On Wednesday, several activist groups briefly interrupted Volkswagen’s annual general meeting. One claimed VW is “making climate-damaging decisions,” and the other says the automaker uses forced labor to build cars in China.
Cake was thrown from an unknown party, and investors raised concerns over VW losing ground in China to EVs.
Protests erupt at Volkswagen annual meeting
At Volkswagen’s annual general meeting in Berlin on Wednesday, around a dozen activists staged a protest, gluing themselves to the road to block traffic.
The activists argued VW was “making climate-damaging decisions” before the meeting was able to begin. Once the conference started, more protestors joined in, shouting accusations of forced labor in China and waving flags that said “End Uyghur Forced Labor,” according to Automotive News Europe.
Essentially, the disruptions stemmed from two things:
Concerns over alleged forced labor at VW’s Facility in Xinjiang, China
Volkswagen’s EV strategy and concerns that it’s losing ground in China
As for the forced labor allegations, VW Group China CEO, Ralf Brandstaetter, visited the SAIC Volkswagen-owned Xinjiang facility earlier this year, saying, “We do not see any evidence of human rights abuses at the plant.”
The topic became a discussion among investors, not just activists, urging VW to require SAIC to conduct an independent audit of the plant.
Protestors threw a cake at Volkswagen Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch, which you can view below.
Protests erupted at VW annual meeting, and cake was thrown at VW Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch (Source: Youtube/@Watson-de)
Investors concerned over VW losing ground in China to EVs
Volkswagen shareholders brought up the increasing competition from EV makers, like BYD and Tesla, in China.
Tesla delivered another record quarter, with over 422,000 vehicles in the first three months of 2023. Meanwhile, BYD continues to dominate the market in China, delivering over 264,000 all-electric vehicles in Q1, up 85% from last year.
Furthermore, BYD surpassed VW in passenger car sales in the first three months as demand for affordable EVs continues to build.
The market in China is quickly progressing toward being fully electric, with EVs accounting for one in every four vehicles sold in the region last year.
Once the dominant force in China, Volkswagen has watched its market share shrink over the years as domestic EV makers like NIO and XPeng gained customers.
Blume acknowledged the market in China was rapidly moving toward electric, outlining the automaker’s strategy to maintain its position. VW plans to create EVs designed for Chinese buyers by collaborating with local partners to win back market share.
Electrek’s take
After its overall sales fell 3.6% in the region in 2022, Volkswagen revealed plans last month to accelerate EV development by around 30% in China.
VW said it would invest EUR 1 billion to establish a new business and development center called “100%TechCo” in China. The project is designed to speed up development by integrating tech from local suppliers to produce vehicles with Chinese buyers in mind.
Brandstaetter said the new developments will “significantly accelerate our development pace.” However, will it be quick enough to keep up in an even faster-moving Chinese auto market? That’s what investors are concerned with.
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EV charging veteran ChargePoint has unveiled its new charger product architecture, which is described as a “generational leap in AC Level 2 charging.” The new ChargePoint technology designed for consumers in North America and Europe will enable vehicle-to-everything (V2X) capabilities and the ability to charge your EV in as quickly as four hours.
ChargePoint is not only a seasoned contributor to EV infrastructure but has established itself as an innovative leader in the growing segment. In recent years, it has expanded and implemented new technologies to help simplify the overall process for its customers. In 2024, the network reached one million global charging ports and has added exciting features to support those stations.
Last summer, the network introduced a new “Omni Port,” combining multiple charging plugs into one port. It ensures EV drivers of nearly any make and model can charge at any ChargePoint space. The company also began implementing AI to bolster dependability within its charging network by identifying issues more quickly, improving uptime, and thus delivering better charging network reliability.
As we’ve pointed out, ChargePoint continues to utilize its resources to develop and implement innovative solutions to genuine problems many EV drivers face regularly, such as vandalism and theft. We’ve also seen ChargePoint implement new charger technology to make the process more affordable for fleets.
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Today, ChargePoint has introduced a new charger architecture that promises to bring advanced features and higher charging rates to all its customers across residential, commercial, and fleet applications.
Source: ChargePoint
ChargePoint unveils maximum speed V2X charger tech
This morning, ChargePoint unveiled its next generation of EV charger architecture, complete with bidirectional capabilities and speeds up to double those of most current AC Level 2 chargers.
As mentioned above, this new architecture will serve as the backbone of new ChargePoint chargers across all segments, including residential, commercial, and fleet customers. Hossein Kazemi, chief technical officer of hardware at ChargePoint, elaborated:
ChargePoint’s next generation of EV chargers will be revolutionary, not evolutionary. The architecture underpinning them enables highly anticipated technologies which will deliver a significantly better experience for station owners and the EV drivers who charge with them.
The new ChargePoint chargers will feature V2X capabilities, enabling residential and commercial customers to use EVs to power homes and buildings with the opportunity to send excess energy back to the local grid. Dynamic load balancing can automatically boost charging speeds when power is not required at other parts of the connected building structure, enabling efficiency and faster recharge rates.
ChargePoint shared that its new charger architecture can achieve the fastest possible speed for AC current (80 amps/19.2 kW), charging the average EV from 0 to 100% in just four hours. That’s nearly double the current AC Level 2 standard (no pun intended).
Other features include smart home capabilities where residential or commercial owners can implement the charger within a more extensive energy storage system, including solar panels, power banks, and smart energy management systems. The new architecture also enables series-wiring capabilities, meaning fleet depots, multi-unit dwellings, or even residential homes with multiple EVs can maximize charging rates without upgrading their wiring configuration or energy service plan.
These new chargers will also feature ChargePoint’s Omni Port technology, enabling a wider range of compatibility across all EV makes and models. According to ChargePoint, this new architecture complies with MID and Eichrecht regulations in Europe and ENERGY STAR in the US.
The first charger models on the platform are expected to hit Europe this summer followed by North America by the end of 2025.
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Crashing oil prices triggered by waning demand, global trade war fears and growing crude supply could more than double Saudi Arabia’s budget deficit, a Goldman Sachs economist warned.
The bank’s outlook spotlighted the pressure on the kingdom to make changes to its mammoth spending plans and fiscal measures.
“The deficits on the fiscal side that we’re likely to see in the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, especially big countries like Saudi Arabia, are going to be pretty significant,” Farouk Soussa, Middle East and North Africa economist at Goldman Sachs, told CNBC’s Access Middle East on Wednesday.
Spending by the kingdom has ballooned due to Vision 2030, a sweeping campaign to transform the Saudi economy and diversify its revenue streams away from hydrocarbons. A centerpiece of the project is Neom, an as-yet sparsely populated mega-region in the desert roughly the size of Massachusetts.
Plans for Neom include hyper-futuristic developments that altogether have been estimated to cost as much as $1.5 trillion. The kingdom is also hosting the 2034 World Cup and the 2030 World Expo, both infamously costly endeavors.
Digital render of NEOM’s The Line project in Saudi Arabia
The Line, NEOM
Saudi Arabia needs oil at more than $90 a barrel to balance its budget, the International Monetary Fund estimates. Goldman Sachs this week lowered its year-end 2025 oil price forecast to $62 a barrel for Brent crude, down from a previous forecast of $69 — a figure that the bank’s economists say could more than double Saudi Arabia’s 2024 budget deficit of $30.8 billion.
“In Saudi Arabia, we estimate that we’re probably going to see the deficit go up from around $30 to $35 billion to around $70 to $75 billion, if oil prices stayed around $62 this year,” Soussa said.
“That means more borrowing, probably means more cutbacks on expenditure, it probably means more selling of assets, all of the above, and this is going to have an impact both on domestic financial conditions and potentially even international.”
Financing that level of deficit in international markets “is going to be challenging” given the shakiness of international markets right now, he added, and likely means Riyadh will need to look at other options to bridge their funding gap.
The kingdom still has significant headroom to borrow; their debt-to-GDP ratio as of December 2024 is just under 30%. In comparison, the U.S. and France’s debt-to-GDP ratios of 124% and 110.6%, respectively. But $75 billion in debt issuance would be difficult for the market to absorb, Soussa noted.
“That debt to GDP ratio, while comforting, doesn’t mean that the Saudis can issue as much debt as they like … they do have to look at other remedies,” he said, adding that those remedies include cutting back on capital expenditure, raising taxes, or selling more of their domestic assets — like state-owned companies Saudi Aramco and Sabic. Several Neom projects may end up on the chopping block, regional economists predict.
Saudi Arabia has an A/A-1 credit rating with a positive outlook from S&P Global Ratings and an A+ rating with a stable outlook from Fitch. That combined with high foreign currency reserves — $410.2 billion as of January, according to CEIC data — puts the kingdom in a comfortable place to manage a deficit.
The kingdom has also rolled out a series of reforms to boost and de-risk foreign investment and diversify revenue streams, which S&P Global said in September “will continue to improve Saudi Arabia’s economic resilience and wealth.”
“So the Saudis have lots of options, the mix of all of these is very difficult to pre-judge, but certainly we’re not looking at some sort of crisis,” Soussa said. “It’s just a question of which options they go for in order to deal with the challenges that they’re facing.”
Global benchmark Brent crude was trading at $63.58 per barrel on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in London, down roughly 14% year-to-date.
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