GM to shift to “all-electric portfolio”

The giants are coming. One of the world’s biggest automotive brands, General Motors, has announced it is “transitioning to an all-electric portfolio”, with a whopping 40 per cent of its American lineup set be electric by the end of 2025. 

GM has also upped its spending on electric, and autonomous, vehicles by 35 per cent, to $US27 billion. 

While the move might have been coming anyway, it seems to reflect a change in tone in America generally with the election of Joe Biden, who has called climate change the greatest crisis facing the planet.

GM CEO Mary Barra agrees: “Climate change is real, and we want to be part of the solution by putting everyone in an electric vehicle,” she said.

“We are transitioning to an all-electric portfolio from a position of strength and we’re focused on growth. We can accelerate our EV plans because we are rapidly building a competitive advantage in batteries, software, vehicle integration, manufacturing and customer experience.”

GM is bringing forward the scheduled launches of some EVs and introducing at least 30 electric vehicles globally by 2025, including 20 in North America.

Specifically, the company has accelerated the production timelines for the GMC Hummer EV, three other GMC EVs, four Chevrolet EVs and four Cadillac ones. 

The exciting-looking Lyriq, the first full EV from Cadillac will now launch in the first quarter of 2022, nine months earlier  than previously flagged.

More than half of its capital and almost 60 percent of its product development resources will be dedicated to EV and autonomous-vehicle programs. It really sounds like GM thinks a driver-free future will mirror the emissions free one.

At this stage, GM has just one EV for sale, the Chevy Bolt, so the massive increase in the size of its EV fleet really is going to be exponential.

GM is also retooling a giant assembly plant in Detroit,  Drenaming it “Factory Zero” and will use it to build at least five EVs by 2024, with the Hummer pickup truck to be the first.  

Battery tech is another area of huge importance and big investment, with GM announcing that its proprietary Ultium batteries have extended their maximum theoretical range to more than 700km between charges. The company is establishing a new Ultium battery technology centre next year. 

Excitingly, it predicts that second-gan Ultium batteries, which should arrive by around 2025, will cost 60  per cent less than today’s versions, lowering the gap between ICE vehicles and EV ones on price.