Twitter, Facebook, and Shopify are among the companies that are allowing employees to work at home permanently. If the trend continues, there could be long-term reductions in oil use, congestion, and car pollution.
Despite the pandemic, Chevrolet increased its Q1 sales of the Bolt EV by 36% compared to a year ago. Electrek spoke this week with Tony Johnson, the marketing and advertising lead for Chevy cars and crossovers, to see how the brand will maintain that momentum. Johnson told us that Chevy is “doubling down” on the Bolt this year as it paves the way for future EVs. Chevy might even have an electric sports car in the works.
Tim Grewe, GM’s director of battery cell engineering and electrification strategy, held a virtual media conference today about the company’s EV battery strategy. It was a wide-ranging info session explaining the General Motors approach to chemistry, cell, and module design, and how EV batteries will be manufactured in high volume. “Categorically, we think that the pouch cell is the winner,” said Grewe.
When the owners of GM vehicles learn about the automaker’s failure to support strong vehicle pollution standards, its reputation goes down and sales suffer. A negative view of GM’s stance on emissions rules was shared by GM customers regardless of party affiliation. That’s the finding of a new poll of 1,000 Chevy, Buick, Cadillac, and GMC owners.
General Motors announced today that it will work with Honda to produce two next-generation EVs. Honda will develop the two models with unique interior and exterior designs – and they will be powered by GM’s recently unveiled Ultium battery system. The vehicles, to be sold as Honda models, are expected to go on sale in the United States and Canada in the 2024 model year.
President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon said he signed a presidential memorandum directing the government to use “any and all authority available under the Defense Production Act” to require General Motors to make ventilators for hospitals to help patients with COVID-19.
Wuling Motors, a joint venture with General Motors and SAIC Motor, revealed photos this week of its first all-electric vehicle. The company said that it’s inspired by Japanese Kei cars, among the world’s smallest highway-capable vehicles. It could give us a glimpse of the type of cars that GM will help fulfill the country’s promise of selling a million EVs a year by the middle of the 2020s.
When automakers tout big plans for electric vehicles, the key question is: How many will you produce and when? Specific numbers are seldom provided. But Reuters reports today that the total combined output in North America from General Motors and Ford in 2026 will be 320,000 electric vehicles. That’s based on internal planning information provided to suppliers by the automakers and obtained by AutoForecast, a sales planning analysis firm.
Last week, General Motors unveiled an entire portfolio of about a dozen electric vehicles that it plans to sell in the next four years. At the event, we had the chance to speak with Mary Barra, GM’s chief executive. We asked Barra about EV profitability, regulations, and the big-ness of most of its upcoming electric vehicles.
Any legitimate EV development program starts with the batteries that make electric vehicles go. So when General Motors (GM) yesterday laid out its multi-brand, multi-segment EV strategy — for getting to 1 million EV sales per year asap — it presented the company’s flexible Ultium battery system as the key.
General Motors held an EV-unveiling event today that was unprecedented in the volume and range of zero-emission vehicles intended for production. Instead of showing a single new model, or one aspect of electric-propulsion technology, the company fanned out its entire upcoming portfolio using all four of GM’s existing brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick.
Mark Reuss, GM’s president, said, “Everything you see here is real.”
General Motors announced today that it will add 3,500 EV chargers to its facilities in the US and Canada. This represents a tripling of workplace charging at GM plants and offices. Daniel Flores, manager of communications at GM, said, “Charging is free for GM employees and will continue to be free.”
Last Thursday, the body of the last Chevrolet Impala inched down the assembly line at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant. Employees gathered around the car, snapping pictures of the final internal-combustion vehicle to be made at the storied Detroit plant. It will roll off the assembly line this week.
On a recent trip to Detroit, we spent a few minutes with Tim Grewe, GM’s director of battery cell engineering and electrification strategy. The company has a robust and expanding battery-cell R&D program and testing facility. At the same time, GM announced a new joint venture with LG Chem to build an Ohio-based battery gigafactory with 30 GWh of annual capacity.
General Motors will be relying on Grewe and his team to deliver battery solutions for the GMC Hummer EV and a growing list of future GM electric vehicles. Here’s an edited version of our interview with Grewe.
General Motors president Mark Reuss penned a missive on CNN’s website titled, “Electric Cars Won’t Go Mainstream Until We Fix These Problems.” This title conveys three things:
Below we deconstruct this corporate PR hit piece and take a look at who it’s coming from.
Two weeks ago, Toyota sided with the Trump administration’s bid to bar California from setting its own fuel-efficiency and zero-emission rules. The next day, on Oct. 29, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, tweeted, “Toyota, goodbye. The environmental goodwill you’ve built by pioneering hybrid cars has vanished in your choice of Trump over California. #toyotatrump.” And the Toyota-Trump boycott was started.
Today is a big day for car companies jumping on the electric bicycle bandwagon. First Elon Musk dropped a bombshell saying Tesla might build an electric bike, and now GM electric bicycles are on the horizon too.
For the second year in a row, Tesla tried to pass a bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk in Connecticut, to allow the sale of electric vehicles directly to consumers without having to go through the franchise dealerships model. Last week, the bill SB3 was in consideration and awaiting a vote in the state Senate, but it is now officially dead following an impressive lobbying campaign led by GM and the local dealership association.
The electric automaker is currently entrenched in several battles over its business model of selling directly to consumers without a third-party dealership. While it is not an issue in most of its markets, Tesla is not allowed or under restrictions to sell its cars in several states including Arizona, Michigan, Texas, Connecticut, Utah and West Virginia.
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GM announced that the company will add a second shift and 1,200 jobs at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. GM builds 5 models on a single assembly line at Detroit-Hamtramck including the plug-in hybrids Chevrolet Volt and Cadillac ELR.
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GM CEO Mary Barra made a series of announcement today about the “future of personal mobility”, most notable of which a new plan for autonomous Chevy Volt to be available to GM employees to drive on private property next year.
A fleet of 2017 Volt equipped with GM’s self-driving technology will be made available in late 2016 for GM employees to reserve through a new car-sharing app and drive around the company’s Warren Technical Center campus in Michigan.
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Over the weekend we reported that GM pushed the nationwide release of the 2016 Volt to next year and would only sell the car in CARB states in the meantime. Yesterday the company confirmed to Auto News that they simply don’t plan on releasing the 2016 model outside of their top EV markets, which coincidentally are mainly CARB states. Instead the company will release the 2017 version early for a nationwide launch.
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This is a great listen if you want to know the history behind the NUMMI plant in Fremont California where Tesla currently builds its cars. But this is about its past life, the only mention of Tesla is literally the last word.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsIxo4lSrsY]
Every time I hear about the 2016 Volt, I can’t help but think how much nicer it is than the current one across a lot of different areas (from the Chicago Motor show above). The problem is that we’re quite a long time from the new one being on sale so Chevy has to sell the “old one” which is going to be a hard slog.
[tweet https://twitter.com/chevyvolt/status/527171154143096832]
GM/Chevy detailed its next generation Volt today with some nice surprises though they are pretty vague in their assessment.
Some factoids:
So not too many specifics but one would think all of these updates would make the Volt an even more appealing package. More room in the back would have also come in handy. If we take the 20% more power in the battery pack combined with the weight reduction and more efficient motors at face value, the Volt may approach 50 miles on electricity.
The question now is who is going to buy the current version (Osborne effect)?
Press Release follows: