2024 is drawing to a close, and it has us reflecting on what an eventful year it was for GM. For GM enthusiasts, it’s always fun to play armchair executive and point out The General’s mistakes. But today, we’re looking back on our favorite automaker’s five best accomplishments in 2024 (in no particular order).
1. Goodbye Cruise
GM made the prudent and surely difficult decision to stop funding its Cruise self-driving subsidiary. Instead, it’s focusing more on developing the Super Cruise hands-free, semi-autonomous driving system for its production models. It would’ve been easy for General Motors to succumb to the sunk-cost fallacy; it already poured billions into Cruise, so it better keep going until it makes money. Instead, as GM put it, it’s not the company’s core business, and it can’t compete with powerhouses such as Alphabet (Waymo) and Amazon (Zoox). We agree with the industry analysts who believe cutting its losses on Cruise was the right move for The General.
2. Revamped Utility Vehicle Portfolio
Between around the middle of 2023 and the end of 2024, General Motors has either refreshed or redesigned almost every crossover and SUV it sells in North America, plus it introduced a handful of brand-new models. The T1-based SUVs (Chevy Tahoe/Suburban, GMC Yukon, and Cadillac Escalade) got a welcome refresh, the C1 crossovers (Chevy Traverse/GMC Acadia/Buick Enclave) got redesigns with a turbo-four engine and Super Cruise, and the important, mainstream compact crossovers (Chevy Equinox/GMC Terrain) entered a new generation. The Chevy Trax wasn’t an all-new model in the 2024 calendar year, but it was the year that it became America’s best-seller in its competitive segment.
As for EVs, the Cadillac Optiq and Escalade IQ made it out the factory doors in late 2024, and orders are open for the 2026 Cadillac Vistiq. 2024 was also the big debut year for the Chevy Equinox EV, and it’s when Chevy Blazer EV production really picked up.
3. GM EVs For (Almost) Everyone
Speaking of EVs, 2024 was a big year for GM’s EV product portfolio. The Q3 2024 sales numbers paint a very positive picture of the direction in which GM EVs are moving. As we just mentioned, it was the debut year for the Chevy Equinox EV, and it’s already GM’s best-selling electric vehicle, moving just under 8,000 units last quarter. In the YTD metric, Cadillac Lyriq sales are up 280 percent, GMC Hummer EV sales are up 864 percent, and BrightDrop sales are up 198 percent. Sales are up by five-digit percentage points for the Chevy Blazer EV and Chevy Silverado EV, but that’s because fewer than 20 of each were sold by Q3 2023. Overall, YTD General Motors EV sales are up 171 percent, based on the latest data.
The point is that 2024 was the year that production volume and buyer interest intersected to make it a banner year for General Motors’ EVs.
4. Cautious Return To Europe
General Motors is returning to the European market, albeit with a more cautious approach than when The General pulled out of Europe in 2017. Cadillac is opening stores in several European cities and has started selling the Lyriq, with the Optiq also on the way. GM’s return to Europe is primarily Cadillac-only and EV-only for now. But since The General also sells a few Corvettes in Europe, we’re curious if it will bring to Europe something like China’s Durant Guild, which offers other upmarket models like the GMC Yukon, GMC Hummer EV, and Chevy Tahoe.
5. C8 Corvette ZR1
The ZR1 variant of the C8 generation of the Corvette is more than just the most souped-up version of a factory Corvette. It’s a hypercar with an expected supercar price tag. The 1,064-horsepower C8 ZR1 represents multiple milestones for the storied nameplate. For starters, it’s the first Corvette with a four-digit horsepower rating from the factory. It’s also the fastest car ever made by an American automaker, hitting a stunning top speed of 233 mph. Our expectations were high for the C8 ZR1, and the production model exceeds them. This is a Corvette that nobody is making Boomer jokes about.
Comments
In percentage the EV sales show signs of hope. To get a better idea of what the sales really are, total numbers sold would have been nice. You could sell only 1 certain vehicle last year and then two of them this year and say sales grew by 100%.
When you have small numbers percentages sound more impressive. Going from 1 to 2 is a 100% increase. It’s an old marketing trick.
Exactly’
Yep, figures lie and liars figure. No one wants the overpriced EV’s
#1 and #2 , agreed. #3-#5, not a chance (#5 is OK, but talk about a tiny niche that barely deserves a mention). Especially #3. It was a questionable year for GM, at best.
GM’s ability to make EV and ICE will pay off in the long run. With a number of markets forcing EV someone will need to supply them. This will help GM keep market share in the future as others struggle.
😂😂😂 Mary & Mark driving GM over the cliff pushing their EV agenda…
Where are you going to find market growth? EV is there no matter if we like it or not. Few other companies have much to offer but China, Tesla and GM.
Throwing in the towel on Cruise is a big accomplishment? OK. Got it. You work for the Biden administation too?
The failure of Cruise is a reflection on the risk-adverse/lawyer-driven GM culture. When there was one accident, they shut the entire operation down for half a year and then pulled the plug. This is not how you lead. This is how you lose over and over again. It’s GM’s rationalization and acceptance of continual retreat that will ensure GM continues to shrink and becomes a niche player with largely indifferent products.
👍👍
Every time a vehicle had a hiccup SF fined them 1M$-almost as if SF wanted to price progress out of reach.
I guess thats a SF problem – not GM.
Well said usa1
Sincere … none achievement really… others like chinese achieved more
GM is garbage
Ignorant comment.