General Motors was highly contemptuous of Tesla in 2009, says former GM executive Steve Girsky. According to Girsky, who recalled GM’s attitude towards the all-electric vehicle maker during a recent fireside chat, GM regarded Tesla as a “bunch or engineers playing with laptops” at the time. Tesla is now the biggest EV manufacturer in the world, with a market cap of $800 billion, as compared to GM’s current market cap of $45 billion.
Former GM executive Steve Girsky
Girsky was installed by the Obama administration during GM’s bankruptcy and served as vice chairman of the GM board of directors. Girsky also served as Chariman of Opel. Girsky served on the GM board between 2009 and 2016, and as GM Vice Chairman between 2010 and 2014. During his time as GM Vice Chairman, Girsky was responsible for global corporate strategy, product planning and development, global research, and connected customer / OnStar development.
Girsky was appointed as CEO at Nikola Corporation last month. Nikola develops all-electric semi trucks. During a recent fireside chat, Girsky said he asked about Tesla shortly after joining GM.
“I asked about Tesla and was told that it was just a bunch of engineers playing with laptop batteries,” Girsky said. “That was conventional wisdom at the time, and we know how that turned out. Tesla got a 10-year jump on the entire industry.”
Girsky added that Nikola could have a similar jump start.
“The big guys are writing off the zero-emission trucking industry. I know they’re playing with prototypes, but they believe this tech is late-decade stuff at the earliest.”
This isn’t the first time GM executives have been dismissive of Tesla. Former General Motors Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz, has been particularly vocal in his criticism, saying as recently as 2018 that he believed Tesla was “headed for the graveyard.”
Tesla currently leads the EV market by a significant margin. In the D-Segment Luxury EV CUV segment, for example, the Tesla Model Y captured 98 percent of the market during the first half of the year. GM is still ramping up its EV production capacity.
Table Title
| MODEL | YTD 23 / YTD 22 | YTD 23 | YTD 22 | YTD 23 SHARE | YTD 22 SHARE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TESLA MODEL Y | +76.39% | 190,500 | 108,000 | 98% | 100% |
| CADILLAC LYRIQ | * | 2,316 | 0 | 1% | 0% |
| LEXUS RZ | * | 1,117 | 0 | 1% | 0% |
| AUDI Q8 E-TRON | * | 779 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| JAGUAR I-PACE | -3.99% | 265 | 276 | 0% | 0% |
| TOTAL | +80.07% | 194,977 | 108,276 |
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Comments
Mistake of the decade. I still believe the strongest threat is not from Tesla but from the major tech companies: Apple, Intel, AMD, Huawei, Sony, Samsung, etc. Tech companies have spent years stretching battery capacity, efficiency, and refining touchscreen displays and UI. The real secret to EVs is efficiency. If someone can create an EV that is twice as efficient as the current models, then they will have twice the range and charge at double the rate. That’s all the difference between a successful EV and a failure.
That’s the thing EV motors are already 95%+ efficient. If you go all in on efficiency you get a less than desirable shape and utility. The only breakthroughs that will help EVs is battery capacity increase. That will allow them to make an EV will equal capacity as today to weigh less or an EV that has a range 500+ miles yet weighs close to an ICE vehicle.
The problem with a larger battery is it increases the time it takes to charge and the cost per charge. It also suffers a range penalty because of the added weight of the batteries. A more efficient EV fixes all three problems. We can see the difference with Lucid Motors’ offering. They developed a motor that provides a modest improvement in efficiency over their competitors and they now have an EV that produces more than 500 miles of range with a 118kWh battery. This is much better than the 300 miles of range that competitors offer with 130-200kWh.
Richard, The Kia EV6 Wind RWD model has a 77kW battery (74kW usable) and a range of 310 miles and the equivalent Hyundai Ioniq 5 gets 303 miles. Also, the Mustang Mach-E long range version with a 91kW usable battery gets 310 miles. When you say 130-200kW batteries, you are talking about the large SUVs like the Hummer and Silverado.
GM teamed up with both LG and Samsung SDI on their batteries…
And yet a cell phone is only good for like 1 year. 2 years in the battery is being charged multiple times a day…3 years is when things get interesting
My expectation this will happen whenever they finally decide people aren’t buying enough EVs so they’ll try and constantly get them to buy the latest and greatest
There’s a reason why cars are on the road longer than ever and it’s not just bc they last longer. If anything they just cost more to buy new and repairing seems better since half the cars today are gone. Your option is a CUV in every size….
Batteries for the Volt and Tesla Model S have been out for a decade with no replacements at near >90% capacity. Cell phone batteries get cycled a lot from 100% charged to dead. The same doesn’t really happen on an EV so the batteries last a lot longer. Also EV batteries are heated an coiled to stay at their optimum temperature. Cell phone batteries get warm while charging or using them for a length of time.
Tesla wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn’t for Tax Payer Subsidies. The government used tax payer money to prop this company up. I’m not saying that Musk isn’t a genius and that Tesla’s are crap, but that they wouldn’t be as big as they are. Also EV’s are not the future The mining of Lithium and Cobalt isn’t sustainable.
musk has never created anything. he buys things. he bought tesla. his payout was when others sold paypal to ebay. he bought twitter. he doesnt create; he takes over.
he was about to be charged with fraud over all the grants he took.. thats why all of a sudden tesla started to actually produce cars. for how many years it was just a name with no product?
you obviously don’t run a business. creating a LLC with an idea is quite easy, building it into success is the challenge. he didn’t start tesla, but did run it from tiny little lotus engine swaps to where it is today. he put all his money into tesla and spacex when he could have retired to an island. yes the whole engineering teams at tesla and spacex deserve the credit but he built the foundations for them to thrive.
So you are just going to ignore Space X which he actually founded from scratch? Tesla he bought when it was barely a year old with only a few people on the payroll. Not exactly buying in to an established multi million dollar business here…
GM got the cash from the government too. They also owe a lot to the government.
Bingo. There’s a reason it’s affectionately called Government Motors.
The ultimate taxpayer subsidies and prop ups are GM and Stellantis…they literally wouldn’t exist without them. We taxpayers spent tens of billions to bailout GM in 2008. As thanks, they now build a large number of their trucks in Mexico and import SUV’s from China and Korea. By comparison, Tesla looks like an amatuer at taxpayer subsidies, yet the stuff they sell here they build here.
GM repaid all of the Loan from the U.S. Government with interest, 8% interest. The tax payers made money.
So, I’ll say it then… Musk “isn’t a genius and Teslas are crap”
When you say things that are false – you look like an idiot. Elon has said many there should be no subsidies – for anyone – including oil. And for the longest time – there was no subside for Tesla cars – not until last year…..
Tesla is the most American auto company and is dominating in the EV space and many other areas like solar and batteries as well as AI and robots…
gm slow walked EVs until “the big guy” sniffed, nibbled and fondled Mary and told her you are going to build EVs.
You’re talking about T***p, right? Because GM unveiled Ultium in March 2020 and promised a line of cars before the last election.
No, george sorros
In 2020 and how many ultium based have they sold since?
We come here for real information on GM products. We have that in common. I’m really not interested in your politics.
I think politics is what put EVs on the fast track.
I knew that I should brought Tesla stock back in 2010.
That’s a lot of model Y’s, but that’s still a small number of cars compared to the ~14 million vehicles sold in the US yearly. This has only begun. No reason to pick winners at this point.
The Model Y is the best selling vehicle globally by a widening margin (Corolla, RAV4) and will easily surpass 1M units in 2023. In the US, Tesla is approaching a 5% market share (60% of BEV) while GM is at 17%. Tesla already outsells BMW and Subaru and is rapidly closing in on Nissan. While GM retains the middle of the US in sales, Toyota has owned the coasts for decades, but that is starting to change. Tesla outsold Toyota in California, the US largest single auto market, in Q2 2023 in a market Toyota has dominated since the 80’s and routinely outsells GM+Ford. Think about that – the Model Y/3 + S/X outsold the Taco + Tundra + Camry + RAV4 + Corolla + Highlander + Sienna, etc. I know ‘it’s California’, but other states typically follow California trends. In terms of global sales, GM is 5th while Tesla comes in at #11 as of 1H 2023. Tesla leads global BEV market share at 22%, BYD 14%, and VWAG 7%. So, for now GM handily outsells Tesla in the US, but when you consider GM sold 10.1M cars globally in 2016 while Tesla managed just 76k that same year (132 times less), and in 2023 GM is expected to produce 5.9M (as in 2022) to Tesla’s 2M (only 3x). The gap is narrowing rapidly.
Read Girsky’s comments again…the winner today is TESLA. That can change but I don’t see that happening in the next three years. What happens after 2027 is still up in the air.
By the way, every time I hear someone bad mouthing EV’s I ask them if they ever drove or ridden in an an EV, if they say no I don’t set out to argue with them, I conclude they don’t know what they’re talking about
GM should be more worried about China who is also way ahead in the EV game.
Typical GM arrogance.
Fortunately their time is almost up. Chapter 7 is coming.
Still stealing my name huh?
GM is no where near Chapter 7, they are the most financially stable of the big 3 and in great position to continue to succeed. Regardless of what some want to believe, Mary is doing a good job as the company shows… She may not be wasting money on enthusiast vehicles asl those are a very small piece of the market, but what she has done makes GM Financially stable.
I agree that GM is in a better state financially than Ford or Stellantis, but I wouldn’t say current management has done a great job. I guess they managed the rapid decline from #1 global sales leader to #5 in just 6 years (shedding over 4M global annual sales – think Nissan+Subaru numbers), lost the European market, and have no clue on how to compete in the BEV arena (HUMMER EV, CELESTIQ) – thinking ‘halo’ vehicles will inspire people to buy a $60k+ Blazer EV with less range/room than the ICE version for twice the price. I’m sorry, but I think GM has been lost for decades and the only reason it remains solvent is full size truck sales – which are under attack when considering escalating CAFE standards. So, GM is in a serious bind, the strike notwithstanding.
Course they did. Teslas portfolio is still absolute junk, but due solely to musks charisam, its sapes are mostly because people think its cool to own something different. Same reason people buy volvos.
800B market cap for a company that sells a fraction of what GM does is absolute BS. Teslas moment is already passed as everyone who wanted one now has one and will likley switch back now that the new has worn off
Be funny if TSMC (you know that company in Taiwan that makes 50% of all chips) told Tesla, “no more chips for you”. After all Musk did say that Taiwan should just be part of China, just like he told Ukraine to make nice with Putin. How anyone can stomach to own a Tesla that believes in democracy is beyond me.
Steven . . . In the past 7 years GM went from selling over 10M cars worldwide to 5.9M in 2022 while Tesla has increased sales ~50% annually since 2020 and will sell 2M in 2023. So, by the end of 2023 GM will be roughly only 2.5x the size of Tesla (a 21st century start up – think about that) and Tesla will surpass them well before the end of the decade in global sales (likely 2027). This is a global market and market cap is based on future expectations. China has accounted for the majority of GM’s sales (probably not the case this year), but it is rapidly bleeding market share to domestic Chinese OEMs, while Tesla’s China sales are records each quarter, despite have only one factory that is also an export hub. The Chinese car market is ~25M or more per year vs the shrinking US car market of ~15M. While GM remains top dog in the US for now, it is a minor player globally while Tesla is moving into and dominating markets GM retreated from (EU, Australia, etc.). So, you can hate Tesla all you want, but thinking their moment has passed is wishful thinking – Tesla owners are by far the most loyal brand owners by a wide margin, even more than F-150 or Silverado owners. I used to hate Tesla, then I drove one, bought a Model Y and will sell my Duramax ZR2 when my CT order comes up in a couple years. I, like most Tesla owners wouldn’t consider any other BEV (other than a Rivian, the highest recipient of Tesla defectors) – its analogous to Apple vs Android, as I would never consider a Galaxy. This is what Tesla haters cannot comprehend and why they don’t understand how Tesla increases sales even when new ‘Tesla Killers’ are introduced daily. As far as Tesla being ‘junk’ – I haven’t had a single issue with my Austin TX built Y with better panel gaps than my Porsche Cayenne S and ZR2. I suggest you go tour a Tesla and GM plant and tell me which one is better suited to survive the coming onslaught of Chinese BEVs that will be built in Mexico to backdoor in the US via NAFTA.
It’s a kind of revisionist history. You fail to mention the markets GM got out of during that same time. Australia, Europe, all other right-hand drive countries, etc. At the same time, they have been more profitable than ever. Tesla has expanded by going to more and more countries.
Yep quite loyal, to a fault. I’ll say it again, do you believe in democracy? Musk does not. Every time a US citizen buys a tesla they are sticking a knife into democracy.
And you are quite loyal to talking points – First of all the US is not a democracy – think India. It is a democratic Republic, vastly different than mob rule. The key difference between a democracy and a republic lies in the limits placed on government by the law, which has implications for minority rights. Both forms of government tend to use a representational system — i.e., citizens vote to elect politicians to represent their interests and form the government. In a republic, a constitution or charter of rights protects certain inalienable rights that cannot be taken away by the government, even if it has been elected by a majority of voters. In a “pure democracy,” the majority is not restrained in this way and can impose its will on the minority.
The United States is a democratic republics with a constitution, which can be amended by a popularly elected government. This comparison therefore contrasts the form of government in most countries today with a theoretical construct of a “pure democracy”, mainly to highlight the features of a republic.
Congratulations, your loyalty along with the legions of other misinformed do not believe in democracy then. Musk clearly does not. Or do you agree Taiwan and Ukraine should just give in to a takeover by Putin/Xi?
I am highly informed and wary of what narrative our ‘mainstream’ media or government agencies pushe. Musk has done more for the people Ukraine (with SpaceX) than any one else – PERIOD. And somehow Ukraine is some sort of democratic utopia that we need to fund indefinitely. Elon has his opinions on how to resolve world issues as do you – you are free to express yourself on X, possibly other platforms as long as you conform to the narrative
Tesla model Y’s are everywhere and everyone I talked to likes the car. They bought the car not Elon Musk. He’s a maverick. He’ll go up and he’ll go down. He’s been scoffed at and looked on as a one hit wonder. However, he has shown the industry how to build and sell cars.
I still can’t believe that’s I reward your articles and you classify a Tesla Model Y as a luxury EV. In what world is a Model Y luxury, I owned a Mach E for a year, it is more luxurious than a Model Y.
So true! Talk about a PLAIN JANE! Tesla’s are the launch pad of EVs. Once the competitors have released the beasts, they won’t be as popular.
The majority of drivers DO NOT WANT an EV. They will bring GM to its knees because they are in bed with China for the materials in its production.
GM’s world-class executive arrogance knows no bounds.
Elon Musk is a brilliant, clever man however he’s a ruthless, and despised. Like all mavericks he’ll go up and will go down. These types usually self destruct. Having said all that he has been successful to date in the automotive and space industry. However, they automotive industry will catch up. The Chinese are developing EV’s faster than any other Company. The future is bright and I feel EV’s will be mainstream by the end of the decade when they have a range of 600 miles and can be charged up in 10 minutes.
GM and the other Legacies, also dismissed the Japanese makers when CUV’s first came out, now just as then, the legacies (foreign and domestic) are now playing catch-up.
Teslas are garbage automobiles and their batteries will prove to be very dangerous in the long run. GM owners don’t want EVs.
GM killed the EV1, mocked Tesla, went bankrupt, lost market share in the US, has failed to mass produce promised EVs. Now GM is facing paying UAW workers record amounts in pay and benefits. They WILL NOT be competitive with Tesla or non-union foreign owned makers plants in the US. Hardly a forecast to instill confidence in the stock.
As a former decades long GM owners, we now own, a Tesla, Honda Pilot, RAM 1500. All good vehicles. Our Tesla is a good not great vehicle. It has been very inexpensive to operate, reliable, love the reduced maintenance, would like a more luxurious interior. The Honda is the best vehicle we have owned. The RAM very good so far.
Seems that GM is facing a brutally competitive EV market as probably the high cost producer. We will not be replacing our Tesla when the time comes with a GM EV.
I know little about the foreign market except it is also going to be brutally competitive. GM is going to have to be very profitable to survive. Time will tell whether management has them on the right path.
Everything here is opinion. Negative positive. I feel everyone will play in this space. As for which cars are better which company is ahead there’s no consensus. All I know is my Chevy volt is the best car I have ever owned. A Chevy bolt off a three year lease is a car payment I can live with. If anyone has read what GM has been doing since the bolt came to market. Since they announced they would convert to all electric you would know they are not behind. They are just trying to build the batteries. That’s the challenge. With the bolt and equinox they have the two most affordable electric cars you can buy. The rest are 42-46 thousand bucks and up. The bolt is more than enough for me.
Great for you but the MAJORITY of drivers DO NOT WANT “EV’s.
Stop comparing tesla to luxury brands, they aren’t luxury, their quality control isn’t at Kia levels, let alone Lexus. Even Tesla is careful not to call themselves luxury, they are “premium”