its nearest competitor (pretty sure that’s not correct –Ed.). The 40kWh battery allows for up to 6 hours and 40 minutes of continuous operation between charges, with a break time top-up on delivering full shift usability.
Those batteries send power to a 13 kW (17.5 hp) electric motor that drives an open-center hydraulic system. Hyundai claims the system delivers job site performance that is at least equal to, if not better than, that of its diesel-powered HX19A mini excavator.
To that end, the Hyundai XH19e offers the same 16 kN bucket breakout force and a slightly higher 9.4 kN (just over 2100 lb-ft) dipper arm breakout force. The maximum digging depth is 7.6 feet, and the maximum digging reach is 12.9 feet. Hyundai will offer the new electric excavator with just four selectable options:
- enclosed cab vs. open canopy
- 32 or 40 kWh battery capacity
All HX19es will ship with a high standard specification that includes safety valves on the main boom, dipper arm, and dozer blade hydraulic cylinders, as well as two-way auxiliary hydraulic piping allows the machine to be used with a range of commercially available implements. The hydraulics needed to operate a quick coupler, LED booms lights, rotating beacons, an MP3 radio with USB connectivity, and an operator’s seat with mechanical suspension are also standard.
Like its counterparts at Volvo CE, the new Hyundai excavator uses automotive-style charging ports to take advantage of existing infrastructure at fleet depots and public charging stations. More detailed specifications, dimensions, and pricing should be announced by bauma.
Electrek’s Take
The ability to operate indoors, underground, or in environments like zoos and hospitals were keeping noise levels down is of critical importance to the success of an operation makes electric equipment assets like these coming from Hyundai a must-have for fleet operators and construction crews that hope to remain competitive in the face of ever-increasing noise regulations. The fact that these are cleaner, safer, and cheaper to operate is just icing on that cake.
SOURCE | IMAGES: HD Hyundai; via Construction Index, Equipment World.
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With the Trump Administration fully in power and Federal electric vehicle incentives apparently on the chopping block, many fleet buyers are second-guessing the push to electrify their fleets. To help ease their minds, Harbinger is launching the IRA Risk-Free Guarantee, promising to cover the cost of anticipated IRA credits if the rebate goes away.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) 45W Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit offers up to $40,000 per medium-duty commercial EV. Originally proposaed as part of President Biden’s Green New Deal package, the incentive was put in place to help modernize commercial fleets by overcoming obstacles like the higher up-front costs of EVs.
In the case of a Harbinger S524 Class 5 chassis with a 140 kWh battery capacity with an MSRP of $103,200, the company will offer an IRA Risk-Free Guarantee credit of $12,900 at the time of purchase, bringing initial cost down to $90,300. This matches the typical selling price of an equivalent Freightliner MT-45 diesel medium-duty chassis.
“We created (the IRA Risk-Free Guarantee) program to eliminate the financial uncertainty for customers who are interested in EV adoption, but are concerned about the future of the IRA tax credit,” said John Harris, Co-founder and CEO of Harbinger. “For electric vehicles to go mainstream, they must be cost-competitive with diesel vehicles. While the IRA tax credit helps bridge that gap, we remain committed to price parity with diesel, even if the credit disappears. Our vertically integrated approach enables us to keep costs low, shields us from tariff volatility, and ensures long-term price stability for our customers.”
Harbinger recently revealed a book of business consisting of 4,690 binding orders. Those orders are valued at approximately $500 million, and fueled a $100 million Series B raise.
Electrek’s Take
One of the most frequent criticisms of electric vehicle incentives is that they encourage manufacturers and dealers to artificially inflate the price of their vehicles. In their heads, I imagine the scenario goes something like this:
- you looked at a used Nissan LEAF on a dealer’s lot priced at $14,995
- a new bill passes and the state issues a $2500 used EV rebate
- you decide to go back to the dealer and buy the car
- once you arrive, you find that the price is now $16,995
While it’s commendable that Harbinger is taking action and sacrificing some of its profits to keep the business growing and the overall cause of fleet electrification moving forward, one has to wonder how they can “suddenly” afford to offer these massive discounts in lieu of government incentives – and how many other EV brands could probably afford to do the same.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Harbinger.
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Whoever is left at Nikola after the fledgling truck-maker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month is probably having a worse week than you – the company issued a recall with the NHTSA for 95 of its hydrogen fuel cell-powered semi trucks.
Nikola filed for Chapter 11 protections just a few weeks after we predicted the company would go “belly up,” reporting that the company was planning to halt production of its hydrogen fuel cell-powered semi trucks while, at the same time, Nikola’s stock had sunk to a 52-week low following a formal NHTSA complaint claiming the fuel cell shuts down unpredictably.
That complaint seems to have led to the posthumous recall of 95 (out of about 200) Nikola-built electric semi trucks.
The latest HFCEV recall is on top of the 2023 battery recall that impacted nearly all of Nikola’s deployed BEV fleet. Clean Trucking is citing a January 31, 2025 report from the NHTSA revealing that, as of the end of 2024, Nikola had yet to complete repairs for 98 of its affected BEVs. The ultimate fate of those vehicles remains unclear.
Electrek’s Take
I’ve received a few messages complaining that I “haven’t covered” the Nikola bankruptcy – which is bananas, since I reported that it was coming five weeks before it happened and there was no “new” information presented in the interim (he said, defensively).
Still, it’s worth looking back on Nikola’s headlong dive into the empty swimming pool of hydrogen, and remind ourselves that even its most enthusiastic early adopters were suffering.
“The truck costs five to ten times that of a standard Class 8 drayage [truck],” explained William Hall, Managing Member and Founder of Coyote Container. “On top of that, you pay five to ten times the Federal Excise Tax (FET) and local sales tax, [which comes to] roughly 22%. If you add the 10% reserve not covered by any voucher program, you are at 32%. Thirty-two percent of $500,000 is $160,000 for the trucker to somehow pay [out of pocket].”
After several failures that left his Nikola trucks stranded on the side of the road, the first such incident happening with just 900 miles on the truck’s odometer, a NHTSA complaint was filed. It’s not clear if it was Hall’s complaint, but the complaint seems to address his concerns, below.
NHTSA ID Nu. 11621826
Optionally, you could just read Hall’s summary of the Nikola situation, in his own words: “I have dealt with more tow trucks in the last 10 months than in my entire 62 years on this Earth.”
The company issued a technical service bulletin (TSB) on October 29th, just 13 days after the official NHTSA complaint was filed.
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