Sources: GM manufacturing revamp could signal faster lane-change to EVs

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV pre-productionLess than a week after speaking out in favor of a national electric vehicle mandate, and in the shadow of Tesla reporting a profitable quarter, General Motors might be on the verge of announcing a radical change to its plans for future electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in the U.S. The automaker is anticipated to make a major business...

GM to expand Chevy Bolt EV sales, bring battery production to US

2018 Chevrolet Bolt EVAs part of a sweeping update on General Motors' electric-car plans, CEO Mary Barra announced the company will expand production and sales of the Chevy Bolt EV. At the same time, GM is expanding battery production for the Bolt EV from South Korea to a new factory in Michigan. In a blog post on LinkedIn on Wednesday, Barra laid out the company's...

Will GM or Tesla buyers lose electric-car tax credits first? (updated)

Tesla Model 3A major contributor to electric-car sales is the program under which buyers of new electric cars qualify for a federal income-tax credit of up to $7,500. But these tax credits are not unlimited. Once a manufacturer reaches sales of 200,000 plug-in electric cars (after December 31, 2009), the credits start to phase out for that company's cars...

GM promises it can make money on all-electric cars by 2021

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV pre-production vehicles at Orion Township Assembly Plant, March 2016Radically new powertrains are widely assumed to lose money for the companies that launch them. Toyota's hybrid-electric system, launched in Japan in 1997, likely didn't break even until sometime after the 2004 launch of the second-generation Prius. Long-range battery-electric vehicles are the same, according to analysts and insiders: the question...

GM taps Bolt EV, Volt, Super Cruise chief for new EV lead role

Pamela FletcherGeneral Motors announced Friday that it would promote Pamela Fletcher to a newly created role to lead the automaker's global electric vehicle program. Fletcher most recently oversaw development of the Chevy Bolt EV and Super Cruise programs. The newly minted role for Fletcher—vice president of Global Electric Vehicle Programs—has...

GM’s view of hydrogen fuel cells: great for military use

General Motors’ Silent Utility Rover Universal Superstructure (SURUS)General Motors thinks there's a future for hydrogen fuel cells, but it's not in your driveway. Unless you're a member of the armed forces and your driveway is, say, Fort Bliss. The Detroit automaker is and the U.S. Army are collaborating on a modular experimental light- and medium-duty fuel-cell truck platform with a name so military that it could...

GM to launch two new electric vehicles within 18 months, 20 by 2023

Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car with future GM electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, Oct 2017 General Motors said on Monday it will unveil two new battery-electric vehicles within the next 18 months, and will offer 20 electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles globally by 2023. The news came in a conference call for reporters with Mark Reuss, GM's executive vice president of global product development. GM's announcement follows similar...

CEO Barra attacks China gas-car ban, suggests buyers should decide

One of 130 second-generation self-driving Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars, with GM CEO Mary BarraGeneral Motors CEO Mary Barra met with reporters in Shanghai on Friday, discussing the company's vision of the future: "a world with zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion." The company doesn't think, however, that China should be quite so hasty in pushing to ban cars that actually do have tailpipe emissions, however. Barra argued...

New LG Michigan plant could boost GM electric-car domestic content

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV pre-production vehicles at Orion Township Assembly Plant, March 2016The question of where consumer goods are made has become more prominent in our political discourse of late, cars among them. Every automobile sold in the U.S. carries a listing of content sources, specifying what percentage by value of its overall content comes from which countries or regions. Electric cars, it turns out, have some anomalies...