GM CEO surprised EVs became political

• GM CEO is “surprised” EVs are political
• Barra said GM is on track to be EV-only by 2035 if customers are ready
• GM’s Corvette boss didn’t commit to an electric Corvette, but one’s already been confirmed

GM’s top executive is surprised that EVs became a political lightning rod.

“It did surprise me; I never thought the propulsion system on a vehicle would be (a political issue),” GM CEO Mary Barra said during an interview with Kris Van Cleave for CBS Sunday Morning.

In 2021 GM said that it would not sell vehicles with tailpipes by 2035 and that it intended to be net-zero carbon status by 2040.

The all EV pledge still exists—kind of. Barra told Van Cleave that for GM’s light-duty vehicles (i.e. not its heavy-duty pickup trucks) it will be ready to be EV only by the originally stated 2035 mark. But Barra was quick to note that the automaker will be “guided by the consumer, but the plans we have in place will get us there.”

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In 2022 GM announced it would produce 1 million EVs in North America annually by 2025. That included 600,000 electric trucks. But that’s not going to happen. Barra backed away from that EV target in July noting slowing demand.

Addressing concerns about softening EV sales, Barra noted the automaker never thought this would be a linear transition. While EV market share is sagging in California, overall EV sales are up in the state leading EV sales for the U.S. market.

Van Cleave asked Barra if legacy automakers can move fast enough to compete on the world’s stage against Chinese automakers. “I believe yes, absolutely yes we can and I think yes we are. Our workforce is quite young,” Barra said.

Barra noted that most of GM’s technical talent has been with the company less than five years. She said “for about 40% the new, young, employees are joining GM because they want to be part of a company that is going to change and lead in the move to electric vehicles.”

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Van Cleave also interviewed Tony Roma, the executive chief engineer of the Corvette sports car. When asked about an electric Corvette Roma told Van Cleave that GM wouldn’t apply electrification just for the sake of it. “It has to earn its way in and make the cars better in a way our customers will respond to,” Roma said.

GM president Mark Reuss announced in 2022 that an electric Corvette is in the works. First to come would be the electrified Corvette E-Ray hybrid, which arrived in 2023. No timeline has been given for the electric Corvette, but Reuss noted it would be Ultium-based, which means it would theoretically not ride on the current C8 Corvette’s chassis.