US automakers simply can’t appear to make up their minds about EVs. Final fall, GM and Ford gave the anti-EV crowd (which incorporates lots of their dealerships) an early Christmas current, saying that they’d push again EV manufacturing plans in response to slower gross sales (really a slower charge of enhance in gross sales).
In truth, a part of the EV gross sales slowdown that the automakers have been trumpeting might have had extra to do with provide than demand—in GM’s case, the corporate wasn’t capable of construct sufficient Ultium EVs to get the wanted shares to dealerships, due to issues on the battery pack manufacturing strains.
Now GM CEO Mary Barra has introduced that the bottlenecks are a factor of the previous. A number of new fashions, together with the Chevy Equinox, Blazer and Silverado EVs, are on sellers’ tons or heading thither quickly, and the corporate goals to construct 200,000 to 300,000 EVs this yr.
Barra advised The Detroit Information that the manufacturing issues have been solved: “It’s not a difficulty now. As we transfer ahead, we’re going to construct to demand. We now have the aptitude: Manufacturing unit Zero is up and operating, Spring Hill is up and operating, Ramos is launching.”
CFO Paul Jacobson made an identical assertion earlier this yr: “We’ve had some challenges scaling up. I feel most of these are behind us.”
Not solely has GM solved its manufacturing points, however the flagging demand that GM and its colleagues have been telling everybody about a number of months in the past is outwardly now not a priority (or by no means actually was?).
At a current opening ceremony for a brand new Silicon Valley workplace, Marissa West, President of GM North America mentioned, “It’s possible you’ll be studying reviews the place the expansion in EVs and EV demand has stalled and that’s merely not true. We really see notable development, significantly within the EV retail area.”
Apparently, the occasion’s again on. Okay, glad to listen to it.
