General Motors: History, innovation, and legacy
Learn about the rich history and notable innovations of General Motors, from its founding in 1908 to its leadership in electric and autonomous vehicle technology.
- Electric vehicle sales in the U.S. trail other major car markets where General Motors does business, which was not expected to be the case when GM first planned its broad EV portfolio.
- Though the industry is bracing for an EV sales slump, GM’s leaders insist that investing deeply and early in a broad range of electric offerings was not a mistake.
Duncan Aldred may be the one automotive executive not sweating over the anticipated slowdown of the U.S. electric vehicle market.
Aldred, GM’s senior vice president and president of North America, is in a critical position: leading GM’s most profitable but challenging markets.
Electric vehicle sales in the U.S. trail other major car markets where the global company does business, which was not expected to be the case when GM first planned its broad EV portfolio. Last month, GM CEO Mary Barra said onstage at an industry event that “up until a year ago, we were on a journey to a regulatory environment where we had to drive EVs.”
Still, GM invested significant money and planning to offer the range of EVs it has today. Though the industry is bracing for an EV sales slump, GM’s leaders insist that investing deeply and early in a broad range of electric offerings was not a mistake.
“We believe EVs will remain a strong part of the GM portfolio. Quite honestly, it’s one of the reasons why our market share has grown so much this year,” Aldred said. “It’s not something (we), in any way, shape or form, expect to give up.”
Year to date, GM estimates that its 17.2% market share across vehicle propulsion systems is the highest it’s been in 10 years. So far this year, EV total sales more than doubled to 144,668 vehicles.
GM’s public pledge to produce only electric vehicles by 2035 — put forth before President Donald Trump’s first administration amid a stricter regulatory environment for climate protections — has largely been scrapped.
Congress passed a bill ending the tax credit offered to electric car buyers of up to $7,500 on the purchase of qualifying new vehicles and $4,000 on qualifying used EVs on Sept. 30, years before its original expiration.
Ford and General Motors have since said they will extend some incentive programs through leases until year-end to transition away from government support, but GM backed outof that program after concerns were raised about it by U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, a former car dealer who is active in auto policy. Ford also has backtracked.
In the 10 years since GM developed its strategy to develop a full portfolio of EVs, seismic issues repeatedly roiled the industry and put strain on the company’s capital.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said at a media event Sept. 30 that GM’s dominance in the EV sales space is largely due to the range of vehicles GM offers.
“We’ve been No. 2 to Tesla for three years now. I think GM is passing us now, which is good for them, but I think we have three models, they have like 12 models,” Farley said. “So I would hope based on their investment that they would start to really accelerate that.”
A step forward, then a step back
Still, a smaller-than-predicted EV market has caused the company to make several expensive decisions to align operations with realistic vehicle sales. GM has made numerous production changes this year that reversed work that cost the company years and billions in investment converting plants to produce electric vehicles and left UAW workers in a state of confusion.
GM has slashed shifts and laid off hundreds of workers at its Factory Zero plant in Detroit-Hamtramck where it invested $2.2 billion to produce the GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV; Chevrolet Silverado EV; GMC Sierra EV, and Cadillac Escalade IQ. Those workers will remain on layoff for the rest of the year, GM confirmed Oct. 9.
Late last month, GM changed the status of 900 workers on temporary layoff to “indefinite” layoff at the Fairfax Assembly plant in Kanas City, Kansas, while it retools the plant for production of the gas-powered Equinox.
Dontay Wilson, president of UAW Local 31, referred to the displacement of those workers as “not an ideal situation.”
“I understand the business is the business, but it would have been great to maintain some security for these folks for the foreseeable future,” he told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. “The GM Fairfax local management team has done a decent job, but from a top-down approach, it has been surprising at times. For us, we have been doing the best we can to roll with the punches.”
GM said in April that the Toledo (Ohio) Propulsions Systems plant, which produces transmissions for the Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks, would increase output as it reduces electric drive unit production.
But last month, as a local television station first reported, GM told workers that it would remove the equipment to even produce electric drive units at the site, the local union leader confirmed to the Detroit Free Press — equipment GM said it spent $760 million in 2022 to install.
Toledo Propulsion Systems was GM’s first U.S. powertrain or propulsion-related factory transformed for EV-related production.
About 1,520 GM employees work at the plant, according to the company’s website. Though no plant jobs were lost, just reallocated, the move still came as a blow, according to UAW Local 14 President Tony Totty.
“Just a couple of months ago, we had an EV ride and drive, and our members were excited,” Totty said in an Oct. 2 interview. “This is a punch to the gut. Our members were excited to make these things.”
Those electric drivetrains were destined for GM’s Orion Assembly Plant, for which GM received $480 million in grant funds from the state of Michigan to expand for electric vehicle production. On July 15, the company solidified plans to produce the Cadillac Escalade, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light-duty pickups there.
For buyers, extra money dries up
GM’s strategy of crafting electrified options for its most popular models like the Chevrolet Blazer, Equinox and Silverado directly addressed what consumers wanted from the automaker’s emerging offerings, said Joseph Yoon, Edmunds’ consumer insights analyst.
“Any flavor of EV that they want, you can get it at GM,” he said. “When you have that much choice in your lineup, it becomes easier to move customers into electric.”
No matter how desirable the product, hefty price tags and a lack of charging infrastructure present a challenge for dealers when pitching the vehicles to their customers.
The EV tax credit has been in place since 2008, so James Fackler, executive vice president of the Michigan Auto Dealers Association, said he understands why GM would want to continue the support consumers expect in showrooms.
“I can see the concern that these sales will dry up. People expect this money, and if it’s not there, will they continue to come?” he said. “There are many dealers that support the EV model. Like every salesperson, they want to give the customer what the customer wants, to check every box. A vehicle is a very expensive purchase, even used.”
What the future holds
When GM promised the delivery of an all-electric vehicle portfolio, it envisioned a market capable of supporting those sales. Since that has not come to pass, the company is looking to protect the sale of vehicles that it knows will be profitable — internal combustion vehicles.
So GM has supported the Trump administration’s efforts to defang clean air regulation. One example is when GM applauded the Trump administration when it signed a congressional resolution in June reversing a waiver California and other states had been granted that would let them ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles.
GM and other automakers have long argued that California and the other states should not have been allowed to do that, effectively getting to decide what kind of cars and trucks they have to make for the whole country.
The White House shared what General Motors said after reversing the waiver: “We appreciate the actions taken by President Trump to sign (the resolution) into law and help align emissions standards with today’s market realities. We have long advocated for one national standard that will allow us to stay competitive, continue to invest in U.S. innovation, and offer customer choice across the broadest lineup of gas-powered and electric vehicles.”
Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist and senior director of Industry Insights at Cox Automotive, also noted the industry welcomed Trump’s interventions in the industry surrounding clean air.
“In terms of the vehicle market, this may be a blessing in disguise for automakers by having fewer sticks swung at them in terms of EV mandates — they will be freed up in the longer term to produce the vehicles people want and can afford,” Chesbrough said.
“Everybody is in shock right now trying to figure out what is the best strategy going forward,” he said. “The bigger danger for the Detroit Three is they’re no longer global manufacturers, they’ve been chased back to North America and China seems to be … quickly moving people onto their (battery electric vehicles). Will we be able to make a competitive electric product, or will this be something we have ceded to the Chinese market?”
‘No need’ for discounting
With GM facing increased tariff costs and stripped of government tax incentives, Aldred’s goal to maintain EV sales momentum without excessive discounting is ambitious.
Despite those challenges, Aldred said he plans to hold firm to GM’s playbook that allowed the company to gain market share even when the competition accelerated incentives, or discounts. Earlier this year, several automakers adjusted pricing strategies ahead of Trump’s first round of tariffs on foreign-made vehicles and parts. GM was the only Detroit-based automaker that did not run any ads about its U.S. commitment or lowering costs.
Also GM on Oct. 9 showed off its newest EV, a new Chevrolet Bolt, the automaker’s most affordable electric vehicle, and said it plans to begin shipping them to dealerships in January. But the Detroit automaker said the vehicle would sell for only a “limited run” and would not clarify to reporters what that meant.
Paul Waatti, director of industry analysis for AutoPacific, said bringing back the Bolt corrected one of Mary Barra’s rare missteps ― retiring the most attainable long-range EV just as affordability became the biggest barrier to selling electric cars.
“There’s still a chicken-and-egg dilemma: Affordable EVs need volume to survive, but volume won’t come without affordable EVs,” Waatti said. “GM, perhaps more than any other automaker, is uniquely positioned to tackle that tension with its strong ICE portfolio that gives it the flexibility to support EV accessibility ― even if that means at a loss ― while its long-term EV strategy takes shape.”
Though GM will remain “competitive” with its incentives moving forward, the company’s plan, Aldred said, is to more or less let the vehicles speak for themselves.
One method? Maintaining low inventory levels of desirable products to bolster dealership profitability, which in turn ensures the automaker doesn’t require high incentives to sell cars.
“We won’t be changing that formula. Going into next year, we started off looking at the industry … what might happen, what will the other brands do, what will the incentive landscape be?” Aldred said. “In the end, we kind of said, ‘Well, let’s just look at ourselves.’ Because really, what the adoption is and what other people do is somewhat irrelevant. We’ve got an outstanding portfolio of EVs as well as (internal combustion engine vehicles), and we believe we can sell a volume of those irrespective of what’s going to happen in the bigger marketplace.”
Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. Reach her at [email protected].
