GM goes all in on electric vehicles
Multibillion-dollar investment comes with promise of 30 new EVs by 2025
The lonely Chevrolet Bolt is about to get some company.
In an announcement Nov. 19, GM chairwoman and CEO Mary Barra said the automaker will launch 30 new global electric vehicles over the course of the next five years, giving GM's sole electric vehicle in Canada since 2017 a bustling stable-full of zero-emission mates.
“Climate change is real, and we want to be part of the solution by putting everyone in an electric vehicle,” said Barra.
“We are transitioning to an all-electric portfolio from a position of strength and we're focused on growth.”
In addition to that very ambitious product rollout, the company will increase its financial commitment to EVs and autonomous vehicles to US$27 billion through 2025 — up from the US$20 billion planned before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That figure exceeds the automaker's gas and diesel investment.
More than half of GM's capital spending and product development team will be devoted to electric and electric-autonomous vehicle programs, and 40 per cent of the company's U.S. entries will be battery electric vehicles by the end of 2025.
In terms of the North American market, we should see more than two-thirds of those 30 new EVs in dealerships, under the Cadillac, GMC, Chevrolet, and Buick brands.
There was also a fairly significant technical announcement: an increase from the previously stated GM-estimated maximum range of Ultium-battery-based vehicles from 644 kilometres to 724 km on a full charge. And we're finally beginning to see the promise of accelerated battery improvements, with GM reporting its second-generation Ultium chemistry is projected to deliver twice the energy density at less than half the cost of today's chemistry.
The patented technology, according to the company, is expected to bring EVs closer to price parity with gas-powered vehicles.
And as GM VP in charge of EVs Doug Parks noted, there are other technologies that will drive these new vehicles forward.
“It's not just the cost and performance of our innovative EV components that will give us a competitive advantage in a fast-changing industry, but how we integrate them with other advanced systems like Super Cruise, our Vehicle Intelligence Platform electrical architecture and other technologies,” Parks said during the announcement.
As Driving reported in August, the first of these EVs is the Cadillac Lyriq, the luxury brand's first EV, scheduled for release in the U.S. in late 2022 and expected in Canada by early 2023. We also know about, and reported on, the Hummer EV, scheduled to arrive in Canadian GMC dealerships in late 2022.
Climate change is real, and we want to be part of the solution by putting everyone in an electric vehicle.
MARY BARRa,
GM ch a i r woman a n d C EO