General Motors (GM) announced today that it will invest nearly $1 billion in four US plants to manufacture V-8 engines and EV components. Despite GM’s advertising, EVs are “all in” with less than 10% of investment going into EV development.
GM invests $854 million in V-8 engines and snubs electric vehicles
GM CEO Mary Barra explained Sept“We want to make electric vehicles available to everyone” as the company is committed to an all-electric future.
The automaker has spent much of the last year promoting its upcoming range of electric vehicles, which will include a Chevy Blazer EV, Chevrolet Silverado EVand Chevy Equinox EV, to name a few. The Bolt EV and EUV currently make up the vast majority of GM’s EV sales, but pricier models like the Cadillac Lyriq and GMC Hummer start to gain momentum.
Although GM claims the Bolt is the “#1 in mainstream EV series in Q3 and Q4”, with deliveries up over 50% year-on-year, total EV sales were still less than 2%, while many companies are already achieving double-digit (or 100%) EV sales share.
To make matters worse, the company announced today that it is investing $918 million in four of its “V-8 engine, EV component production” facilities. The EV components portion includes just $64 million, less than 10%, flowing into two of its facilities.
The Rochester, NY plant will receive $56 million to build battery cooling packs and the other $8 million to produce a cast development cell for future electric vehicle development at its Defiance, OH plant, the company said press release.
Electrek’s take
GM is sending mixed messages here. Are they all in on EVs, or is it just talk? Because V-8s won’t help GM sell more electric vehicles, and certainly won’t help it meet its goal of eliminating tailpipe emissions from its vehicles by 2035.
Remember, this is the same GM that spent years hyping an electric Corvette (that even President Biden couldn’t stop talking about) only to release a hybrid E-Ray Corvette last week that’s powered by a V-8, and about the same energy storage capacity as two standard 12V lead-acid batteries.
In addition, you can only drive in pure electric mode up to a speed of 70 km / h or when the gas exceeds a certain threshold.
To be fair, GM is investing over $35 billion in electric vehicles by 2025, moving faster than most automakers. However, they may not move as fast as they claim.
The Chevy Bolt is still a great car that wins electreks Car of the year 2022 and then sell impressively well a recall lost his momentum.
If GM is Mary Barra believes they can beat Tesla, you must start by acting quickly. Investing almost a billion dollars in V-8 engines is completely the wrong direction. GM already builds V-8s. Nothing more needs to be done at this point.
The future is fully electric. GM says they welcome it, but are they? Hopefully, with some high-profile EV releases this year and the momentum that’s been building over the past year, the company can start pulling some numbers. What do you think? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.
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