EV Market Share
GM announced this week that by the end of the decade, it will have doubled its sales and will have surpassed Tesla in terms of EV market share, all while expanding profit margins for its internal combustion engine vehicles. GM says it wants to reach $280 billion in annual revenue by 2030, up from $122.5 billion in 2020. The company's sales target is based on a rolling average of around $140 billion.
GM has already committed billions of dollars to achieving this new objective. The manufacturer said it would invest $27 billion in the development of electric vehicles and automated technology over the next five years, a 35 percent increase over its prior plan. In July, GM raised that figure again, this time to $35 billion through 2025.
That money is already being invested primarily in Ultium, the EV architecture and batteries for the company's next-generation electric vehicles, which include the upcoming Chevrolet Silverado, a Chevrolet crossover priced around $30,000, Buick crossovers, and the Cadillac Lyriq and Celestiq.
Chevrolet Silverado
Growing Portfolio
At an investor presentation on Wednesday, General Motors unveiled its upcoming electric vehicle portfolio, with the full-size electric pickup Chevrolet Silverado serving as the focus.
While GM has previously announced the electric Silverado, the company has now verified some further information, such as the fact that certain variants will have a fixed glass roof and that the car will make its premiere at the CES trade show in January 2022. In the emerging electric truck market, it joins Ford's F-150 Lightning and Rivian's R1T.
It's unknown how difficult it will be for the manufacturer to meet these goals. GM, like other automakers, announced poor third-quarter sales, blaming the persistent semiconductor scarcity for disrupting manufacturing and vehicle deliveries. Tesla's sales were exceptionally high for the quarter, exceeding expectations on car deliveries and previous delivery highs, in contrast to the legacy manufacturers.
GM CEO Mary Barra highlighted that GM will offer affordable EVs “really affordable EVs for people” — including other features to attract would-be Tesla customers. She went on to say that GM has other advantages in the EV industry, such as customer loyalty, robust manufacturing capacity, and a large dealership network.
Driver Assistance
In 2023, GM wants to introduce a new, more powerful hands-free driving assistance system that will be capable of handling 95% of all driving scenarios and will eventually be deployed on every paved road in the United States and Canada. The new Ultra Cruise technology was unveiled by the manufacturer, along with some details on how it works.
GM is using the same cautious and slow-rolling technique that it employed when it first released Super Cruise, a hands-free driver assistance system, in 2017. That implies the newer system will first be available as an option in Cadillac cars, before gradually expanding to other GM brands like GMC and Chevrolet.
It, too, will be constrained at first, though far less so than its predecessor system. Drivers with Ultra Cruise vehicles will be able to use the system on more than 2 million miles of roadways in the United States and Canada when it launches.
Subscription Service
General Motors anticipates its in-car subscription services to produce roughly $2 billion in income this year and as much as $25 billion by the end of the decade, putting it in the same category as Netflix and Spotify.
In the United States and Canada, the carmaker has 16 million vehicles on the road. Owners of almost a quarter of those vehicles (4.2 million) pay for subscription services now. GM expects this figure to rise, particularly as it prepares to launch its Ultifi end-to-end software platform in 2023, which will include a subscriptions platform and over-the-air software updates. OnStar, GM's subsidiary that provides in-vehicle security, emergency services, and navigation, is supported by the current subscription platform.
