PersistentStateComponent no XML found

I followed the settings tutorial https://jetbrains.org/intellij/sdk/docs/tutorials/settings_tutorial.html

But when I run my plugin and go to the settings panel I get a NullPointerException in my Configuration class.

import com.intellij.openapi.components.PersistentStateComponent;
import com.intellij.openapi.components.ServiceManager;
import com.intellij.openapi.components.State;
import com.intellij.openapi.components.Storage;
import com.intellij.ui.JBColor;
import com.intellij.util.xmlb.XmlSerializerUtil;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.Nullable;

/**
 * Supports storing the application settings in a persistent way.
 * The State and Storage annotations define the name of the data and the file name where
 * these persistent application settings are stored.
 */
@State(
        name = "PluginSettingsState",
        storages = {@Storage("CDDPluginSettings.xml")}
)
public class PluginSettingsState implements PersistentStateComponent<PluginSettingsState> {

    public JBColor highlighterColor = (JBColor) JBColor.MAGENTA;
    public int cyclesLength = 5;

    public static PluginSettingsState getInstance(){
        return ServiceManager.getService(PluginSettingsState.class);
    }

    @Nullable
    @Override
    public PluginSettingsState getState() {
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public void loadState(@NotNull PluginSettingsState state) {
        XmlSerializerUtil.copyBean(state, this);
    }
}

import com.intellij.openapi.options.Configurable;
import com.intellij.openapi.options.ConfigurationException;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.Nls;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.Nullable;

import javax.swing.*;

/**
 * Provides controller functionality for application settings.
 */
public class PluginConfigurationClass implements Configurable {

    private PluginSettingsComponent mySettingsComponent;

    // A default constructor with no arguments is required because this implementation
    // is registered as an applicationConfigurable EP

    @Nls(capitalization = Nls.Capitalization.Title)
    @Override
    public String getDisplayName() {
        return "CDD Plugin Settings";
    }

    @Override
    public JComponent getPreferredFocusedComponent() {
        return mySettingsComponent.getPreferredFocusedComponent();
    }

    @Nullable
    @Override
    public JComponent createComponent() {
        mySettingsComponent = new PluginSettingsComponent();
        return mySettingsComponent.getPanel();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isModified() {
        PluginSettingsState settings = PluginSettingsState.getInstance();
        boolean modified = mySettingsComponent.getCyclesLength() != settings.cyclesLength;
        modified |= !mySettingsComponent.getHighlighterColor().equals(settings.highlighterColor);
        return modified;
    }

    @Override
    public void apply() throws ConfigurationException {
        PluginSettingsState settings = PluginSettingsState.getInstance();
        settings.cyclesLength = mySettingsComponent.getCyclesLength();
        settings.highlighterColor = mySettingsComponent.getHighlighterColor();
    }

    @Override
    public void reset() {
        PluginSettingsState settings = PluginSettingsState.getInstance();
        mySettingsComponent.setCyclesLength(settings.cyclesLength);
        mySettingsComponent.setHighlighterColor(settings.highlighterColor);
    }

    @Override
    public void disposeUIResources() {
        mySettingsComponent = null;
    }
}

My settings object is null because there is no XML file to load from. So how do I create the xml file on startup? Or did I miss something following the tutorial?
Thanks in advance!