General Motors (GM)

GM and Honda are both aiming to get more serious about electric vehicles and that means securing a supply of high-performance batteries.

In order to achieve that, the two major automakers are announcing today a new partnership to build next-gen batteries for electric vehicles.
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Cadillac announced today that its Super Cruise level 2/3 autonomous driving system will be expanding into its other vehicles and to the wider GM lineup of vehicles in 2020. Cadillac calls it the only truly “hands free” autonomous system though other makers might argue semantics.

Cadillac’s Super Cruise is a Tesla (or Mercedes Drive Pilot, Nissan Propilot, etc) Autopilot-like level 2 software that GM puts in its top end CT-6 only for now. GM gave us a demo CT-6 which we did a quick review of, below.

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Money is currently pouring into dozens of companies trying to bring self-driving car technology to market.

GM is betting on its own self-driving car division as it secures over $3 billion in backing to bring the technology to market next year.
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Over a year after its launch, the Chevy Bolt EV is still alone as an all-electric vehicle with a range of over 200 miles for less than $40,000, but GM hasn’t taken the opportunity to sell more vehicles despite clear important demand.

In Canada, the significant demand and limited availability have created a backlog of up to a year.
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Over the past year, GM has been claiming that “electric is the future” and that they see electrification as a “priority”. But at the same time, they have been supporting efforts to relax fuel consumption standards that would force them to produce more electric vehicles.

As President Trump’s administration is currently reviewing the rules, GM CEO Mary Barra reaffirms the company’s ‘commitment to electric vehicle’ in a blog post.
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GM is about to release the third model year of the Chevy Bolt EV, its only all-electric vehicle, and we’ve got a glimpse at the updates that the automaker is bringing to the vehicle through dealer documentation.
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I know that Electrek readers are tired of concept electric vehicles that have little chances of ever getting to production, but I thought this one was too stunning not to share.

Buick unveiled a beautiful new all-electric SUV concept with “up to 370 miles” of range. Sure, why not 1 million miles as long as we’re talking about concepts…
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A lot of eyes are on self-driving test programs right now, especially since the fatal accident involving a Uber test vehicle earlier this month.

Now a self-driving Chevy Bolt EV test car gets a ticket in San Francisco for not yielding to a pedestrian, but GM doesn’t agree with the police officer.
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Several legacy automakers, like GM, are claiming to be all-in on electric vehicles, but they are still lobbying to relax fuel consumption standards that would accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.

GM CEO Mary Barra is now reportedly meeting with Trump administration about relaxing the standard as the EPA is even considering trying to force states to stop following California’s more aggressive standards.
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While Tesla doesn’t make any commercials itself, it has often been the target of other automakers’ commercials.

Now we get another example of it as GM takes a swipe at Tesla in its latest Cadillac commercial.
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GM announced today that it is investing $100 million into upgrading two factories to start making the production version of its self-driving Chevy Bolt EV for its upcoming driverless ride-sharing service to be launched next year.
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GM CEO Mary Barra reiterated the company’s commitment to zero-emission vehicles and announced that they are increasing Chevy Bolt EV production.
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GM has been using the Chevy Bolt EV electric car has an anchor vehicle for its car-sharing network, Maven. 

Now they are using it again today by sending 20 Chevy Bolt EVs to Austin.
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Industry analysts suggested that Tesla’s delays in ramping up Model 3 production and reaching its promised base price of $35,000 would open the door for other all-electric vehicles in the same price range, but it doesn’t seem to be the case so far.

GM’s Chevy Bolt EV sales in the US are still significantly down from the highs of 2017.
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The Chevy Bolt EV came to Europe as the Opel Ampera E around the same time that GM sold its European operation to PSA.

The change affected the rollout of the electric vehicle in Europe, but Opel announced this week that it is bringing an electric Corsa, which is in the same segment as the Ampera E, to market.
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GM’s Chevy Bolt EV sales started significantly down in 2018 on a month-to-month basis, but they remain slightly up over the same period last year.
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GM ended up delivering over 23,000 Chevy bolt EVs in the US during its first full year of production, but availability was limited in other markets.

Despite troubles in Europe where the vehicle is sold as the Opel Ampera-E, 2018 is expected to be a more important year for GM’s only all-electric vehicle sold internationally.

Now, we learn that South Korea could become an important market for the car as GM confirms that it is allocating 5,000 units to the country for the year.
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Today, GM unveiled the first image of its upcoming autonomous fourth-generation Bolt EV-based vehicle – the “first without a steering wheel or pedal.”

The automaker also says that it filed a petition asking the DOT permission to deploy the vehicle as soon as next year.
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With the relative success of its Chevy Bolt EV and the hunger for EVs in China, GM is one of the few big automakers actually trying to build a business around electric vehicles. CEO Mary Barra has committed separately to 5 crossovers, 2 minivans, 7 SUVs and 10 new electric vehicles by the end of the decade in China.  But with the Bolt EV reportedly losing up to $9000 per vehicle initially, how does the company get to real profitability with these vehicles?

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Not unlike the Tesla Model 3, the Chevy Bolt EV had a slow production and delivery ramp-up in 2017, but it did finish the year strong by increasing deliveries every month leading to another new record in December.
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Tesla shocked a lot of people when they announced last year that all their cars are now “self-driving ready” – potentially making them the first automaker with future-proof cars through upcoming software updates.

But those updates have been delayed and the lead position for the race to autonomous driving is still up for grabs.

Now GM is claiming that lead position and linking their autonomous driving effort to electric vehicles in order to compete with Tesla.
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