Tesla is at the top when it comes to ev production but other automotive companies are desperately trying to catch up and one of these companies is out for more than just a share of the ev market it wants to destroy tesla by any means necessary that company is general motors in 2021 general motors chief executive mary barra said that the company was committed to fighting for ev market share until it becomes number one in north america she didn't mention tesla by name but it was pretty clear who she was talking about it may be hard to believe but not long ago gm was the company to beat,
When it came to electric vehicle sales in the u.s back in 2012 when tesla debuted the model s gm sold more than 23 000 chevrolet volts nearly double that of its nearest competitor the toyota prius and representing 18 of the total u.s electric vehicle market but since tesla started selling the model 3 two years ago it has smashed u.s sales records for evs and turned gm a 112 year old company into the underdog last year gm announced that it would double its revenues by the end of the decade and take over the ev market share all while increasing profit margins for its internal combustion engine vehicles according to gm those lofty but seemingly unachievable goals will be reached by selling a range of evs,
And software-based services and offering technology including a new version of its hand-free advanced driver assistance system gm claims that the system will work in 95 of all driving scenarios and eventually be used on every paved road in the u.s and canada gm said it aims to hit 280 billion dollars in annual revenue by 2030 which is more than double the 122.5 billion dollars in sales that it reported for 2020. according to a company spokesperson the automaker is basing its revenue goal on a rolling average of about 140 billion dollars gm has already spent billions to try,
And reach this goal in november 2020 the company said that it would spend 27 billion over five years on the development of evs and automated technology a 35 increase from its previous plan gm upped that number again in july 2021 to 35 billion dollars through 2025 that money is already being put to work notably into ultium the underlying eevee architecture and accompanying batteries for its next generation electric vehicles the lineup includes the upcoming chevrolet silverado a chevy crossover priced at around 30 thousand dollars buick crossovers,
And the cadillac lyric and celestic during a media briefing explaining how the company planned to capture market share mary barra said when you look at the strong portfolio the fact that we're going to have affordable evs really affordable evs for people and we're already working on the ecosystem they need because for a lot of people it's going to be their only vehicle they need to have a reliable charging infrastructure that's why we believe that we're going to attract those customers vara also noted that the company is building on loyalty that the customers already have for it,
She said that along with its portfolio existing manufacturing capacity and dealership network are all advantages to hit that mark gm said it will dedicate more than 50 percent of its factories in north america and china to the production of evs by 2030. gm ceo has also said that the company will sell more than 1 million electric vehicles in 2025 but even at that overly ambitious rate analysts say that the legacy automaker is unlikely to soon overtake tesla which joined gm in the blue chip s p 500 back at the end of 2020. david whiston a morningstar analyst said right now on pure electric in the u.s tesla is dominant gm also has to manage its traditional car,
And truck business where it holds the largest share of the us market to ensure it underwrites rather than undermines its ev push but industry experts agree that at some point the market for evs will become the entire vehicle market the only question is when id techx a marketing research firm estimated that evs will constitute 20 of the worldwide market by 2030 and up to 80 by 2040. but luke gear the firm's senior technology analyst said that the estimates were sure to be revised upwards with the european emissions fines that kicked in last year gear said that gm's target of 1 million vehicles and a flood of new models would step up the game gm's ultim battery allows for new models to be developed faster,
The company's planned battery factory in ohio a joint venture with lg kim should make it possible to crank out enough batteries to meet barra's lofty production goals but gm's potential success doesn't necessarily mean doom for tesla because more vehicle models means more choice for consumers hastening wider ev adoption for now tesla is still much better at making its batteries cheaper than competitors cheaper batteries mean cheaper vehicles making them an option for a wider pool of potential customers in 2019 the best-selling electric vehicle in the u.s was tesla's model 3 which started at 38 thousand dollars,
Company sold nearly 155 000 of them the second best seller was tesla's model x a sport utility vehicle starting at eighty thousand dollars which sold nineteen thousand mr gear said price is going to be what determines who is the market leader and tesla looks set to win on price for the foreseeable future emmanuel rosner a deutsche bank analyst estimated that gm will reduce the cost of battery cells to approximately one hundred dollars per kilowatt hour in three years and then to about 75 dollars per kilowatt hour by 2025 yet it would still trail tesla's mid-decade target of fifty dollars per kilowatt hour,
Tesla's head start on evs is compounded by the huge difference between the two companies values at 600 billion dollars tesla's market capitalization is now 10 times more than gm thus giving it an advantage in raising capital said a morgan stanley analyst named adam jonas on top of that as a purely electric vehicle company tesla is free of conflicts that could hamper gm all its capital expenditures go towards electric vehicles and it may have an advantage in attracting engineering talent gm could also face future costs if the public and government begin to see the pollution emitted by internal combustion engines as a long-term liability the kind of liability that sparks regulation legislation,
And litigation that makes some investors think the automaker might still spin off its ev business despite gm's statements to the contrary jonas said we're hearing investors starting to look at internal combustion engine cars like tobacco and asbestos analysts say gm is unlikely to realize an ambition to beat tesla this decade if at all david whiston said that gm has a long way to go if it wants to pass tesla in the north american ev market gm has an insane amount of catching up to do in just three years tesla which doesn't release u.s sales specifically delivered 936 172 electric vehicles globally in 2021 gm's chevrolet brand sold less than 25 000 evs last year ranking third in us ev sales behind tesla,
And ford which sold seven thousand one hundred forty of its mustang mock eevs lmc automotive and industry forecaster expects tesla's u.s production capacity to increase from nearly 580 000 units to about one million units later this year after their second domestic plant in texas is fully online gm's latest investments include 2.6 billion dollars for a new battery plant through a joint venture with lg energy solutions in lansing michigan and four billion dollars to convert its orion assembly plant in suburban detroit to produce electric trucks such as upcoming versions of the chevy silverado and gmc sierra beginning in 2024. gm also announced an additional 510 million dollars in investments in two lansing area,
Vehicle assembly plants to upgrade for non-electric vehicles many of the new investments had previously been reported and the influx of capital is expected to create 4 000 new jobs and retain 1 000 current employees during a media briefing gm's president mark royce said michigan will be the recognized hub and leader of innovation in the u.s for ev r d and manufacturing according to royce orion assembly and gm's factory zero plant in detroit are expected to build a majority of the one million evs the company intends to sell in north america orion is expected to be able to produce 360000 vehicles annually by mid-decade,
While factory zero is targeting two hundred seventy thousand units gm is also converting some of its existing plants in tennessee canada and mexico to build evs gm's efforts had better start paying off quickly though because the automaker has been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism based on their current ev sales the company announced that its total sales for q4 2021 were 440 745 vehicles down by 43 percent here's the kicker of those 745 vehicles only 26 were evs gm noted that its chevrolet bolt ev sales dropped by a staggering 99.63 to 25 units and that it sold just one hummer ev pickup steve carlisle gm's executive vice president,
President at gm north america spoke of how gm's focus was more on high demand products he said all year we focused on delivering as many of our high request capability inhibited goods as promising and the policy worked our suppliers and our manufacturing supply chain industrial and brand groups moved peaks to satisfy as many consumers as possible in 2021 despite record low inventories caused by semiconductor supply chain issues,
During the third and fourth quarters another reason why gm sold a
laughable number of evs last quarter is because of a massive recall gm had to
recall over 140 000 bolts for battery fire risk in august 2021 and has mostly
kept its orion assembly production plant closed since then with a full plate
and fierce competition gm's attempt to crush tesla is definitely an uphill
battle well that's it for now until next time welcome to the future.
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