General Motors today announced that it plans to introduce two new pure-electric vehicles over the next 18 months on its way to bringing out twenty such vehicles by 2023, contributing to a major component its goal of achieving a future with zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero traffic congestion – a goal iterated recently by CEO Mary Barra. The announcement comes nearly two years after crosstown rival Ford Motor Company announced its own $4.5-billion bet on electrification that would see the introduction of thirteen new electrified vehicle models by 2020, but Ford’s announcement is far less ambitious, including battery-electric, plug-in-hybrid, and conventional-hybrid models in its tally.
GM’s electrification onslaught will consist of a two-pronged approach, the automaker says, incorporating both battery-electric and hydrogen-fuel-cell models to serve a variety of customer needs. One such fuel-cell vehicle was introduced today: SURUS, the “Silent Utility Rover Universal Superstructure” concept. SURUS is a hydrogen-powered EV built on a heavy-duty truck frame with two electric motors and four-wheel steering. General Motors says that SURUS’ flexible architecture could allow it to serve as a delivery vehicle, truck, or an ambulance, all without letting loose any harmful emissions.
“General Motors believes in an all-electric future,” says GM Executive VP of Product Development, Purchasing, and Supply Chain Mark Reuss. “Although that future won’t happen overnight, GM is committed to driving increased usage and acceptance of electric vehicles through no-compromise solutions that meet our customers’ needs.”
Comments
Two new pure electrics in the next 18 months. One will almost assuredly be the Buick version of the Bolt. It will probably still be a very small vehicle.
The other one is a mystery. I’m hoping it’s a crossover somewhere in the 188-193″ range of lengths, something of similar size to the new Acadia.
Anything other than a mid to large crossover is a mistake. While an electric Camaro would be flashy, and an electric Malibu might garner magazine raves, only a crossover will (for better or worse) sell in big numbers, with a solid profit margin, and truly make a statement that GM is serious about EVs. Please quiet down the Tesla Chorus and do The Right Thing here, GM.
Won’t be Acadia. Should be ‘Nox and Terrain. And a Trax B and Encore B is a no brainer.
The Bolt and Trax are the same size essentially. Sit in one, then sit in the other. The Encore is a twin to the Trax. If they electrify those two next, that would be insanely poor planning. Now they’d have a PHEV compact car, a BEV subcompact+ CUV, and a BEV subcompact- CUV all at the same Chevy dealer.
The Equinox/Terrain would be a better choice, but still a bad choice. People looking to spend $25,000 on a compact CUV will NOT cough up an additional $7,000 or so to get the all electric version. It doesn’t make financial sense, so it can’t be sold that way. It doesn’t pay for itself against gas in savings. It needs to be sold as a premium vehicle with a premium nameplate, either Buick, GMC, or Cadillac. That way you can take a CUV that would normally MSRP at $35,000 to 38,000 and sell it for $42,000-45,000 with some easy interior upgrades.
1. Umm yeah I get that Encore and Trax are cousins. The point there is that if you ‘fix’ one to be all electric the other is an engineering breeze. Which I was listed ‘Nox AND Terrain. Same principle.
2. You presume people spending $25K on a car are doing so because they’re too cheap to spend $40. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe they don’t need a $40K car. No kids, mileage, small garage, whatever.
3. Some people look at a Trax and say… man… that Encore isn’t much more but way better. (Hi!) So those same people could say, but wait, I could get an electric Trax instead of a petrol Encore. So if they can splurge sometimes that might be one of the times. Conversely —
4. — a Buick buyer may be ready to purchase an Envision. But wifey poo says “but we could live with a Bolty Encore.” Stranger things have happened.
5. Sticking pricey tech on a pricey car rules out a ton of customers. Hence why a Bolt Acadia won’t happen. (Man they moved those Volty Cadillacs!)
1. We’re already getting a Buick Bolt. As I stated, the Bolt and Trax/Encore are as close to being the same size as one can pull off without actually riding on the same platform. You’re not going to get a Buick Bolt and a Buick Encore EV.
2. I didn’t say they were too cheap. They probably can’t afford more, or, they’re extremely pragmatic. Regardless of motivation which is irrelevant, their budget is their budget. You won’t convert either of those groups to EVs, not yet. Costs are still too high, gas is still too cheap.
3. Yes, Encore is much nicer than Trax. These people can and will buy the Buick Bolt.
4. Yes, see #3.
5. The ELR failed for a lot of reasons. First, because cars fell out of favor. And not only was it a car, but a 2 door car, a personal coupe. Name one 2 door car that is selling in volume today that is not a dedicated sports car with performance as its goal. That’s what BMWs/Camaros/Corvettes are. The ELR had none of that performance OR practicality to back up the gigantic MSRP. If they had built it as a compact Cadillac CUV and priced it around $50,000 there would have been profits and tons of sales.
@BrianD “Name one 2 door car that is selling in volume today that is not a dedicated sports car with performance as its goal. ”
What do you think of the Tesla Roadster?
This is fun
1. I know we’re getting a Buick Bolt. I’m voting for it to be an Encore Bolt. And if THAT happens why not a Trax Bolt. You’re forgetting how popular these cars are. No one is going to complain about this.
2. Yes you did bring cheapness into this. “People looking to spend $25,000 on a compact CUV will NOT cough up an additional $7,000.”
3. “Yes, Encore is much nicer than Trax. These people can and will buy the Buick Bolt.”
I don’t know what people you’re talking about. It’s as simple a breakdown as this —
a. There are people who can only afford a petrol Trax
b. — who can afford a Trax Bolt OR a petrol Encore
c. — who can afford an Encore Bolt
You’re acting like anyone who can afford an Encore will — OF COURSE — splurge on a Bolt version. Umm I could only manage an entry level Encore. Many critics have said that once you get a high trim Encore it becomes RATHER pricey.
4. Yes, see #3
5. To be fair to you there may be an audience for an Acadia Bolt. This group is more you buckets of money types. But you make it sound like no one wants an affordable Bolt product. Because of the tech markup most people do. Once the markup drops —
— your Acadia dreams will be realized
The ELR was a beautiful electric vehicle.
Are the vehicles covered in the background actual vehicles they’re working on to be realised in the near future? There is a nice mixture of big and small and sporty.
Good catch! I didn’t notice those before. That would be something if GM had all those future vehicles veiled in front of the media like that. I agree, the silhouettes look promising.
Hey
I finally test drove one of these Bolts just for spits and giggles. Three letters: WOW
I’ve only driven a Prius once or twice but wasn’t loving the car. It felt cheap and drove MEH. Had you told me the Prius was a sad little ‘Chevy’ I wouldn’t have scoffed. I don’t need a sports car but I won’t drive a sluggish boring BLAH of a sedan.
I got in the Bolt. Very comfy. For anyone who feels the interior is cheap apparently hasn’t been inside a Honda HRV. Sure, Bolty be plastic, but it was really nice plastic if there’s such a thing. The seat was cozy, dash pleasant, I liked being there.
Took the car out of the dealer and we turned and immediately went uphill a few blocks. I took advantage of the moment to gun it a bit to see what she could do. Whatever I want was the answer, with a confident quiet buttery acceleration. WOW.
%85 of what I needed to know about the handling answered in seconds. If cars have PASS/FAIL experiences, this was immediately an enthusiastic PASS. Two THUMBS UP. Not a moment of doubt. But there were some first model issues —
1. The electronic shift needs a better design. I figured I could learn this shift in a day but never like it. Ever. Not a deal breaker.
2. The big display and dash had lots of baby blue and white. This car should offer a light text dark background ‘easy eye mode’ for said screen that is available all day too. Until this is offered it’s a deal breaker for me. (Most normal dashboards are white letters on black for this reason.)
3. The back seat isn’t. I’m not tall but I didn’t have enough headroom. Not just height. You have to tilt your head inward — which is sadly another deal breaker. A backseat that’s decent for kids but bad for adults isn’t a sale to most people.
All this said — on the brink of greatness here. Fix these issues and conquests will happen.
Thank you for your thoughts. I don’t mind the back seat too much. Indeed it would be fine for my kids. Overall size, quality of interior, and lack of cargo space are the reasons we scratched it off our list for our next family vehicle. It could replace my Volt, but my Volt has sufficient commute range and is still in great condition.
General Motors is fortunate as they’ve got the technology to design, develop and build the next generation of Electric Vehicles as the Chevrolet Bolt is GM’s proof of concept; hopefully, the EVs will be CUVs given their popularity with one the size of a Chevy Equinox and the other a Traverse.
Well here is the deal.
The cars in back give you an idea of the mix we will see.
With China moving to push all electric as they are talking automakers need to find ways to do EV in all sizes and shapes.
The China mandate is really a blessing for GM as it will give them the ability to invest more in the EV and have better hope of making money to move them to a profitable status.
To do this in America and in a stagnate market would be very difficult.
I expect many of these models to be Stand Aline’s with their own names and identity.
I rather don’t expect a EV Camaro per say but I do expect a performance coupe.
I would wager a Trax like CUV and a Buick of some nature to be the first two. Both would fit the China and American markets.
Be forwarded some of these models will be made in China due to the fact most of them will be sold there. As the market grows here production will move here.
What many tend to forget is when the car like a Bolt came out they were already working two gens ahead.
With the advancements GM can do on their own it will give them an advantage for markets like Europe that may move to EV required in some areas.
To be honest this move is Elon Musks worst nightmare. He can barely ramp up the 3 and GM is showing their full ability that will trump his moves that he could never imagine.
GM also has the great advantage of ICE vehicles paying the bills and dividends as the progress.
If the can show they can do this and make money this could move GM from just being an automaker to being seen as a High Tech stock that could boost their stock like no other way could in this era.
It will be intersting to see what comes and how well they do.
We can not look st all this in old auto maker terms. It is a much different game and a transition.
Some outside forces still need to come in play like laws around the world requiring EV models.
This may be very intersting moving forward. I hope the technology
Keeps moving with more range and faster charging as both will be key to the American market.
How is this Elon Musk’s worst nightmare? Tesla’s mission statement from the very beginning was this, ‘To Accelerate the Advent of Sustainable Transport’. Which changed to ‘To Accelerate the Advent of Sustainable Energy’ afger buying SolarCity. Musk WAS BEGGING for this to happen. GM only began to move when they began to realize that some of their markets were considering ICE Bans, and finalized them. We’ll how GM does, like an Olympic runner that makes the jump over an obstacle at a time where the outcome is unclear, we’ll see. If anything, the MODEL 3, is GM’s worst nightmare. The real ramp up doesn’t start until the end of this week of October for the Model 3. I’ll predict 2k model 3 deliveries this month. That’s more than GM’s Bolt. I’d Rather buy a car from a company who’s pure motive isn’t to do something, just because everyone else is. Thanks, but no thanks.
if musk wants competition, he is going to get a healthy dose of it soon enough.
i think your purity test is silly. nobody cares if gm, vw, tm, … sell ev’s in addition to ice autos. consumers will buy whatever works for them.
The three is years late and still slow due to the lack of money. They pre sold sold the car to get to this point due to the lack of income from the X to pay for it.
Next door the S is in dire a dire revamp with others like Porsche coming and others.
Musks true motivation was money much of it was available goverment funding. It was legal and that is fine but a bit dishonest based on what he preaches.
He has done the same at space x as goverment funded projects are profitable to those who run the company.
The risk Musk has taken worked but the world has caught up and with their deep pockets and tech abilities Make it difficult to compete.
The battery plan will only work if they can make something better. If not people will only stay with the dance partners they have now.
Tesla is better suited to be a supplier to others who can not do it themselves in the coming EV market.
Like in computers it was the suppliers like Intel that made money selling what others needed vs trying to fight them.
Hope they take the BOLT platform and build a midsize SUV that feels worth 40k,
Some cars in the back looks like they belong to the C1XX platform? Did I see a corvette shaped too? Might of look like there’s a Regal dportd tourer shaped too?
That one car above the bolt’s hood Kinda looks like a camaro.
Never too early to think about a GEN 9 Fuel Cell Corvette as it’ll be like a bat out of hell with all-wheel drive, all-wheel steering, active aerodynamics and will use the Hydrogen fuel to keep the superconducting magnets of the electric motors running at maximum efficiency and performance.
be a great way to reintroduce Chevy into Europe. Over their they are pushing to have all electric vehicles by 2040. they could beat VW and Renault to the punch giving them an early lead. China is looking to incentivize electric vehicles as well. America wont see half of these. We will see 5-8 vehicles probably. they will be buick and chevy compact midsized and cuvs. expect nothing bigger than the trax from chevy or buick. Cadillac might make a splash with a plug in running on a version of the traverse platform. there isn’t a market in America when these things are so exspensive.
Or maybe supply UK and European markets under a different brand? Holden perhaps? Or maybe even an all-new brand… given that to many (most?) Brits and Europeans, a Chevrolet conjures up images of a purveyor of rebadged Daewoos which exited the market, almost as quickly as it arrived?
Don’t get me wrong, I love Chevrolet. And I would sell a kidney to get behind the wheel of a next generation GM EV. And I still can’t believe GM didn’t develop a RHD Bolt or Volt for the 38% of us who drive on the LHS. But to develop a sustainable presence here, I’m far from sure its the right brand.
But very excited by the prospect of new EVs from GM… the years through 2023 are going to be one heck of a ride!
OK here’s the question that’s not being answered – where is all the electricity to recharge these battery powered cars coming from? Coal fired power plants? What is to be gained from that? Relatively clean gas power plants would be better but a whole lot more need to be built to handle that capacity. I asume nuclear is out of favor for obvious reasons. Solar and wind generating plants will not be adequate. Seems to me fuel cells are the best option to replace petrol engines.
That question has been answered many many times. Use google….
How about a Cadillac xt4 with a voltec drive???
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1108997_is-2019-cadillac-xt3-crossover-the-next-plug-in-hybrid-for-luxury-brand
I’d add that to my Volt in the garage! My bet is that with good all electric range (>70 miles) it would be Tesla competition in Atherton/Silicon valley. All my Tesla friends are tired of stopping to charge going to Tahoe
I want to have a look on this ” SURUS, the “Silent Utility Rover Universal Superstructure” concept. SURUS is a hydrogen-powered EV built on a heavy-duty truck frame with two electric motors and four-wheel steering.”
I found this in the en.wikipedia.org article on “Surus”:
“Surus (“the Syrian”) was believed to be the last war elephant of Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca’s army in Italy. Several Roman writers give accounts of Surus, which was probably a large Asian elephant with one tusk.”
The article is accompanied of images of the two sides of a coin depicting Hanibal and an elephant.
Don’t forget GM got a patent for E-Ray back in 2015.
here’s the problem here. The Bolt starts at 36k (Chevolet.com) the trax at 21K. They are essentially the same size, and the trax is more capable. Assume that a 5k tax credit is included, and its at 29k for a less capable car. now for the savings in fuel, if you use the calculator on Chevrolets website, assuming that one drives 25000 miles a year (that’s a bit on the heavy side mind you, most cars I see at 10 years old are around 180k miles) than the savings are 766$/year. You have to drive 300000 miles without any battery change to justify a bolt financially. with a battery change, it might never catch up.
Yeah, I get the point that’s the case in the USA. But here in the UK, where we’re paying the equivalent of $5.85 per US gallon, the maths work out very differently. Beyond fuel costs, factor in reduced road tax, reduced company car tax rates and reduced servicing requirements and a Bolt can make a heck of a lot of sense… except of course that GM never planned to sell it here. There are other countries in the world where the cost of fuel is similar to the UK or even higher. So from a global perspective, the Bolt and most EVs have a lot going for them.
So they plan on having 22 pure electric vehicles in the fleet in such a short time period and expect them to sell at current levels. It just isn’t going to be sustainable in such a short time period. This all electric future has so many things to work out to be actually affordable and beneficial to your average everyday US driver . I think 2033 is a bit more realistic a time for this.
And will someone please explain to me how these vehicles will make a future of zero crashes and traffic congestion. That will never ever happen
“22” AKA 5 different vehicles riding on 2 platforms under 5 brands across a dozen countries. That will be in comparison to about 150 vehicles models offered in gas world wide. Most of these vehicles are just rebranded chevys’s but that’s the numbers game. Just like how the ford “f-series” outsells the silvarado when they count all size f series, fleet numbers and discard GMC. what should be compared is CK1500 platforms vs f150’s. here they should be reporting “introducing 2 new platforms and selling them world wide.” saying 22 new vehicles sounds cooler. Its all politics and impression. they know they will loose some money in the process, but they probably are thinking about it as a “safety net” in the event of a return to 5$ a gallon gas. remember how awful the prius were and still are? Toyota made out like a bandit 10 years ago with one of the worst driving cars ever invented, but they had the right image. its the same here. If GM declares themselves the EV king, they could beat out Toyota and ford in the next gas spike. They want a pedigree.
Excuse me, but where are they going to get people to actually buy these vehicles? Nobody around here wants one. Too rural and who wants to be stuck while the stupid battery is charging?
Where are you?
East Texas. Actually, they might sell a few here in Tyler, but out in the small towns around here, it’s all pickups and SUVs.
Hi Marc, I understand your point, pickup trucks are the popular choice in many small rural towns. The same is true here in Pahrump, Nevada. Also, a trip from Tyler to Dallas would be at least 95 miles or more depending in where you’re going in Dallas, and at your highway speeds in Texas the range would be reduced a lot by going 80 mph so you’d probably have to charge up in Dallas for at least an hour to be safe from running out of battery power on the way back. Or charge for 15 to 30 minutes at one of only two DC fast charging stations in Dallas. You would not be able to make it to Houston or San Antonio on a single charge. You’d need to get a 300 mile range electric car to be practical. Long range and powerful pickup trucks are several years away. For me, Las Vegas is 60 miles away, so I don’t have a problem with range and I don’t want or need a pickup truck, so the Chevy Bolt is perfect for me. I can even get to Los Angeles on a single charge and then charge up at a DC fast charger in Los Angeles. Oh well, I love Tyler, the rose growing capital of the world. And, wow, what an incredible rose garden you have there, beautiful.
This article is short on details. I image the 2 all-electric cars coming out in the next 18 months will be, as many have already mentioned, the Buick version of the Bolt that will look similar to the Encore. The second one is the mystery EV that no news has come out on. Will it be another Spark size sub-compact EV? Or will it be a larger SUV Equinox type? Or will it be a sedan,? Maybe it will be the long awaited electric only version of the Volt that was rumored several years ago. My guess would be the later, a mid-size sedan style EV. Both will probably use the same 60 kW battery and get in the 220+ mile per charge range hopefully with faster DC level 3 charging rate. I hope they have larger battery options as well. GM also needs to start getting involved in supporting the DC fast charging infrastructure the way other manufacturers have like BMW, Tesla, and others. GM should buy ChargePoint and start growing the number of charging stations and then they would really start to compete with Tesla.
Anyone notice how the vehicle right above the Bolt’s back door looks extremely similar to the GMC Granite? Now obviously I’m not saying that the Granite is coming to production as an ev but I am saying g that a very Granite-y vehicle might be soon.
WAITING for the EV to cost 20% less like CEO Beira said it is to build!