Speaking at the Wolfe Research investor conference on February 15th, GM CEO Mary Barra described 2024 as being The General’s “year of execution” as she described the automaker’s plans for both its EV and ICE portfolios during the rest of the current year.
The GM CEO, who marked her 10th anniversary as the chief executive of the company in mid-January, echoed current themes in the auto industry by saying the automaker will work to make EVs profitable this year while also maintaining a profitable ICE portfolio, as Automotive News reports.
Many of Mary Barra’s remarks at the conference appeared to signal a softening of GM’s all-in strategy on electric vehicles, though EVs remain a strong element of its near-future plans. Among her other comments, she said “even though we’ve said by 2035 our light-duty portfolio will be all-EV, we’ll be guided by the consumer.”
The General’s CEO also said the automaker is reversing its stance on plug-in hybrids and will eventually add new PHEV models to the lineup. She added that the company needs “to demonstrate that we can build Ultium-based products and the market wants them and we can achieve our profitability goals.”
Rollout of EVs will continue, Barra said, but will happen more slowly because of muted response from the vehicle-buying public. The goal is to reach basic profitability on EVs by the second half of 2024 and boost margins to moderate single digits – presumably 4 to 7 percent – at some point during 2025.
She declared that having “the Blazer and the Equinox that get into that range of where the biggest affordability is” in 2024 will help the automaker achieve these objectives. She also said increased charging infrastructure should help to make electric vehicles more popular.
The General has said it now intends to produce 200,000 to 300,000 Ultium-based EVs during 2024, a change from previous plans to build 400,000 such vehicles in total through mid-2024. Multiple roadblocks have hampered the carmaker’s electrification plans. These include an ongoing stop-delivery order for the Chevy Blazer EV related to an important software fix, EV production constraints from an automation equipment supplier’s problems, and a production halt of the BrightDrop Zevo 600 and BrightDrop Zevo 400 electric vans because of battery module shortages.
Additionally, launch of the Chevy Equinox EV, the Chevy Silverado EV RST, and the GMC Sierra EV Denali has been delayed. On the more positive side, Barra says battery costs have dropped 45 percent in the past year. She also asserts the company’s robotaxi and autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise will relaunch in 2024 and represents a “huge opportunity.”
Overall, the GM CEO – who recently said she is not yet ready to retire – expressed enthusiasm and confidence, saying that in 2024 “we’re only six weeks in, but we’re six weeks on track” and concluding “this is going to be a really, I think, high-performance year for GM.”
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Comments
BlackRock, State Street, and JP Morgan backed out of the UN Climate Alliance. More and more people are starting to realize what the WEF Great Reset agenda is by the day. It isn’t wanted and just can’t be financially nor politically supported by most regular folks. You can see what is happening to things such as EVs, Disney, and Bud Light. Maybe some of these completely out of touch Boomers are starting to wake up to the condition of the lower 99.99% now?
Good news that some big organizations are waking up on climate change hoax! By the way, the more big ice chunks melt the more ocean currents will make the planet colder.
It’s not a hoax, don’t listen to your governor or whatever disillusioned, agenda driven, politician is taking advantage of your vote and blind ignorance. It’s that there are better ways than force feeding EVs. Let science and fact speak towards climate change and EVs and not an overpaid goon that is not looking out for your best interests
lol, found a weather underground terrorist!
This is precisely why we’re doomed
“….GM CEO Mary Barra described 2024 as being The General’s “year of execution”…
So if they don’’t, what happens?
Hint: nothing.
She gets her press praise and awards regardless.
Her parts are more important than her performance.
Perhaps Mary will get “executed”.
Mary said, “ Extinction”, the article writer just spelled it wrong.
EV must mean “electrified vehicles” as in hybrid and plug in hybrids.
If Chevy had a hybrid Traverse I would’ve bought one
People keep saying stuff like this, but when that hybrid traverse is $6k more, the story changes to “why would I pay that much for 5 mpg saving when gas is only $x.xx.
Hybrids are a hard sell on larger vehicles. And PHEV are costly because you have the best and worst of both systems.
The year of “execution”? Is that by lethal injection? Firing squad? Inquiring minds want to know!
Suicide.
Death by Hari Mary. ⚔️
The execution of GM. She’s doing her best to kill it.
It’s hard to believe someone can be a worse CEO than Roger Smith. Barra is neck and neck with Smith. When Barra said no more crappy cars little did we know she meant we just won’t build any. There have never been more recalls in history than under Barra. We hear about all the gm EVs but you don’t see any. Is there a gm EV that doesn’t have a stop order? A forty + year employee that has never seen year over year market share growth, only decline. She should have been gone years ago!
She’s still around only because she appointed a Board full of like-minded idiots.
That should technically be illegal.
At least they are near the top in being woke!
Would she still be here if her name was Mark not Mary?
Young people are the biggest supporters of EV’s.
Young people are having difficulty becoming home owners.
It’s tough to charge an EV if you don’t have a house.
Even having a house doesn’t mean you a have a garage
the young might be the biggest supporters of EV’s, but they the the least likely group to be able to afford them.
In 10 years, fastest rate of price increase and biggest loss of market share.And lowest quality of all time. Congrats!
Own a 2017 Buick Encore. Just a day or two ago there was an article about the 2017/2018 Encores/Trax’s and their turbo failures. Gm is now covering them for 10 years/120K miles, whichever comes first. Thought about buying our daughter the new Trax with the 1.2 turbo. NO WAY would I EVER touch another GM 3 or 4 cylinder turbo. Her next car will be a Honda, Toyota, or a Mazda. I was born and raised on GM products. NEVER again. GM, Ford, and Boeing all have the same mindset. If we don’t make our quarterly sales numbers, we won’t get our bonuses.
I won’t deny that although gm’s turbo 3 family (small and BIG BLOCK) has been out for a few years, I am still trepidatious about my new Trax. It stands to reason, a 2.0/2.5L naturally aspirated four cylinder would have been on par with it on fuel mileage with the same transmission, and very likely ahead on long term reliability. Everyone knows turbo engines eat gasoline. We will see hot it goes for me. I put about 20k/yr on my vehicles due to my work commute.
I think Mary is delusional or seriously on drugs. The roll out of 2024 vehicles couldn’t be worse.
yep, Colorado’s and Canyon’s are on a stop sale right now.