GM head Mary Barra said she is not yet ready to retire as The General’s CEO and Chairman of the Board during an interview with The Economic Club’s David Rubenstein.
Rubenstein noted CEOs usually run a company for three to four years before moving on unless they are the founder. After pointing out Mary Barra has already been GM CEO for ten years, he asked her, “have you any thoughts on how much longer you would like to do this?”
Barra said she serves at the pleasure of the Board of the Directors, but went on to describe the current situation of General Motors as “such an exciting time.” She remarked that the next few years will be the opportunity “to really execute this new strategy” with GM’s product line electrification and other initiatives, “so I’m energized.”
Rubenstein said that it sounds as though Barra is happy with her position and that for the foreseeable future she will remain as CEO and Chairman of the Board, to which she responded, “as long as I have the opportunity to do that, and as we’re advancing where we’re at, it’s great.”
Under Mary Barra’s leadership, The General has embarked on a plan to phase in electric vehicles to its lineup while gradually phasing out ICE vehicles. This strategy was first publicly detailed in 2020 when Barra announced the automaker’s intention to launch 30 new EV models worldwide by 2025. During this timeframe, she said, the company will invest $27 billion in its electrification efforts.
Under Mary Barra’s guidance, GM’s EV plans grew rapidly more ambitious, eventually including an intention to produce 400,000 battery-electric vehicles in North America by summer 2024. This was a modification of an earlier goal of reaching cumulative 400,000-unit production by the end of 2023.
More recently, GM abandoned a specific timetable for production of 400,000 EV units in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. However, it also says that having the capacity available to produce 1 million EVs yearly in North America is still feasible by the end of 2025. This statement, in effect, indicates the manufacturing plants to meet this production threshold will be built or retooled by then without tying The General to any specific production level.
Furthermore, GM says it will still be capable of having an all-electric lineup with no ICE cars on offer by 2035 if that is what its customers want. Sounding a more cautious note, however, it said the exact mix of ICE and EV models in 2035 will depend on what customers demand.
Mary Barra declared “we’re going to be led by the customer” while adding “but I do believe this transition will happen over a period of time.”
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Comments
The fact that retirement is being floated says a lot. The CEO sets the tone and path of the company. Barra has put GM on the path to transition to EVs. Once those initial EVs are released a new vision will be needed to improve them. That means a new CEO. I’m guessing somewhere between 2025-2026 we’ll see a replacement.
A new CEO will be needed to clean up the mess and anew vision will be needed to develop and deliver vehicles people actually want- if gm isn’t driven to bankruptcy by then.
Every coach, professional player never says their retiring until they actually do. Why would she say yes even if she was planning on it?
Look at me
She should be fired for abandoning hybrids. She should admit her mistake by giving back her salary.
Fat chance of that!
She can’t retire! There’s still some of the company left to destroy and her retirement estate in Hangzhou is still under construction.
She has to leave baggage for the next poor sap.
Why would she retire she is killing it. Everybody wants an EV corvette, she gave us one. Everyone screamed about getting a corvette Sudan, she is getting us one. There is no doubt big time demand for a corvette variant crossover and mini van. She will get us those as well. She is clearly a person with her ear on the heart of the corvette community.
LOL!
That “Disney moment” is coming…
Okay. Ima need you to explain what “Disney moment” means. I tried looking this up on Urban Dictionary and I see 20 different definitions one being “everyone breaks out in song and dance.” I am inclined to think this is not what you meant.
disney moment. “WOKE” do you now understand?
This isn’t good.
*Sedan I mean lol
She should have retired 5 years ago.
Her vision has cataracts.
She has a vision for GMs future however her comments seem to indicate a subtle change just in case the EV plan fizzles
She made quite a bit on us. Now she can retire in the Lap of Luxury.
I wouldn’t be ready to retire either if I made her money, knew next to nothing about the job, and had little to no accountability for poor results stemming from poor decisions
Damn girl!
This ceo doesn’t understand customers a very true fact she needs to retire or better yet termination of the job at gm and find a ceo to clean up the mess at gm and listen to what customers want not her wants
Most CEO’s don’t listen to the peopl, they just shove it down your throat. My caddy has a HT4100 motor, the more I complained , the more they wrote me back how great of a engine! Then 4-6-8 was another one they listened to no one about, I can go on and on, but the Mary’s of the world turn a blind eye, and then look for there multi million dollar bonus!
Please retire…
Yes, and bring back the ICE Camaro!
I noticed she has changed her Wall Street pandering rhetoric From: “…GM will be all electric by 2035.”
To: “…GM will be all electric by 2035 IF that’s what our customers want.”
These execs live in woke bubble and are just now awakening to the realities of how business works.
Poor GM. Driving toward a black hole. And then their gone. I’m not sure if I’ll buy another GM. Lots of Engine, transmission, and electrical problems. Where do they get these engineers. Says a lot when they talk about new cars to come with names most Americans can’t pronounce. Get rid of Camero, Impala, LaCrosse. This company is going the way of Oldsmobile and Pontiac.
My 2019 Equinox hasn’t given me lick of trouble. Love it. I will always by GM vehicles.
We know how she got the job, GM knew the price. Now the consumer needs to pay the price. So moving forward, Toyota is worth looking into……….i may just go with the other a ho (Kevin) who has a Mercedes and clean carpets
If you know how she got the job, please let me / us know. I always thought that she raised through the ranks starting on the assembly line. Now, after reading through the comments, it looks like she knows next to nothing about her job and she got elected to run the Company in some mysterious way. If this would be the case it seems like there would be no problem to get rid of her.
She was never on the assembly line. She came from public relations and was appointed by Roger Smith who I’m sure thought she would make him look good since she had no experience. She’s a woke thing and is therefore unable to think rationaly.
I don’t have any use for her either, but you need do do some research and get your facts straight. You’re all wet.
Once the Democrats are out
It’s ICE all the way
Tiq Toq, Tiq Toq, Tiq Toq, hopefully her time is running out
Do you get the hint Mary. 99%of real consumers don’t want you as the CEO of GM anymore. We want someone with common sense and car sense and you DO NOT have either one. GOOD BYE. Please retire ASAP.
Could EV or bust – “Let’s do bankruptcy 2.0” be her legacy? Starting to worry about that..
Mary can’t retire yet….She hasn’t finished her path of complete destruction of what was once the premier automotive manufacturer inthe USA and world. She’s done her best….but, in the end….She’s a failure! After 15+ years of trying to create an all EV company….She’s finally coming to the realization that EV’s aren’t suitable for mainstream America? Who has $100,000 for a luxury EV? I just rented a Toyota Corolla and was amazed at the radar cruise control and adaptive lane assist features. Hate to say it but GM is a joke these days! They wasted funds on EVs and now they are a “second tier” vehicle manufacturer
I am wondering if all the thumbs up you got for your comment are for bashing Mary Barra or for renting a Toyota Corolla. You should have rented a Chevy Malibu instead.
Why retire Mary…the total collapse of G.M. is right at you finger tips. Just a few more EV’S nobody will buy should do it.
She has totally ruined GM. When I look back growing up, GM was all about PERFORMANCE, STYLE, LOOKS, and CURB APPEAL. She has taken that away with her WOKE ideology!!
Remember these cars:
The Camaro with T-tops, IROC, Z28/SS models, the Cavalier Z24, Beretta Z34, 94 Impala SS, then the 06-09 Impala SS…even later on the SS car was a fantastic vehicle, if Mary would have put a more beautiful face on it! Lets not forget about the trucks and suvs……typhoon, syclone, 454SS, Silverado SS, Trailbazer SS
Pontiac was alive with Firebird, the Grand Prix GTP/GXP, Grand Am GT, then GTO—-G8
Buick had the grand national!!
Saturn had the Solstice which with the little turbo 4 cylinder and was a fun little car to drive.
Such a shame!!
And the 1987 cutlass salon with t tops and a V8 . 1983 coupe deville with rolls Royce grill and a white simulated rag top, shall I go on.
No calicus on my back
10 years at the helm and the stock price is less than when she walked in. She has overstayed her welcome for 6 years.
she will retire when that golden parachute is big enough OR when the ship starts to sink, whichever comes first.
It can’t be soon enough. She has single handedly turned upper case GM from one off my favorite car companies to lower case gm with literally nothing left I would want to purchase. Great job Mary!
It amuses me that anti-EV folks hate Mary for pushing EV’s while us EV advocates blame her for not doing anything for EV’s. Once the Bolt dies, what mass market does GM even have on sale? The Hummer? Cadillac Celestiq?
I support your choice to buy an EV as long as you support my choice to buy a V8 powered vehicle, but I think we both know where things are headed. It’s that FORCED BS push that people don’t like.
Build 400,000 EV’s?? They’ll be lucky if they sell 5,000 of them.
The sooner the Better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
if i had her comfy job i would not retire either. ps people do not want electric cars the new green sham is a bunch of b.s.
Funny. She’s not ready to retire, but the rest of the world had been ready for her to go for quite a while.
She shouldn’t be allowed to retire and shove fired .She is destroying GM as we know it and all Elemis out for me and millions more.Say goodbye Mary and let us have our ice(internal combustion engine)!!!
She stupidly went all in on EV’s, not listening to the Dealers who told her not to because they actually know their customers. GM doesn’t have any hybrids, that are better than EV’s, the one they plan on is a plug-in, which was a stupid choice. She is a good for nothing boat anchor to GM.
“She stupidly went all in on EV’s, not listening to the Dealers who told her not to …”
Several members of her senior management team said the same thing. She ignored them since she’s always the smartest one in the room. Just ask her.
If Mary really knew what the customers wanted, she would’ve retired a long time ago.
Remember Saturn? All the hype? The company & customers raving about Saturn. Well, that went down the drain. Same thing with EV’s. The cars and all the talk is tiring. You feel like the government wants you to go backwards with all the inconveniences with driving EV’s. Let the experiment go down as a failure! Americans and the market will determine whether it’s here to stay.
I’m 73 years of age and have been a lifelong Camaro owner, purchasing my first after returning from Vietnam Nam in 1971, with having owned 7 to date. I was attempting to order a new one, however the dealerships are corruptive joke. Last week I contacted GM CEO Ms Barra, and her response through her executive officer was disgusting. I I think she has totally destroyed GM / Chevrolet. GM has not one muscle car now, that so-called corvette isn’t a muscle car, it’s a mid engine super car that many don’t want , but Mary Barra wanted it. Thousand of owners like myself has divorced themselves from GM , I’ve traded my GMC Yukon Denali for a Jeep grand Cherokee altitude, and my 2014 SS 2SS RS 1LE will be gone in a couple of years. I and thousands others stuck by Mary Barra and GM when they stopped for 5 years making Camaro’s, not any more. She has screwed up GM beyond repair. I’ll be looking for a different company for a muscle car soon.
This is my personal opinion.
James
James you are so correct, but this web page means nothing to Mary, do to fact that her secretary’s don’t allow her to see what people think. This GM Authority site , think about it, is a joke. You state your feelings and nothing is done about it. As a former Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Cadillac guy for 35 years, I moved on to better and more reliable cars. Good luck to who ever takes over Mey’s spot. Wish her a bon boyage and hopes to stops at some non charted island. Did I forget Pontiac and Oldsmobile are gone? Buick is next.
A new CEO is needed now to clean up the mess made at GM. Right now Cadillac has a naming strategy for EV’s that is uninspiring and their ICE SUV’s except the Escalade are uninspiring as well. How is it possible for Lexus, MB and BMW to be light years ahead then Cadillac a brand that was the Standard of the world! Buick, GMC and Chevy are shells of their former glory.
That’s because she is a shell of a CEO. As bad if not worse than Roger Smith. But if you criticize a female CEO, there’s something with you, not her.
The board of directors needs to go also. If they kept her around this long they are just as incompitent as she is.
True. But GM’s Board has been a bunch of “Yes-Men” (and women) since the days of Roger Smith. They just do what they are told.
“NICHE” vehicles and not HIGH PRODUCTION vehicles…
Let the bean counters know they are >>
“SPECIALTY CARS” •••••
FIERO…
FIREBIRD….
GTO….
SKY REDLINE….
CAMARO…
CORVETTE….
SEEMS THEY WILL NEVER GET IT!!!!
VETTE…HIGHER PRICE= HIGHER PROFIT
All the rest were for Middle class Joe N Jane••••▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎ DELETED!!!!
EV’s are fine as an ADDITION to what is offered now.
EV’s are NEVER good as a REPLACEMENT for what’s offered now!!!!
And ADDING HYBRIDS for those that want both worlds•••••
Amen.
15 years scraping the American people of wealth to line her own pockets. Clearly she does not love America, the American dream or GM on any level whatsoever. Also she looks extremely old for having all that money and only being 62. She probably drinks herself to sleep given how bad she looks. How can the brains be working properly when the outside looks so terrible. Then she tries to shove electric vehicles down everyone’s throats while in the meantime Musk announces Hydrogen vehicles which is the real way to go of course, not this EV BS. She either didn’t believe in her own rhetoric on the EVs or is literally just that much of a moron. I lean towards MORON due to her bad ageing. Please replace the old crone with a red blooded car loving Americana loving history buff and lets get back to the muscle that Americans truly relate to and not this ugly, old pathetic evil witch. Also, maybe having a person who actually loves and cares about the American people would think more about helping those with credit mistakes during the forced covid shutdowns rather than her continuous increases in salary instead of helping the company for the shareholders. The sales and stock price would skyrocket. Get rid of the old loser. Thank you.
100% correct, GM is in real need of “CAR PEOPLE” at the top.