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For the first time since the pandemic, a COVID vaccine in pill form is set to enter the first phases of clinical trials within months.

The company working on the drug (a JV of Israeli-American Oramed Pharmaceuticals and India-based Premas Biotech), announced in a press release that it hopes to begin the first phase of clinical trials for its drug Oravax in humans by June.

Oral vaccines are an option being assessed for “second-generation” vaccines, which are designed to be more scalable, easier to administer, and simpler to distribute.

An oral vaccine could “potentially [enable] people to take the vaccine themselves at home,” Nadav Kidron, CEO of Oramed, said in the release.

The capsules would become particularly useful if COVID-19 vaccines are eventually “recommended annually like the standard flu shot,” he added. 

Prabuddha Kundu, co-founder of Premas Biotech, told Indian media that administering the vaccine would be “like taking a vitamin pill” and that “we are more than 100% sure that the technology works and is promising.”

Results from the preliminary animal tests would soon be published in a scientific journal, he added.

The news comes as Pfizer announces the beginning of human trials of a new anti-viral pill to treat the coronavirus that could be used at the first sign of illness.

If it succeeds in trials, the pill could be prescribed early on in an infection to block viral replication before patients get very sick. The drug binds to an enzyme called a protease to keep the virus from replicating. Protease-inhibiting medicines have been successful in treating other types of viruses, include HIV and Hepatitis C.

Among major drugmakers, Merck & Co. has one of the few coronavirus pills that is far along in human testing. Its experimental antiviral drug molnupiravir works by a different mechanism than the Pfizer drug and is in late-stage human trials.

However, ‘pillifying’ the vaccine will make it easier to convince people to take the X doses per year we all ‘need’ for the rest of our lives.

One word: Soma

“Swallowing half an hour before closing time, that second dose of soma had raised a quite impenetrable wall between the actual universe and their minds.”

Authored by Chris Farrell via The Gatestone Institute,

A lot has been written about H.R.1 — the so-called “For the People Act of 2021.” Former Vice President Mike Pence has opined on the bill. The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal sounded the alarm back in January. The editors of National Review come right out and call it a “partisan assault on American democracy.”

H.R.1 purports to, “expand Americans’ access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and implement other anti-corruption measures for the purpose of fortifying our democracy, and for other purposes.” The Bill is 791 pages long.

Here are just a few of the more egregious federal power grabs in H.R.1 concocted against the 50 states that run elections under the U.S. Constitution:

1. Ban voter ID laws and allow ballot harvesting;

2. Expand Election Day to “election season” by mandating mail-in ballots be counted 10 days after the election would normally be over;

3. Automatic voter registration of people who apply for unemployment, Medicaid, Obamacare and college, or who are coming out of prison.

There is a lot more, and it gets worse. Substantially worse. There are First Amendment restrictions on political speech and on the support or opposition of a bill and/or a candidate. Remember: This is supposed to be “fortifying our democracy.”

If you are interested in a “through the looking glass” annotated analysis of H.R.1 — then head over to the Brennan Center for Justice. They are happy to explain how those pesky constitutional rights can be whittled down to something more “fair” for everyone. For example, the Brennan Center analysis confidently assures readers about how H.R.1 “affirms Congress’ power to protect the right to vote, regulate federal elections, and defend the democratic process in the United States.” It seeks to airbrush Article I, Section 4 — The Elections Clause — from history and practice. The Clause directs and empowers states to determine the “Times, Places, and Manner” of congressional elections. H.R.1 would federally strangle the Elections Clause.

In order to find our way out, it is helpful to know how we got into this terrible predicament. The foundation for the madness of H.R.1 is legal positivism, a thesis, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which states “that the existence and content of law depends on social facts and not on its merits.”

H.R.1 is nearly 800 pages of meritless, militant, social engineering targeting the foundations of the U.S. Constitution, voting rights and political free speech — all dressed-up as being “for the people.”

Authoritarians — socialists and communists of different stripes, geography and eras — like to use legal positivism because it allows enormous latitude to design, implement and (especially) enforce whatever they dream up as the way things ought to be. What better way to design a worker’s paradise? Or — hypothetically, of course — to make sure that a stolen election stays stolen, is never audited, and lays the groundwork for reproducible results for the next century?

It’s neat and easy under legal positivism. Draft up a one-sided, detailed plan (loaded with outrageous schemes) of nearly 800 pages that NO ONE will read or understand. Ram it through the one-party legislature and have the same party’s president sign it into law. Presto! — cheating has become nice and “legal.”

For readers who find this technique troubling, or wonder why it does not sound like the great tradition of debate and compromise described in our founding documents and political history, there is good reason. The United States was founded on a theory of Natural Law, which adheres to universal moral principles for ethical and legal norms of human conduct whether a particular government recognizes them or not — that is, essentially, the antithesis of legal positivism. There are now generations of Americans who have never been exposed to these ideas.

The “mind wipe” of Americans for all that is authentic and real about the foundation of our country as a constitutional republic began through the education system. We allowed people like Howard Zinn to dictate the historical framework for understanding who and what we are as Americans for millions of high schoolers and undergraduates. An intellectual diet of relativism, critical theory, deconstruction and subjectivity. That delegation of our educational standards was reckless, lazy and stupid. When you do not know any better, how can you act any better?

The co-opting and hollowing out of our education system is the main explanation for why and how we are wrestling with the loss of the Republic by legislative militancy, topped off with the Executive pen stroke.

This is terribly serious stuff and no one is telling you WHY you are losing. There is a lot of hand-wringing and outrage, and rightly so. But that nagging feeling tormenting you about why America seems to be slipping away — and why everything you believed in is now being turned into a crime or a shaming social media joke — well, no one is explaining that to you. Until now.

Now is the time to snap out of our Covid-induced somnolence and passivity. If President Joe Biden’s election “victory” wasn’t enough to get your attention — then H.R.1 must be. Please let everyone influential know, clearly and politely, exactly what you think.

A reconnaissance aircraft operated by the USAF made the closest-ever flight on China’s coast on Monday, coming within 25.33 nautical miles, according to South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), a think tank based in Beijing. 

SCSPI said the USAF Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft flew closer to China’s coast than ever before. The intelligence-gathering plane entered the South China Sea on Monday through the Bashi Channel to conduct reconnaissance operations on China’s southern coastal regions, the think tank said. 

At one point, the spy plane was flying 25.33 nautical miles away from China’s coastlines, a new record, according to the think tank. A USAF spy plane’s usual distance is around 50 to 70 nautical miles, but the 25.33 nautical miles were unexpected. 

The event comes days after the first meeting between the Biden administration and Chinese officials ended with hostility as it appears President Biden shows no sign of changing former President Trump’s aggressive policy. 

“USAF RC-135U Combat Sent #AE01D5 just set a new record of 25.33NM, the shortest distance US reconnaissance aircraft have reached from the China’s coastlines, based on public data so far.” according to SCSPI. 

USAF RC-135U Combat Sent #AE01D5 just set a new record of 25.33NM, the shortest distance US reconnaissance aircraft have reached from the China’s coastlines, based on public data so far.

In addition, there was also a P-8A & an EP-3E spotted over the #SouthChinaSea, March 22. pic.twitter.com/uLv49u70Gv

— SCS Probing Initiative (@SCS_PI) March 22, 2021

Last week, SCSPI released its annual report on the US military operating in the South China Sea in 2020. It said USAF spy planes flew nearly 1,000 sorties in the highly contested waters last year. US bombers and warships have been increasing missions around China’s militarized islands in South China under the Biden administration. A move to exert “maximum pressure” on Beijing. 

Bank of America’s analyst Francisco Blanch recently told clients in a note titled “Climate Wars” that a “great power competition between the world’s two largest economies, or between the world’s two largest military spenders, is set to continue for a long time.” 

Blanch continued, “What form will it take next? For decades, America levered its economic and military might to secure global supply chains, including those of conventional energy resources in the Middle East and other key regions. China’s economy has converged and surpassed US GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), but still lags in real GDP terms. Of course, its military might is still limited compared to that of the US on a broad range of metrics, and energy security of supply remains a key concern for the Chinese leadership. Yet with GDP in 2020 having contracted by 3.5% in America and expanded by 2.2% in China, the economic gap between the two superpowers is quickly closing.” 

The Centre for Economics and Business Research, a UK-based consultancy group, believes China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously anticipated, after weathering the virus pandemic much better than the US. 

The threat of China overtaking the US in terms of GDP and military might have pushed the great power competition into hyperdrive as both countries modernize their militaries for potential conflict.  

As global powers rise and fall, it appears the US and China are falling into Thucydides’ trap. War game simulations don’t appear promising for the US… 

Authored by Charlotte Cuthbertson via The Epoch Times,

The family-unit holding cells smell like urine and vomit. Fights break out in the unaccompanied-minor cells. Scabies, lice, the flu, and COVID-19 run rampant.

Up to 80 individuals are squeezed into each 24- by 30-foot cell, and there aren’t enough mattresses for everyone. Sheets of plastic divide the rooms.

“Any diseases that are in there, it’s being kept in there, like a petri dish. The smell is overwhelming,” a Border Patrol agent said, describing the conditions in a facility in south Texas.

The agent, Carlos (not his real name), spoke to The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity, for fear of repercussions.

Border Patrol agents on the front lines are getting so frustrated that they’re now risking their livelihoods to reveal what’s really going on in the illegal immigrant processing facilities.

One or two agents are left to control 300 to 500 people during a shift. No agent wants to report physical or sexual assaults between the aliens because they’ll get blamed for “letting it happen.” They’re also forced to separate a child from an extended family member because he or she is not a biological parent.

The number of unaccompanied minors—children under 18 who arrive without a parent—is buckling the system. The law requires Border Patrol to prioritize unaccompanied minors and transfer them to the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours.

“We’re getting them out of here as quickly as possible, but we are so overwhelmed right now,” Carlos said.

“It used to be easy to get them out in 72 hours. Not anymore. They’re staying here for 10, 12 days. It’s horrible.”

So far this fiscal year (from Oct. 1, 2020), Border Patrol has apprehended more than 29,000 unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally. In all of fiscal 2020, just over 33,000 were apprehended, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics.

This year’s numbers are on a trajectory to surpass the 2019 crisis numbers, when 80,634 minors were apprehended.

CBP declined to provide the number of unaccompanied minors currently being held. “In general, CBP does not provide daily in-custody numbers, as they are considered operationally sensitive because CBP’s in-custody numbers fluctuate on a constant basis,” CBP spokesman Nate Peeters wrote in an email to The Epoch Times on March 23.

Health and Human Services confirmed on March 23 that its Office of Refugee Resettlement is holding approximately 11,350 children.

CBP and Health and Human Services have opened several extra facilities to deal with the influx, with the latest being the San Diego Convention Center.

Carlos confirmed that the majority of unaccompanied minors coming across the border already have parents or family members in the United States.

“Everybody that shows up here – even if it’s a 3-year-old kid with no one around – they all have an address on them. And they’ll give it to you: ‘Here’s my address; this is where you are sending me,’” Carlos said.

“And that’s what we do. This is the way we are being played.”

Most of the unaccompanied minors come from the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

“We’re dealing with a different culture who’s not afraid to send all their kids under the age of five, knowing they’re going to get raped, knowing they’re going to get killed,” Carlos said.

“You talk to the adults or the teenagers and they’ll tell you, ‘They raped three or four girls, and they kicked them off the trains.’ They’re going to die.”

Two-thirds of migrants traveling through Mexico report experiencing violence during the journey, including abduction, theft, extortion, torture, and rape, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has been providing medical and mental health care for migrants and refugees in Mexico since 2012.

Almost 1 in 3 women surveyed by MSF said they had been sexually abused during their journey—60 percent through rape.

Border Patrol agents apprehend about two dozen illegal immigrants in Penitas, Texas, on March 11. 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Families Released

A new directive from the Biden administration is allowing for family units to be released into the interior of the United States without a notice to appear—the paperwork that states the date an illegal immigrant must turn up in court to plead their case.

“There’s no repercussions. I’m not even going to give you a court date. You don’t even have to show up at court if you don’t want to. It’d be nice, but you don’t have to. That word gets out immediately. And I mean overnight,” Carlos said.

He said it’s now common knowledge that if you bring a child, you’ll be quickly released into the United States. They’re being transported all over the country, but popular destinations include Houston, New York, and California, as well as Maryland and Washington, D.C.

“They’ll put them in a hotel for a couple of days until their flight is ready to fly them to where they are going. That’s tax dollars,” Carlos said.

“There’s no end in sight. The people that we’re apprehending are warning us of the larger caravans that are on their way.”

He said President Joe Biden’s rollback of the Trump administration’s border policies is the direct cause of the surge.

“One hundred and ten percent. They were already ready before Biden was even in office. They knew that the doors were going to be open. And now we’ve got a point where we cannot stop it,” he said.

The administration hasn’t allowed media to access the processing facilities and, according to agents, it’s even requiring that agents in the field move illegal aliens they apprehend onto private land to process them.

“Keep trying until you find us on a public road. But we’ve been instructed to move all the traffic onto ranches to make sure there’s no public eye,” an agent said.

“Biden’s strict on that. Trump was a different story. This administration is a no-go on media, I’m guessing because they don’t want to let the word out on what’s going on here on the border—to make him look good.”

Carlos said the agency has stopped dropping illegal immigrants off directly at bus stations now. “We were given strict orders from Washington, D.C., that that ceases—it’s drawing too much attention,” he said.

Now they drop the illegal immigrants nearby or at a local NGO facility near the bus station, he said.

The administration hasn’t yet called the current situation a crisis, and Biden said on March 21 that he’ll visit the border “at some point.”

Illegal border crossers, mostly from Central America, are dropped off by Customs and Border Protection at a bus station in the border city of Brownsville, Texas, on March 15, 2021. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

‘Our Defenses Are Down’

Morale among Border Patrol agents has plummeted, Carlos said. “The attrition rate right now is ridiculous,” he said. “We don’t want to work for the Border Patrol anymore. It’s not the Border Patrol.”

During the Trump era, agents felt “empowered” to do their jobs, he said. “Whatever deals he made, everything was working just fine. Now we’ve got this trash.”

As agents get moved to deal with the increase in family units and unaccompanied minors, the smuggling organizations and cartels move drugs and other individuals through other, unpatrolled areas.

“Our manpower is being depleted because we need to go babysit these people, move them as fast as possible to release them into the country,” Carlos said.

“It’s ridiculous. We have no backup. We’re losing more than we’re catching. And it’s no secret.

“Our defenses are down. So if there’s anybody that we should be worried about, they know this is the time to come in. They know it.”

With global supply chains stretched thin, an unprecedented amount of fiscal stimulus circulates the world resulting in sharp demand spikes for raw materials, causing commodity and or product shortages, port congestion, container shortages, soaring shipping rates, and even delayed shipments. 

Robust demand for commodities on the backs of record fiscal stimulus has tightened the global market for dry-bulk vessels. Shipments of timber and grain are being loaded on larger ships generally reserved for other cargo. 

According to Platts shipping data, timber from Uruguay and grain from Brazil have been loaded on Capesize vessels, the largest dry cargo ships. These two commodities usually are transported worldwide via smaller vessels such as Panamax. 

Panamax

Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. Chief Executive John Wobensmith told Bloomberg that “it just shows you how tight the overall dry-bulk market is, and it’s only going to get tighter.” He said soaring shipping rates are “not something that is for the next three months – this has got legs going well into 2022 because of the low supply situation.”

Wobensmith said dry-bulk freight rates had averaged around $18k per day this year, up 40% from last year. Rates are expected to continue to climb into the second half of the year as volumes of commodities sourced from emerging markets will remain elevated. 

Goldman Sachs’ economist Jan Hatzius agrees with Wobensmith’s view of supply chain distress extending into 2022. For more on Goldman’s perspective, read their latest note to clients titled “”Things Are Out Of Control” – There Is A Shortage Of Everything And Prices Are Soaring: What Happens Next.” 

Even before the virus pandemic disrupted global supply chains, the dry-bulk industry was already under pressure, and ports observed declining cargo deliveries, according to Gerry Craggs, managing director at Stemcor S.E.A. Pte Ltd. It was only when government stimulus across the world supercharged demand in a way that supply chains were caught completely off guard with new orders. 

“We’re in the phase of fiscal stimuli virtually everywhere in the world,” Craggs said in an interview Friday. “It’s driving up demand for virtually everything, and we see that effect in the steel sector and in commodities sectors.”

Readers may recall we outlined how central banks and governments have overstimulated the global economy that will continue to exacerbate supply-chain disruptions.

Lars Mikael Jensen, head of Global Ocean Network at A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, recently warned he has “never seen anything like this,” while referring to the disruption of the global supply chain. 

More disorder nears as President Joe Biden’s $1.9-trillion relief bill is making its way into the economy, expected to turbocharger consumer demand for products made overseas, which will only result in additional stress on the global supply chain. 

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Lee Klaskow noted last week that dry bulk had begun 2021 on a “high note. China and an expected global economic recovery have set up one the strongest opening quarters for dry-bulk demand in a decade.” 

The lesson to be learned is that global supply woes are being amplified by government and central bank interventions to save the global economy. As a result of letting economies run hot, inflationary expectations worldwide are moving higher as government bond yields soar. 

Authored by Dennis Prager via WND.com (emphasis ours)

If you rely on The New York Times, the Democratic Party or CNN – they are interchangeable – for your perception of reality, you now believe America is reeling from the latest expression of white supremacy: Anti-Asian racism.

It is a lie, the purpose of which is to:

a) Further demonize America.

b) Further demonize white Americans.

c) Further divide Americans by race and ethnicity.

d) Reinforce – or create – the belief among Asian Americans that they are widely hated (and must therefore rely on the government and especially the Democratic Party).

e) Engender ethnic identity among Asian Americans, most of whom have heretofore essentially considered themselves Americans who happen to be of Asian descent.

Is there anti-Asian racism in America? Of course. Ethnic bigotry is a tragic part of the human condition. There is no country in which members of different races live that is bereft of ethnic or racial bigotry.

Therefore, the only question decent, wise or honest people ask is: How much?

And the answer in America is: very, very little.

But the left lacks decency, wisdom and honesty. Therefore, it offers continuous reporting about anti-Asian racism, most of which so wildly exaggerates the issue as to constitute a lie.

Let’s begin with last week’s attack in Atlanta, in which a 21-year-old white man murdered eight people in Asian massage parlors, six of them Asian Americans.

Thus far, there is not a shred of evidence that the Asian Americans were killed because they were Asian. The reason the shooter killed them, according to those who knew him before the shootings and investigators who have spoken to him since the shootings, was that he had a sex addiction, for which he had already been in rehab, and had frequented some or all of the massage establishments he targeted, which he blamed for contributing to his addiction. As of today, there is also no evidence of the killer ever having expressed any anti-Asian sentiments on social media or in private conversation.

Nevertheless, the lying media – a term that has become redundant – have portrayed the shootings from the moment they reported them as anti-Asian racism.

Typical is this report in the Los Angeles Times: “Asian Americans and their supporters gathered Saturday across California and the nation in response to this week’s shooting rampage in the Atlanta area, which claimed eight lives, including six women of Asian descent.”

The Atlanta lie is part of the greater lie that there is a national epidemic of white supremacist anti-Asian racism. On March 18, for example, The Washington Post reported: “Anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked 150 percent since the pandemic began, according to a recent study.”

The study cited by The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN and the other left-wing media is from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. The 150% increase in anti-Asian American hate crimes is contained in its “Fact Sheet: Anti-Asian Prejudice March 2020,” according to which the number of anti-Asian American incidents rose from 49 in 2019 to 122 in 2020. So, the entire edifice of hate against Asian Americans is predicated on an alleged increase of 73 incidents.

Given that there are about 330 million Americans, and assuming a different American was responsible for each of the 122 anti-Asian incidents, that would mean that 1 in every 2,704,918 Americans committed an anti-Asian incident. And “incident” includes perceived slights.

As regards violent acts against Asian Americans, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics from September 2019, blacks have committed the greatest percentage of violent crimes against Asian Americans. But the mendacious media do not report that.

The New York Times, the leader in mass hysterias fomented by the left – hysteria is the oxygen of the left – printed this headline last week: “Attacks on Asian-Americans in New York Stoke Fear, Anxiety and Anger.” And the subhead reads: “Hate crimes involving Asian-American victims soared in New York City last year.”

Focus on the word “soared” and you will appreciate the Times’ commitment to truth.

If one reads past the headline – which most people do not – the article gives the actual numbers: “The number of hate crimes with Asian-American victims reported to the New York Police Department jumped to 28 in 2020, from just three the previous year.”

You read that right: The number of incidents “soared” and “jumped” to 28. In a city of 8.4 million people, including, as of 2010, over 1 million Asian Americans. So, about 1 in every 300,000 New Yorkers committed a hate crime against an Asian American, and about 1 in every 36,000 Asian Americans living in New York was a victim of a hate crime. To put this number into perspective, the odds of your dying in a motor-vehicle accident are about 1 in 9,000.

Another New York Times article, under the headline “A Tense Lunar New Year for the Bay Area After Attacks on Asian-Americans,” opens with this:

“The videos are graphic and shocking. In January, a local television station showed footage of a young man sprinting toward, then violently shoving to the ground, a man identified as Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, who had been out for a morning walk in the Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco. He later died.”

The Times piece never reveals the name or race of the perpetrator: Antoine Watson, a 19-year-old black man.

But, in what could be called “compound lying,” the Times did blame “former President Donald J. Trump, who frequently used racist language to refer to the coronavirus.”

Of course, the Times did not provide an example of Trump’s racist language with regard to the coronavirus. One must assume that blaming the Chinese government for the virus or referring to the virus as the “China virus” or “Wuhan virus” is regarded as racist, even though virtually every prior epidemic was named after its city or region of origin: the “Spanish Flu,” “Hong Kong Flu,” “Ebola Virus,” etc.

Meanwhile, the blanketing of the country with the Atlanta lie and the anti-Asian violence continues. The cover of this week’s Time features a drawing of a young Asian woman under the headline: “We Are Not Silent: Confronting America’s Legacy of Anti-Asian Violence.”

It’s all a lie in service to the left’s hatred of America.

VW’s North American Chief took to Bloomberg this week to continue the ongoing PR tour that the company is doing in hopes of keeping its stock price screaming and making itself a formidable player in the EV space.

Scott Keogh used his appearance on national television this week to trade barbs with Tesla, who is undoubtedly in the legacy automaker’s crosshairs.

“There never is someone who controls 85% market share, and that’s basically what Tesla has in the U.S. There is always a counterbalance,” Keogh said of Tesla. He continued to make the case that Volkswagen would benefit from its global scale and its strong dealership network, two things that – from an infrastructure perspective – Tesla can’t reliably fall back on. 

Despite VW’s obvious target being Tesla, Keogh said that the company’s ID.4 electric SUV targets more traditional ICE vehicles, like Toyota’s RAV and Honda’s CRV. The SUV will be made in the U.S. starting September 2022.

Finally, Keogh said that an ongoing patent dispute between LG Energy and SK Innovation will be “straightened out”.

Recall, we have been closely covering Volkswagen’s ascent – not just in stock price, but in making a name for itself in the EV space – over the last couple weeks. Most recently, we wrote that Deutsche Bank said its EV business could be worth up to $230 billion. 

Analysts led by Tim Rokossa lifted their price target for VW shares by 46% to 270 euros this week. Last week, VW surpassed SAP as the largest member of the DAX. 

Rokossa said there is a “good chance VW’s EV deliveries surpass Tesla’s in short order as its ID.4 compact SUV is rolled out globally”. Meanwhile, VW has said that it plans on turning its factory outside Barcelona into an EV hub with goals of making more than 500,000 vehicles per year. 

He also pointed to reduction of cost in items like batteries as key drivers of the financial bull case for VW:

VW’s truck unit, Traton SE, also said it was boosting investments into electric technology from 1 billion euros to 1.6 billion euros in 2025. Traton Chief Executive Officer Matthias Gruendler commented: “The future of commercial vehicles won’t be shaped by diesel anymore but by electric trucks.”

The note concludes:

“While we keep our existing valuation model, we increase the applied multiple that we think the market will deem fair and introduce a blue-sky valuation of the BEV business separately with this note. Applying the multiples of EV pure plays such as Tesla or NIO on sales generated by the MEB platform would yield a value of almost EUR400 per share (DBe) and we even ignore the premium PPE and luxury J1 platform in that calculation. We also ignore the potential value creation from a Porsche IPO (DBe: worth >EUR60bn). Overall, given the earnings momentum and the greater credibility of its EV story, we remain on Buy and increase our TP to EUR270.”

Recall, last week VW upgraded its profit guidance laid out plans for expanding the company’s EV offering out through 2030 which also includes dethroning Tesla as the reigning EV world champ. VW hosted its “Power Day” yesterday and revealed plans to build six “gigafactories” with a total capacity of 240 gigawatt hours per year. 

“The company is aiming to achieve an operating margin between 7% and 8% after 2021. VOW also confirmed it is looking to finish the year at the upper and of a 5% – 6.5% range in 2021. Higher profitability will be achieved through lower costs with as much as 2 billion euros savings identified for 2023 compared to 2020,” the company said yesterday, according to StreetInsider. 

Chief Executive Herbert Diess said on CNBC: “This period is probably the most crucial for the whole industry. Within the next 15 years we will see a total turnover of the industry. Electric cars are taking the lead and then software really becomes the core driver of the industry.”