Mercedes Team in NEOM
Two days ago, the streets of Neom were visited by the Mercedes EQ Formula E team a few days before the start of the Formula E season 7 race. Stoffel Vandorn received the team’s car in Maqna road along the shores of the Red Sea and roamed the desert city streets, which never had electric cars driven on it.
The Saudi regime is trying to convey a message that the future of mobility in NEOM will not be less sophisticated than the “Vestas battery stored energy” technology adopted by the “Mercedes” team.
According to the statements of Neom’s employees, the city seeks to set new standards in sustainability and the infrastructure for electric mobility. Florian Lienert, head of the mobility sector in NEOM, emphasized that the city “seeks to become a living laboratory and a global center for innovation in sustainable mobility systems.”
This visit coincided with the administration of the fictional city viewing a short film showing the preparations of Stoffel Vandoorne, the main driver of the “Mercedes EQ Formula E” team, as he displayed a Mercedes on the Maqna road in the city which will only serve a specific sector of the population; the very-wealthy ones.
The Mercedes team’s visit to the city comes within the framework of the team’s pioneering partnership with NEOM, which aims to accelerate the project’s bold ambitions to become at the forefront of the pioneers of future and mobility technologies, in addition to strengthening its position as a center of sporting excellence,”
, according to Jan Patterson, Head of the Sector Sports in NEOM, who confirmed that the city seeks to become a “living laboratory and a global center for innovation in the field of sustainable mobility systems.”
It is truly sad that a company of the size of Mercedes gives in to the temptations of bin Salman and his regime, and participates in such a project that is based on the blood of the Saudi people, specifically the people of the city of Huwaitat who are threatened with forced displacement, as the completion of the project requires their eviction from their homes and lands which they inhabited for centuries.
Al-Huwaitat crisis should not go unnoticed, and any shareholder or participant in NEOM must take a serious stance against the regime’s arbitrary practices towards the tribe’s members. The project itself has become very exhausting for the Saudi economy and directly affects the living-standards of the Saudi people as a whole.
It is no secret Saudi suffers from an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, and instead of containing this crisis, the regime preferred to force the people to austerity in order to limit the deficit.
In return, Saudi Arabia’s resources, wealth, and stock were directed to the disposal of bin Salman, who in turn spends incredibly on his luxury projects, like NEOM, which costs an estimated $ 500 billion, which could be born by Saudi alone after foreign investors withdrew from the project.
Recently, Saudi Arabia announced the “The Line” project, which is a city that Bin Salman claims is environmentally friendly in Neom, and its investments are expected to range between 100 billion and 200 billion dollars.
Bin Salman’s practices have drained the Saudi economy, as Riyadh reduced investment spending to reduce the budget deficit from its massive 12 % last year to 4.9 % by the end of this year, which contributed to raising the unemployment rate to a record of 15.4 %.
more: Would NEOM Succeed in changing the medieval image of Saudi for Western media?
