In keeping with GM’s goal to provide only electric vehicles to consumers by 2035, the whole Buick brand aims to be totally electric by 2030.
Detroit With the additional postponement of a second electric truck factory in the United States and the first EV under the Buick brand, General Motors said on Tuesday that it is once again slowing down its ambitions for all-electric cars.
GM’s previous goal of having a 1 million EV manufacturing capacity in North America by 2025 will also not be met due to the six-month delay in retooling the electric truck facility in Michigan, which will not happen until mid-2026.
During the company’s second-quarter results call on Tuesday, GM CEO Mary Barra reaffirmed the company’s commitment to developing both financially and responsibly.
A week before, Barra expressed doubts about GM meeting its objective for EV manufacturing capacity in North America.
The first EV from Buick was anticipated to arrive in 2024, but Barra did not disclose a new timeline. As part of GM’s ambitions to only sell EVs to consumers by 2035, the whole Buick brand has set a goal of becoming all electric by 2030.
The modifications raise further concerns over the Detroit automaker’s intentions for battery cell facilities in the future, apart from the two joint venture sites it now owns in North America with LG Energy Solution. Plans for four of the multibillion-dollar factories in the United States by 2026 were previously disclosed by GM.
On Tuesday, Barra said that the business will increase cell manufacturing at a “meaningful cadence.”
Also Read : Implications for American health care should Kamala Harris be elected president
Apart from the two factories that produce cells in Ohio and Tennessee, GM CFO Paul Jacobson refused to address any prospective intentions to postpone or cancel the automaker’s future EV battery cell installations.
“The client will continue to serve as our guidance. In cell plants one and two, we’re ramping up quickly,” Jacobson said during a press conference. “At this time, we have nothing to comment on.”
In comparison to the same period last year, GM’s U.S. EV deliveries surged 40% to 21,930 units. Nevertheless, only 3.2% of its overall second-quarter U.S. sales were EVs.
According to Jacobson, the business plans to increase assembly in order to produce and sell between 200,000 and 250,000 all-electric cars at wholesale prices in North America this year. During the first half of the year, he claimed, the business sold around 75,000 of its new EVs in wholesale.
Jacobson restated GM’s expectation that if it hits 200,000 units produced by the fourth quarter, its EVs would turn a profit on a production, or contribution-margin, basis.
“We’re still sticking to that,” Jacobson said, noting that more sales of EVs are anticipated to result in lower profits for the business since they will be lower than the variable profits of GM’s conventional gas models.
