General Motors hopes to transform the vehicle buying and ownership experience through its new Ultifi customer experience platform, which will give GM EV owners a digital I.D. number and related profile.
GM disclosed a small amount of detail on the Ultifi platform on a slide that was shown during its presentation at the 2020 Barclay’s Global Automotive Conference this week. Ultifi will enable all GM EV owners to receive a digital I.D. number, along with an accompanying digital cloud profile and smartphone application. Through this profile and app, customers will be able to manage over-the-air updates for their vehicle, track their vehicle ownership history and payments and much more.
The name Ultifi is closely related to the Ultium name for GM’s new modular battery system and family of electric drive motors. Ultium batteries and motors will power almost all new GM EVs going forward and will help it achieve what CEO Mary Barra called a “multi-brand, multi-segment EV strategy,” with economies of scale that will rival its full-size truck business.
“While Ultium underpins our upcoming EV hardware, Ultifi underpins our customer experience commitment for those EVs,” explained newly appointed GM Chief EV Officer, Travis Hester. “It’s a digital unification platform across the entire journey: Purchase, Onboarding, and Ownership.”
Travis Hester
Hester said the impact of Ultifi can already be seen with the launch strategy for the 2022 GMC Hummer EV. The battery-electric truck has clear non-negotiable pricing and a full digital reservation system – both of which are a sign of GM’s future strategy for EV sales under Ultifi. The automaker says this transition will also help it “dramatically improve,” its use of e-commerce and digital retail to promote and close vehicle transactions.
GM announced earlier this week that it would invest $27 billion to bring 30 new EVs to market before the end of 2025. These will include products from the Chevy, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands and will range in price from low five figures to over $100,000. The Hummer EV will be the first Ultium-based GM EV and will be followed shortly after by the Cadillac Lyriq crossover.
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Comments
Interesting. They’re thinking of everything.
It seems like this would make a lot more sense under the (already well known) OnStar brand. I wonder if this foreshadows an end to that division, or possibly a complete rebranding.
Might note GM is offering $300,000 to $500,000 out on Electric Cadillacs.
This will decrease the number of dealers and leave the strongest in each market. It should result in more profitable dealers, happier dealers and better service at the dealers.
On Star really is not growing.
C8.R
I’ve thought for quite a while that Cadillac had too many stores. As you say, fewer dealers means stronger dealers. More profitable dealers mean nicer facilities and an improved regard for the brand overall.
I know Johann De Nysschen tried something like this with Project Pinacle (IIRC), but got a good deal of push back. I don’t believe he was a fan of Electrifaction ( and that may be the reason GM let him go), but it may be more successful at reducing the dealer count.
GM has tried to kill dealers since the bail out as they have too many of all present brands. The government stopped them.
The only real way to kill the dealers is pressure them on supplies and or buy them out. That is what they are doing here. Not sure how many will take the money as that is not a lot for a franchise unless they are really doing poorly.
Yes JDN tried to reduce the numbers too but he was gone before much could be done. Yes GM moving over to the EV program I think proved to split him from GM. He has his plans and then they changed their plans.
Less dealers are key as GM is competing more with themselves than the other brands. I can see many of the Cadillac dealers that are hung on the side of a Chevy dealer could be the prime dealers to take the money. They already have the other franchise and the Cadillac in most cases is a side line not a priority. Those are the dealers you do not want selling your first electric cars.
Does everyone remember that I have been saying Legacy Automakers will have a hell of a time with the Dealers.
Dealerships as I have been stating for a while want nothing to do with EV’s.
The dealerships know they will never see those Customers again unless they decide to trade in and get the same Brand again.
Nonsense. Dealers will sell it if a customer wants it. They are full-on capitalists and will sell and service what the market demands. The reality is that EV demand (at current prices and range) isn’t there. It will get there, but it simply isn’t there. Automakers spending billions on EVs doesn’t create demand, it creates supply.
Government subsidies help with demand at the margins (did the $100K Tesla buyer need a subsidy?), but they are no substitute for a vehicle that actually meets a customer’s need. There will be far less powertrain related repairs, and certainly the service/parts biz at dealerships will have to change, but it will still be there. The pace of market share gain of EVs will have a slow rolling impact on the size of dealer networks, but different companies seem to be handling that currently, just in different ways. You can look at automotive news data to see dealer count trends by brand (if you have a subscription).
i want to but stock in ultium batterys is it available?