• Apple is exploring new headsets and smart-home devices to expand its lineup.
• Its plans don't always work out; it scrapped a car project and faces weak demand for the Vision Pro.
• Apple's future profits depend on the success of devices other than the iPhone.

Apple's possible future product lineup suggests the giant is entering a new era.

Many devices are reportedly in the works at the tech giant, and many of them are very different from its golden child, the iPhone. Apple followers including the Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman and the Taiwan-based supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo have said it's exploring new headsets, smart-home devices, and more.

The tech industry has long speculated about Apple's next big thing. The answer may lie in the slate that people have been reporting on for the past several months.

Creating a hit product isn't easy. The company in February scrapped plans for a car, and its $3,500 Vision Pro has gotten mixed reviews in the months since its release. On November 10, Gurman said Apple was focusing on smaller wins that could generate revenue on the same level as its iPads or wearable tech.

That requires Apple to tiptoe into new territory where competitors may already be making strides.

Bloomberg, also in November, reported on a wall-mounted smart-home tablet in Apple's production lineup that could operate home appliances, use Apple Intelligence, and access Apple apps.

The report said the project, code-named J490, could come as early as March, a month before new Apple Intelligence features are expected to roll out.

Though smart-home tech isn't a cash cow for Big Tech, another futuristic smart-home device is said to be on Apple's radar: a tabletop robot with an iPad-like display and a robotic arm.

Analysts from Morningstar, Deepwater Asset Management, and EMARKETER were skeptical about the device's profitability — or the probability of its existence — when Business Insider asked them about it in August.

Apple is also reportedly developing a smart lock and doorbell system, Bloomberg reported on Sunday. The device would allow a person to open their home's door by scanning their face, the report said. It's unclear whether the doorbell system would work with existing third-party locks or if the company would partner with a lock maker.

The technology could certainly introduce competition to Amazon's Ring and Google Nest. However, the report said it's unlikely the product would launch until the end of 2025 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Kuo, known for his often accurate Apple product predictions, said in early November that the tech giant had delayed production of a cheaper Vision Pro to "beyond 2027" and would move ahead with a Vision Pro with its M5 processor and Apple Intelligence for 2025.

In the wearables category, Apple is said to be exploring AR glasses — perhaps inspired by the prototype Orion glasses Meta showed off in September — though they're far from production stages. The Morningstar analyst William Kerwin previously suggested that smart glasses are likely Apple's ultimate eyewear goal.

CEO Tim Cook, who's been in the role for 13 years, is guiding the company into a new future. The next line of products Apple launches could solidify his legacy.

• Paul Ollinger was Facebook's vice president of sales before he left the company.
• He grew up middle class with a scarcity mindset, he said.
• Today, he wants to teach his own kids about priorities and gratitude.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Paul Ollinger, author of "Reasonably Happy: The Skeptics Guide to Achievable Contentment." It has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up one of six kids in Atlanta. When I was around 11, my dad was taking me to get my first cavity filled. I was super nervous, but my dad, it turns out, was thinking about money. As we walked in, he said, "Don't get the novocaine. It's $20."

That anecdote sums up everything about finances in my childhood home. My father worked for the power company, so he always had a job, but he was never rich. I had everything I needed, but scarcity was the subtext of our economic reality.

That's very different from how my own kids, who are 13 and 15, are being raised. I was one of the first 250 employees at Facebook. I left the company about 13 years ago, but due to good pay and stock options, I'll likely never need to work again as long as I make smart choices.

My son asked if we were hiring a private chef

That means my kids are growing up in a very different financial reality. When my son was 7, he came home from one of his even richer friend's house. He said, "When are we going to hire a chef?"

The reaction in my head is one I can't repeat here. I wanted to yell, "A chef? The only chef I grew up with was Chef Boyardee!" But I realized my son only knew what he sees.

I joked about sending my kids to middle-class camp at Grandpa's, where they had to face horrors like having a fan instead of air conditioning. I approach the difference between my upbringing and theirs with humor, but the truth is no one imagines raising kids in an economic situation that's so vastly different from how they were raised.

I want my kids to learn to prioritize financial decisions

One book that's helped me greatly is "The Opposite of Spoiled" by Ron Lieber. He talks about the importance of giving kids allowance, because that allows them to make mistakes with small amounts of money.

My wife and I give the kids a modest monthly allowance. That means we don't have to talk with them about money every day, and they weigh up whether they really want something, like a new soccer ball.

It's important to me that the kids know that money isn't in endless supply. If they buy X, they might not have enough money to buy Y. Although I have substantial wealth, I still prioritize my financial decisions.

For example, I could fly private, but that would require me to work in a traditional job to have more income coming in. Yet, it's more important to me to be able to do the type of work I enjoy, comedy, which happens to pay less. I value professional flexibility more than the status of flying private or the joys of getting to skip TSA, so I prioritize that.

Financial security has let me chase my dream

I've loved comedy since I first got onstage at Dartmouth College during grad school. My parents paid for college, but I had $80,000 in student loans for graduate school back in 1997. That financial reality meant that I had to take a traditional job in the tech world rather than chase my dream of being a comedian.

After working in tech for a few years and paying off my student loans, I quit to pursue comedy full time for two years. My standard of living was still good because I had a lot saved. But when I met my wife and knew we wanted kids, I returned to the tech world because I wanted more financial security than life as a standup comedian could give me.

Working at Facebook ended up being a bigger home run than I could have ever imagined. I remember saying to my wife, "This might be as big as MySpace one day." I couldn't even imagine how big Facebook would become or the changes it would bring to my life.

Now that I spend time writing jokes about my financial situation and talking about money on my podcast, I've realized that happiness comes from making a choice to be grateful, not from a number in your accounts.

• My mom and I have always been close.
• However, I didn't realize how much I still needed her until I had my own kids.
• Becoming a mother helped me understand her unconditional love for me.

I've always loved my mom dearly, but after I had kids, I found I felt even closer to her. I never thought that having a baby would change my relationship with my own mother, but it did.

Growing up, my mom was the warm, fun, cuddly sort of mom who was always heavily interested in us four kids. We always knew we were loved fiercely and unconditionally.

I vividly recall lying in bed as a child, waiting for her to come and say goodnight. She would appear at my bedside and smother me in hundreds of kisses while I giggled and said, "Stop, Momma."

When I was little, life was always a great adventure with my mom. There were spontaneous trips to the drive-in movies. Fun family barbecues and mud flights at the local lake.

I didn't realize how much I still needed my mom

In my 20s, I wanted to stretch my wings, so I moved overseas from Australia to Canada, and then to London. I didn't see my mom for several years, and while I missed her, I was busy doing my own thing and seeing the world.

When I returned to Australia at 29 and had my first child at age 30, she offered to come and help. I was living in Melbourne then, so she flew down from the Gold Coast, where I grew up, and stayed with my husband and me for seven weeks.

I realized during that time just how much I still needed her. Navigating parenthood for the first time really does rock your world, but having someone to support you who has walked that road before makes a world of difference.

In those first few weeks after our son was born, mom was a powerhouse of energy. She cooked us meals, rocked my son to sleep, and counseled me when I cried about my post-childbirth body.

When I felt completely shattered from sleep deprivation and like I couldn't cope, she would take the baby out for a walk and tell me to catch up on some sleep. On days that I needed cheering up, she'd say, "Get dressed, honey. I'm taking you to lunch."

I remember watching her burping my son over her knee one morning in our little flat, and feeling like I was seeing her through fresh eyes, almost as if for the first time. Suddenly, I felt like I understood her better.

Having my own child helped me understood her unconditional love for me

I could finally relate to the boundless love that comes with becoming a parent. My husband always says my mom is my greatest ally and will defend me to the death, even when I'm clearly in the wrong. Finally, I got it. She loved me unconditionally, just like I loved my son.

I thought about the many sacrifices mom had made for me and my siblings so that we could have a better life. Growing up, she never blew money on herself. She didn't wear name-brand clothes or have the flashiest furniture or cars. But somehow, she and my dad always found money for us kids, whether we needed it for orthodontics, acne treatments, or our many hobbies.

When it was finally time for Mom to head home and I was driving her to the airport, I felt terrified. I didn't know how I would manage without her.

"I don't want you to go," I said, tears streaming down my cheeks as I hugged her goodbye. "It's time, honey. I'm only a phone call away. You'll be OK," she said, and then she was gone.

Mom was right, of course. I was OK in the end. She'd held my hand through one of the most life-changing experiences there is, and she'd helped me find my way. Just as she did when I was a child.

• I was estranged from my mother for 11 years before she died.
• Our relationship always gave me feelings of sadness, but they often intensified over the holidays.
• Seeking therapy and embracing my emotions helped the me find joy amid holiday grief.

Tis' the season for joy, making holiday cookies in the comfort of your cozy kitchen, the smell of pine needles and sipping piping hot cocoa. But for many folks who are estranged from loved ones, including me, it's also the season for something a little less merry: grief.

My mother and I were estranged for eleven years. I say were because she is no longer earthside, but somewhere out in the ether, depending on who you ask. Of course, with that loss comes its own kind of bereavement. But before she died in 2019 after a methamphetamine overdose, our estrangement felt something like an eternal sadness, one that can't be taped over and wrapped with a bow — especially around the holiday season.

The months that mark the end of the year, a supposed-to-be-happy shift into a new year are, perhaps, the hardest months when you're estranged from a loved one, a friend or for many people, their entire family. For me, that was certainly the case. My mother, the person we all are connected to deeply in ways we can't always understand, wasn't around. She always loved Christmas time, but Halloween was her favorite, and as our eleven-year estrangement went on, I found myself a little melancholy as the spooky season approached. It went well into December, too.

We missed out on the wrapping of presents together, the jaunt to go look at the holiday lights or even watch silly movies about elves and St. Nick and those Hallmark movies she loved. And with every missed holiday together, it marked something we could never get back. Time. Memories. Joy. Sorrow. Love. This came and went every year.

Finding a way to cope

Amid our estrangement, around year three, I decided to find ways to cope with the sadness. I didn't want to stay stuck in this loop. After all, I wanted to enjoy the holidays, too. We all deserve that. So I set out to do what I knew would help me: I got a therapist booked out, every year, to talk to before the holiday season kicked in. Even if I didn't keep the sessions throughout the months, I found that having someone (a trained professional) to make a plan with — like what to do when I feel depression coming on or what I could do to help myself if I got angry messages from my mother — was a way to protect myself.

I always knew that, around the holidays, each of our feelings would be exacerbated. I'd feel the call to continue to protect myself, and she, a struggling addict, would feel the call to reach out to me and reconnect. I'd feel sad to not be able to hug her, and she'd, presumably, feel sad she couldn't hug me, too.

I used to imagine her sitting in her home that I'd never seen or been invited to before, and I'd wonder if she thought about me, or what we'd do if we were together. Over the years, I found that, instead of pushing these thoughts and feelings away, embracing them actually made things easier. We should feel all of our things, and even if they're hard, that is the reality of many folks who are estranged.

Living a joyful life

Making the decision to get professional help, and let myself notice and acknowledge how I felt, gave me permission to live in the duality: I could have complicated emotions and still live my joyful life. Of course, it also helped to confide in trusted friends, indulge in my Granny's Christmas cookies, head to the three-story mall with my little sister to shop for gifts and give myself restful days when I needed them.

Now, even after my mother has passed on, I think the process of grieving her while she was still alive, was somehow, more difficult than grieving her death. That's the thing about estrangement, it forces us to grieve a person who is still living, but who, in some ways, feels dead. Around the holidays, this always leaves me still with a sadness, that I suppose will always be there. But I can continue on.

A few years before my mother's passing, I got a card in the mail a week after Christmas. It was postmarked on December 24th. The address was one of a drug addiction treatment center, where she had checked herself in on Christmas Eve, a time when the holidays must have helped her reevaluate her life. The note simply read, "Merry Christmas, I love you." For the first time, I wholly knew, she felt the hardness of the holidays, too.

War, financial anxiety and political unpredictability plaguing many nations are clouding this year's Christmas celebrations as nativity scenes go up.

Through the lens: Despite global unrest in the Middle East and Ukraine and migration crises around the world, Christians built and celebrated creative nativity scenes to seek moments of peace. Here are a few images from around the world.

• Space junk has filled up so much of Earth's orbit that it's endangering satellites and astronauts.
• The company Kayhan Space issues roughly 1,000 space-collision warnings per day.
• Earth-orbit experts fear debris will cause an "unstoppable chain reaction" that cuts off launches.

So much junk is filling Earth's orbit that collision avoidance has become a busy business.

"We're talking about the dead satellites, the rocket bodies, the fairings, the wrenches, the gloves, and things like that that have been left up in orbit," physicist Thomas Berger said in a press briefing at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington DC on December 11.

Along with those recognizable objects, there are millions of bits of debris in orbit traveling faster than a bullet.

All that stuff is building up and increasing the risk of explosive space collisions, which is dangerous for astronauts and satellites.

Earth's orbit is so crowded with junk now that roughly 1,000 warnings about possible impending collisions go out to satellite operators each day, Berger said.

For example, Araz Feyzi, a co-founder of the orbital data company Kayhan Space, told BI in an email that some of its customer satellites get up to 800 alerts per day from the US Space Force.

Siamak Hesar, the company's other co-founder, later wrote in a SpaceNews editorial that the company tracks "more than 60,000 alerts per week for a constellation of around 100 satellites."

Most of those warnings come from one neighborhood of Earth's orbit, around 550 kilometers (340 miles) in altitude, where SpaceX's Starlink satellites live.

"It's getting difficult for satellite operators to determine which of these warnings is important and which they have to pay attention to," said Berger, who is the executive director of the Space Weather Technology, Research and Education Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Because trackers can't perfectly predict objects' positions in space, these collision warnings are triggered when objects are expected to pass each other at a close distance. Only a small fraction of warnings actually end in a collision.

When space objects do collide, they eject high-speed debris in multiple directions, creating a new zone of hazardous junk in orbit.

"It could generate a chain reaction, an unstoppable chain reaction of further collisions, ultimately resulting in a completely filled-up space environment," Berger said.

In the worst-case scenario, orbit could become so crowded that there's no safe space for new rocket launches.

That's a situation experts call Kessler syndrome, and "that we hope to prevent," Berger said.

Close calls and near-misses

While rare, major collisions and explosions have happened a few times.

In 2009, an American satellite and Russian satellite crashed together, ending in nearly 2,000 bits of debris large enough to detect — at least 4 inches wide — with thousands more smaller bits.

In 2021, a Chinese satellite and a Russian rocket chunk collided, creating at least 37 pieces of debris large enough for ground systems to track.

And anti-satellite missile tests by Russia, China, and India have blown up dead spacecraft in orbit, sending thousands of chunks flying.

Each of these events created its own field of hazardous debris which still rockets around the planet today with potentially dire consequences.

For example, several times a year, astronauts on the International Space Station get debris alerts and prepare to evacuate if the station is struck. When this happens, spaceships docked to the station will burn their engines to push it out of the way.

Satellite operators often respond to warnings by moving their satellites out of the way. SpaceX told the FCC in July that its satellites had conducted nearly 50,000 collision-avoidance maneuvers in just the first half of the year, Space.com reported.

Unfortunately, not all satellites are maneuverable.

In March, NASA had to sit on its hands and watch as a long-dead Russian spacecraft careened toward the agency's TIMED satellite, which was designed in the 1990s and doesn't have the ability to move on command.

Luckily, the two spacecraft missed each other by 17 meters (56 feet) — not very far by space standards.

"That would've been a hypervelocity impact creating thousands of pieces of debris," Berger said.

Daniel Baker, who directs the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at UC Boulder, urged the US Congress to pass the ORBITS Act. The legislation would require federal agencies like NASA and the FCC to support technologies that can remove junk from orbit.

"I believe that we are watching the tragedy of the commons play out in low-Earth orbit right before our eyes," Baker said in the briefing.

"We have to get serious about this and recognize that unless we do something, we are in imminent danger of making a whole part of our Earth environment unusable," he added.

• United Airlines' share price has more than doubled in 2024, outperforming competitors.
• The airline benefits from its hub airport structure and has been smart with deploying capacity.
• Strong finances and planned share buybacks have also helped.

United Airlines may be Boeing's biggest customer, but the two companies have had wildly different years.

A quality-control crisis and seven-week labor strike have led to layoffs, increased regulatory scrutiny, and — perhaps most problematically — production delays.

And despite massive headwinds across the entire airline industry, United has outperformed most of its peers, with its stock price up 148% in 2024.

Financial analysts and industry consultants say the airline's strong finances, share buybacks, broad network, and a coming fleet refresh are among the reasons it has been doing so well.

That's despite impacts from Boeing delivery delays, which forced United to offer pilots unpaid leave and rethink its flying this year. The airline coped by leasing planes and shrinking its domestic supply.

Clark Johns of Alton Aviation Consultancy told Business Insider that United's advantageous hub structure and hundreds of incoming narrow-body aircraft helped position the airline to better manage Boeing-related headwinds.

The carrier also benefited this year by refocusing on long-haul flying to boost business and revenue.

"Basic economy is still a major revenue stream for them, and they're expanding their premium seating," Johns said. "In some senses, they're kind of firing on all cylinders."

United flies to more overseas cities than any other US carrier

Among the biggest boons for United has been international flying.

Analysts at HSBC raised their price target for United in December to $116 —about 14% above current levels — citing its international network as a key driver.

"Its exposure to the international markets is well above its peers, and the international demand is quite strong," HSBC said, adding that United's 2024 transatlantic winter bookings — typically a slower period — are 30% higher compared to pre-Covid levels.

Johns said United "has done a good job with regards to the timing" of deploying its capacity amid delays to deliveries of new Boeing planes.

He said United had a strong performance in Europe — operating long-haul routes when demand was high but more modestly on domestic routes when overcapacity impacted US airline revenues.

United has also expanded its capacity on flights to Asia. Tokyo's Narita Airport has been a particularly key base for United, and Johns praised the airline as "tactical" in redeploying aircraft there from weaker routes out of its Guam base. In 2025, it plans to further expand in the region.

United's diverse hubs provide a strategic advantage

United benefits hub airport locations that create strong network opportunities across oceans and the Americas.

Large population centers, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Newark, New Jersey, act as strong international gateways.

Johns said these airports help United target high-yielding premium and business traffic.

The airline also feeds passengers through hubs in Chicago, Denver, and Houston, providing good connectivity across the interior US.

In an October report seen by BI, Deutsche Bank analysts said they anticipate 2025 will be a "strong year of regional growth" for the airline's network.

Johns said Delta and American don't have the same vast hub structure and have dominance in fewer places, like Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte for American and Atlanta and Detroit for Delta.

United is revamping its fleet with hundreds of new planes

A fleet renewal plan that includes 270 new Airbus and Boeing narrow-body planes, plus 150 widebody Boeing 787 Dreamliners, is powering United's expansion.

Data from the manufacturers show that as of November 30 this year, United had received 21 Airbus A321neos, 31 Boeing 737 Maxs, and one Dreamliner. The 737 deliveries are less than half of the 71 Max planes United received through November 2023.

As it shifts capacity, United has removed the yet-to-be-certified 737 Max 10 from its future fleet plan. It has 150 units on order.

United also has new planes from rival Airbus to look forward to in the coming years, including its first A321XLR in 2026.

United's SVP of global network planning and alliances, Patrick Quayle, previously told BI the airline plans to replace its aging Boeing 757s with the A321XLR and fly to new destinations, like northern Italy and West Africa.

This influx of narrow-body planes could help United lower costs and make the airline even more competitive.

United's fleet allows for diverse revenue streams, including basic economy and money-making premium cabins; the latter is especially lucrative as corporate travel remains on the rise.

Deutsche Bank analysts said United's adjusted pretax margin of 9.7% "reflects the company's advantage of having revenue diversification with premium customers, basic economy customers, and domestic road warriors."

United's third-quarter premium revenues, including Polaris business class and premium economy, were up 5% year over year.

Basic economy was up by a fifth, signaling United's discounted fare has likely poached some business from budget carriers struggling to maintain customers who prefer more perks when flying.

Share buyback signals strong finances

In its third-quarter earnings, United's adjusted earnings per share of $3.33 beat analysts' estimates. It also announced plans for a $1.5 billion share buyback.

"We intend this buyback to be the beginning of a consistent and disciplined return of capital that is paced by our ability to generate increasing levels of free cash," said CFO Michael Leskinen.

Johns told BI that this was another sign of United's progress toward becoming a dependable "blue-chip" stock as it works to reduce its debt-to-earnings ratio.

"I think that's probably the market broadly seeing the positive aspects in terms of how the airline is performing," he said.

In a recent earnings call, United CEO Scott Kirby said the airline has been confident for the past two years that the industry is evolving to produce higher margins.

Deutsche Bank analysts are also bullish, saying: "We believe the solid earnings momentum will continue into the next two years."

• Andy Palmer, the "Godfather of EVs," explains how China took the lead in the electric car race.
• Ex-Nissan COO Palmer got the moniker after developing the Leaf, the world's first mass-market EV.
• He says Chinese EVs offer "remarkable" value for money and have better battery tech than their Western rivals.

The man often known as the "Godfather of EVs" has a warning for automakers thinking of ditching electric vehicles for hybrids.

Former Aston Martin CEO and Nissan exec Andy Palmer told Business Insider that delaying transitioning to EVs in favor of selling hybrids was a "fool's errand" and warned automakers doing so risk falling even further behind Chinese EV companies.

Palmer's moniker comes from his time as Chief Operating Officer at Nissan.

He led the development of the Nissan Leaf, the world's first mass-market electric car, which has sold over half a million units since it launched in 2010.

"I wish I could say that it was driven by a motivation to better the world. But actually, it was driven by the Toyota Prius kicking our ass," Palmer told BI.

Rather than copying the success of the hybrid Prius, Palmer says he pushed Nissan to build a fully electric vehicle, eventually securing the support of then-CEO Carlos Ghosn.

Over a decade later, he's skeptical of automakers — including Aston Martin, the company Palmer ran as CEO from 2014 to 2020 — who have taken the opposite path and turned to hybrids as EV adoption has slowed.

"Hybrids are a road to hell. They are a transition strategy, and the longer you stay on that transition, the less quickly you ramp up into the new world," said Palmer.

"If you just delay transitioning to EVs by diluting it with hybrids then you are more uncompetitive for longer, and you allow the Chinese to continue to develop their market and their leadership. I honestly think it's a fool's errand," he added.

China races ahead

Over the past few years, the auto industry has been shaken by the booming growth of Chinese brands such as BYD, which have conquered their home market with a range of affordable and high-tech EVs and hybrids and are now rapidly expanding abroad.

"The Chinese cars are bloody good. The Chinese vehicles offer remarkable value for money for what they deliver," said Palmer.

"Their battery technology's class-leading, and they've concentrated very much on their software," he said.

Palmer told BI that the success of China's EV industry was down to the country's long-running industrial strategy.

According to one study, the Chinese government has spent at least $230 billion on subsidies for electric vehicle makers since 2009.

Palmer, who previously served on the board of Dongfeng Motor Company, a joint venture between Nissan and Chinese state-owned automaker Dongfeng, says he saw firsthand how aggressive China's EV strategy was.

"The edict [from the Chinese government] was to move to new energy vehicles," he said.

"It starts with an industrial strategy. That's the big thing to learn. For the best part of 14 years, we have not had an industrial strategy," Palmer added.

Both the US and Europe have responded to the rise of Chinese automakers by imposing tariffs aimed at protecting their own auto industries, but Palmer said that tariffs would only harm Western companies' ability to compete with their Chinese rivals.

"My experience with tariffs is it just makes your indigenous industry lazy. The gap becomes even bigger," he said.

Instead, he argued that automakers should prepare for a "survival of the fittest" battle with Chinese automakers, especially in Europe, where the likes of BYD and Xpeng have ambitious expansion plans.

"I think the Chinese firms will learn from competing in Europe, because that's the toughest market in the world. If they can do that, then they're going to be unbeatable," Palmer said.

Japanese carmakers stumble

The surging growth of China's EV giants has put Palmer's former employer Nissan and its Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda under severe pressure.

Nissan announced it would lay off 9,000 workers in November, while both Toyota and Honda are facing declining sales in China and slumping profits. In December, it was reported that Nissan and Honda were in merger talks.

Palmer says while Toyota's decision to focus on hybrids paid off initially, it has left it and other Japanese automakers exposed as key markets like China transition quickly to EVs.

"Toyota took the Japanese industry down a cul-de-sac, which it is going to struggle to recover from," he said.

The former Nissan executive said his old company, meanwhile, had "shot itself in the foot" and squandered a promising lineup of electric vehicles and a 10-year lead in EV tech.

"My last board meeting in July 2014, I was under enormous attack from the bean counters who were saying; these things don't make money, we are going too fast. I managed to win the day in that meeting, but I left the company," said Palmer.

"Nissan finds itself now with a very poor lineup of products and without obvious leadership in EVs, and that's the direct result of poor management," he said.

How to get EVs moving again

The past year has been tough for electric vehicles. While sales are still growing, the pace of adoption has been slower than expected, causing automakers across the globe to roll back investments.

For Palmer, the reason some consumers have proven reluctant to go electric is simple: EVs are too expensive.

"Prices have got to align to those of internal combustion engines. And to make that happen, you've got to be able to offer cars with smaller batteries," said Palmer.

The average price of an electric vehicle in the US in October was $56,902, according to Kelley Blue Book, compared to $48,623 for gas-powered vehicles.

Palmer said that selling cheaper vehicles with smaller batteries and less range would require governments to incentivize the rollout of charging networks to alleviate range anxiety.

He added that the West could learn from China's approach to industrial strategy — especially when it comes to batteries, an industry that China dominates.

"If the West wants to catch up, I would advocate copying the Chinese," said Palmer.

"The alternative is everything is Chinese at the moment — even if you were building your own battery cells, you've still gotta get all the minerals from China. The whole supply chain is stuck," he said.

• Russia attacked Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure on Wednesday, causing power outages.
• Zelenskyy called the Christmas Day missile and drone attack "inhumane."
• Mass attacks on Ukraine's energy have been a hallmark of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Russia launched an attack on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure on Christmas Day in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as an "inhumane" move, according to multiple reports.

Zelenskyy said in a Telegram message that more than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than 100 attack drones were launched at Ukrainian energy targets.

"Every Russian massive strike takes time to prepare. It is never a spontaneous decision. It is a conscious choice not only of targets, but also of time and date," he said, according to the BBC's translation.

"Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhumane?" he continued.

In 2022, Ukraine's Orthodox Church allowed Christmas to be celebrated on December 25, in what was widely read as a snub to Russia, which largely celebrates on January 7. Much of Ukraine has followed suit since.

On Wednesday, Zelenskyy shared several images of firefighters working to tackle the damage in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Ukraine's forces shot down at least 50 of the missiles and many of the drones, but there were still power outages in several regions as a result of hits, Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine's energy minister, German Galushchenko, also said in a Facebook post that the country's energy industry was under attack on a mass scale, forcing blackouts.

DTEK, Ukraine's largest energy company, called the attack "cynical," saying it had caused serious damage and forced energy systems to cut power to the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Kyiv.

The northeastern city of Kharkiv — Ukraine's second largest city — was among the worst hit, according to its mayor, Ihor Terekhov, who said there had been a series of explosions amid massive rocket fire.

He said four people had been injured as of 11 a.m. local time, and a large part of the city was without heating.

Video shared on social media — which Business Insider couldn't independently verify — appeared to show air-raid sirens going off in Kyiv amid reports that people were sheltering in metro stations.

There were also explosions reported in Kremenchuk, Kryvyi Rih, and Ivano-Frankivsk, The Kyiv Independent reported.

Mass attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have been a hallmark of Russia's full-scale invasion. There have been mass strikes throughout the year, and as of November, an estimated two-thirds of the country's electrical generation capacity had been knocked out.

Representatives for Russia's Ministry of Defense didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Russia's economy will be under significant strain next year, economists told Business Insider.
• High inflation, slowing economic growth, energy prices, and sanctions could hurt its war machine.
• One expert told BI that stagnation was similar to the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1980s.

Russia's economy is likely entering a year of pain in 2025.

Since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has restructured its economy to prioritize its war efforts, imposing export bans, tapping its national wealth fund, and strengthening trade with non-Western countries.

But unprecedented defense spending, labor shortages, and Western sanctions have come at a cost, and some believe the country is reaching the limits of its capacity.

Economists told Business Insider that while they don't expect Russia's economy to collapse, they said it would face a tough 2025 if it keeps on fighting in Ukraine.

Persisting inflation

"Russia has set in motion processes that will continue to eat out its economy from within," Roman Sheremeta, an associate professor of economics at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, told BI.

He said that if the war continues, "it will put a significant strain on the already bleeding Russian budget."

Russia has increasingly boosted its defense spending to sustain its war efforts, from $59 billion in 2022 to $109 billion in 2023, and $126.8 billion set aside in 2025, when defense will make up 32.5% of Russia's federal budget, up from 28.3% this year.

While soaring defense spending has fueled Russia's economy in recent years, it has also contributed to rising inflation, which Russian President Vladimir Putin said could hit 9.5% in 2025.

To rein this in, the country's central bank raised its key interest rate from 19% to 21% in October, a record high, which has eaten into companies' profit margins.

The bank was expected to raise the rate again in December, but held off, though it may need to increase it next year.

"The main question is how high the inflation will be and how the slowing down will materialize," Alexander Kolyandr, a financial analyst and non-resident senior scholar at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told BI.

Putin has acknowledged that inflation is at "a relatively high level." Speaking at an investment forum in Moscow earlier this month, he urged his government and the central bank to curb it.

TsMAKP, a Russian think tank, warned last month that Russia's failure to tame inflation was driving the country toward stagflation, a scenario in which growth is low and inflation high, and which is harder to escape than a recession.

"The overall trend is pretty grim," said Kolyandr. "I would say it's overall stagnation akin to what the Soviet Union had at the beginning of the 1980s."

The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991.

Slowing economic growth

Russia is expected to experience lower-than-expected economic growth in 2025. In its October World Economic Outlook, the IMF dropped its GDP growth estimate for Russia from 1.5% to 1.3%.

"Overall growth will be quite slow," Iikka Korhonen, the head of research at the Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies, told BI.

However, he said the Kremlin will make sure that military production has enough resources.

But "many sectors will most likely contract," he said.

US sanctions on Gazprombank and other financial institutions in November caused the ruble to plummet, according to The Wall Street Journal, which also said that companies were slashing expansion plans.

It reported that more than 200 shopping centers in Russia are under threat of bankruptcy due to rising debt burdens and almost a third of Russian freight haulers say they fear bankruptcy in 2025.

Russia's largest mobile operator, MTS, also blamed an almost 90% drop in Q3 net profits on costs related to interest payments.

"The elites are fighting for survival, and while they remain loyal to Putin, they are increasingly discontent," Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Russian central bank official and now a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, told the Journal.

In fact, in recent months, Russian CEOs and business leaders have increased their vitriol against interest-rate hikes and Western sanctions.

Sergei Chemezov, CEO of defense conglomerate Roste, told Russian senators in late October that sky-high interest rates were leaving companies struggling to turn a profit.

Oil and gas prices

While Russia's share of oil and gas revenues has fluctuated in recent years, and dropped in 2023, Russia expects it to account for about 27% of the country's total budget revenue in 2025.

"As long as Russia can sell as much crude oil as it is now selling with the current prices, they will have enough tax revenue for the war well into 2025," Korhonen said.

Earlier this month, Russian state-owned oil firm Rosneft agreed to a 10-year, $13 billion deal to supply crude oil to India, Reuters reported, citing three sources familiar with the deal.

However, Center for European Policy Analysis' Kolyandr said he believes Russia's revenue outlook is "over-optimistic," since "global oil prices might be lower than the government thinks."

Traders expect global oil prices to fall from a projected $80 a barrel in 2024 to between $65 and $71 in 2025, due to sluggish demand, production from non-OPEC+ countries, and a shift toward cleaner energies.

While G7 countries have set a $60 price cap on Russian oil since December 2022, Russia has partly evaded the cap by using a shadow fleet, redirecting oil exports to countries like China and India, and inflating ancillary costs to obscure purchase prices.

But the tightening of Western sanctions could further reduce Russia's oil and gas revenues.

Reserves

Russia's economic performance in 2025 will ultimately come down to the availability of resources, said Korhonen.

"There will be a deficit, but it can initially be financed from the National Welfare Fund," he said.

Russia's National Warfare Fund has assets amounting to about $131.1 billion as of October, while the central bank has about $614.4 billion in international reserves.

Kolyandr, meanwhile, said that "whether Russia is going to face any crisis in 2025" would depend on everything that will happen in 2025, including oil prices, sanctions, President-elect Donald Trump's trade policies, and the Russian labor market.

"The Russian economy will continue to fall," said Weatherhead School of Management's Sheremeta, "which will restrict Russia's ability to wage war."

But he added: "Much will depend on the Western support of Ukraine."