GM's CEO stands by her electric vehicle prediction
The economy is a bit wobbly, but General Motors CEO Mary Barra isn't backing off of an audacious prediction: By the middle of this decade, her company will sell more electric vehicles in the U.S. than Tesla, the global sales leader.
To fulfill that pledge in as little as 21/2 years, she faces some long odds against immense economic forces that are working against auto sales. Inflation has spiked, interest rates are rising, material costs have soared and a global shortage of computer chips is still braking assembly lines at GM and other companies.
But in an interview with The Associated Press, Barra said she's confident GM can unseat Tesla with higherpriced specialty vehicles, and it will beat Elon Musk to highrange EVs at prices that people can afford.
Last year GM sold just 25,000 electric vehicles in the U.S., less than one-tenth of the estimated 352,000 sold by Tesla. Although EV sales are rising dramatically, they're still only about 5% of the U.S. new vehicle market, with many Americans still reluctant to change.
“To really get to 30, 40, 50% EVs being sold, you have to appeal to people that are in that $30,000 to $35,000 price range,” Barra said.
Already the company has pledged to cut the starting price of the Chevrolet Bolt small SUV to around $26,000 later this year. GM is planning to roll out a Chevy Equinox small SUV with 300 miles of range for around $30,000 in fall 2023. And on Monday night in California, it unveiled a larger (and more expensive) Chevy Blazer SUV that goes on sale next summer.
They'll join a couple of gargantuan Hummer EVs, an upcoming electric Silverado pickup and a Cadillac luxury SUV in taking on Tesla. And Barra said there's more to come on the way to offering 30 battery-powered vehicles globally by 2025.
“What we have coming, it's in the heart of the market,” she said, without giving details.
The mainstream vehicle is something Tesla has yet to master. A rear-wheel-drive version of the Model 3 sedan, its lowestpriced vehicle, starts around $48,000 with shipping.
Barra is hoping to keep prices relatively low, banking on chemistry breakthroughs to cut battery costs, offsetting huge price increases for Lithium and other key elements that make batteries work.
Part of the strategy is convincing buyers that an electric vehicle can meet all their transportation needs. Many EV owners, she said, also have a gas-powered auto for longer trips.
That's why the company announced a partnership to place 2,000 charging stations at up to 500 Pilot Travel centers, spaced 50 miles apart along interstate travel corridors. “If the only vehicle you own is going to be an EV, you have to feel confident of charging,” Barra said.
GM has a goal of making only electric passenger vehicles by 2035.
The switch to EVs would be monumental on its own for GM, a company that has made a living largely on the internal combustion engine for more than 113 years.
But Barra also has to manage the finances, keeping the profits flowing from gasoline vehicles to pay for battery development, even though GM currently can't run its factories flat-out due to the chip shortage. And at some point, money from gas vehicles will decline, so the EVs have to be profitable almost from the start.