As GM Authority has been closely following, General Motors axed its plan to build 400,000 electric vehicles in North America by mid-2024, citing concerns surrounding lower levels of consumer demand for EVs. The assessment isn’t exclusive to the Detroit-based automaker, as all-electric rival Rivian has recently announced a notable reduction in its workforce.
According to a report from Automotive News, Rivian will cut roughly 10 percent of its salaried workforce due to lower levels of EV demand. That being said, the electric vehicle startup reported a Q4 2023 net loss of $1.52 billion – an improvement from a Q4 2022 net loss of $1.72 billion – along with a rise in total revenue to $1.32 billion in Q4 2023 from $663 million the year prior.
It’s worth noting that Rivian doesn’t expect production to increase significantly from 2023 levels, where it produced 57,232 electric vehicles.
“Economic and geopolitical uncertainties and pressures, most notably the impact of historically high interest rates, have informed Rivian’s expectations for 2024,” a Rivian spokesperson claimed in a prepared statement. “With these market conditions, the company expects to produce 57,000 vehicles in 2024, in line with 2023 production.”
Moving forward, the all-electric automaker will reveal the Rivian R2 on March 7th, 2024. Slated to be an electric crossover positioned underneath the R1T and R1S models, the upcoming R2 could potentially rival the Chevy Blazer EV.
In regard to General Motors’ plans with its all-electric future, an investment firm stated that its decision to slow down on electric vehicle development is a mistake, claiming that this will only serve to allow Tesla an opportunity to capture more of the EV market. More specifically, Tesla is able to produce electric vehicles more efficiently than automakers like GM due to the investments it made into large-scale EV production over a decade ago.
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Comments
“As GM Authority has been closely following, General Motors axed its plan to build 400,000 electric vehicles in North America by mid-2024, citing concerns surrounding lower levels of consumer demand for EVs.”
Consumer demand for EVs is not low. Consumer demand for what is being offered is low. Give us vehicles with better range, faster charging, and no fire risk at a reasonable price and we’ll buy them.
I agree with much of what you say regarding major obstacles EVs have no preventing them from being desirable. But the fact of the matter is, the majority of the auto market is not interested in spending more for less convenience just to make some lefties and tree huggers happy. Tesla had to drop their pricing to prop up demand and so did Lucid. These brands are only EV manufacturers and have no other products to fall back on so they are in a bit of a pinch. I certainly will not be spending Cadillac prices for a Chevrolet just because its electric. It needs to be more than just electric. It still needs to be reliable, practical, and above all, affordable. The Model Y at its current price is a good start, its a move in the positive direction. But I will not buy into the Tesla cult especially when Elon is randomly removing features I paid for already in a car.
You are describing ICE vehicles!
Cathie Wood saying GM pulling back is a mistake is just hilarious. Especially when its not just GM pulling back but also Ford, VW, and Mercedes. Even Elon acknowledged concern for lower demand. You can’t be producing so many EVs if nobody is buying them. This is a recipe for disaster. As it is, the dealers are stocked to the brim with EVs no one wants.
This is likely the beginning of the end for Rivian. Once GM and Ford fully ramp up and the cheap Chinese imports arrive they are done. If you bought one of these experiments you may want to unload it while you can. Parts will become nonexistent or extremely expensive and hard to get.
I’m glad GM is working on the next gen small block. Not everyone wants an EV.
The blood letting war over EV sales has just begun. There will be casualties in both manufactuer and supplier companies.
The lack of charging infrastructure, prices higher than ICE vehicles, lithium battery fires are all factors.
The winners will be Tesla and those who can produce a quality longer range vehicles at the lowest price. A recession would be devastating as the sales of high profit ICE trucks would slump. They are supporting losses on EVs.
Give it 24 months and Rivian will be relegated to the history books.
What GM BEV rivals Rivian?
GM dealers still do not have garage wiring requirement info and charge plug location recommendations available to potential buyers. Would you buy a flush toilet without indoor plumbing?
“…historically high interest rates”? My first home mortage was 13 percent! The current EV market reminds me of the ICE market in the early 1900s. There will be plenty of casualties that will fall by wayside. There will need to be a concerted effort to keep the Chinese out of the US market, as they will be the only rational EV choice for the masses.
Well said.
Apparently you never bought a house in 1982. I had to move because of a job transfer, that year, and the mortgage I got was 18%. People these days are b!tching about 7 %? who is kidding who?