General Motors is gearing up to dethrone Tesla.
In an interview with CNBC, General Motors (GM) CEO Mary Barra said the company can “absolutely” catch Tesla in U.S electric vehicle (EV) sales by 2025.
GM is planning to release at least 30 EVs by 2025, including the GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq and the Chevrolet Silverado EV.
“I am very comfortable, because when people get into these vehicles, they are just wowed,” said Ms Barra in regard to the upcoming EV models.
“So we will be rolling them out and we’re going to just keep working until we have No. 1 market share in EVs.”
GM currently sells only two EVs in the US: the Chevrolet Bolt and the Bolt EUV.
Analytics firm IHS Markit predicts Tesla’s share of the US electric vehicle market will sit at 56 per cent by the end of 2021, down from 79 per cent in 2020. It also predicts its share will drop to 20 per cent as companies like GM release more and more EVs.
Barra’s comments come a few weeks after the company revealed its new plan to double its overall revenue by 2030, as well as introduce cheaper EV models.
This announcement was made at its Investor Day at the Global Technical Centre in Warren, Michigan.
Revenue from EVs alone is projected to grow from around US$10 billion (A$13.34 billion) in 2023 to US$90 billion (A$120 billion) by 2030.
GM will still be counting on revenue from its internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicles though like its profitable full-sized pickup trucks and SUVs.
In the 2020 fiscal year, GM had a total revenue of US$122 billion (A$162 billion).
The company’s electric transformation will truly kick into gear in 2022, with its first model on the new Ultium electric architecture – the GMC Hummer EV – commencing deliveries later in 2021.
“So, we will be delivering this fall. I was at the plant … just a couple of weeks ago and the vehicles look outstanding,” said Ms Barra.
It’ll be joined by the GMC Hummer EV SUV in 2022, along with the Cadillac Lyriq.
By 2025, it’s aiming to sell more than one million EVs annually and by 2030 it’s aiming for half of its US and Chinese plants to be capable of producing EVs.
GM has previously confirmed it’s investing US$35 billion (A$46.7) billion in electric and autonomous vehicles through 2025, with an aim of becoming an all-electric automaker by 2035.
New GM products will include a new Chevrolet SUV that’ll cost around US$30,000 (A$40,022), and will be similarly-sized to the current Equinox that was briefly sold here as a Holden.
This new model is set to be US$1000 less than the Bolt and US$3000 less than the Bolt EUV which have only just resumed production due to a massive battery recall that affected around 142,000 examples worldwide.
A smaller and cheaper Chevy EV is also planned, while there’ll also be an electric version of the larger, two-row Blazer, that’s built on the bones of the GMC/Holden Acadia.
These two models are expected to use GM’s modular Ultium architecture.
There will also be new Buick SUVs, luxury Cadillac models including the Celestiq flagship, as well as an electric Chevrolet Silverado.
The latter will debut at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show, and will likely be followed by an electric GMC Sierra pickup truck.
Do you think General Motors will be able to knock Tesla off the sales charts? Let us know in the comments
MORE: General Motors plans to double revenue, introduce cheaper EVs
