Charging Forward to an All-Electric Future

In a time when travel is as uncertain as ever and its impacts and effects on climate become ever more urgent, the U.S. Travel Association Conference provided a timely and relevant platform to define the future of travel mobility. I’ve always loved hitting the open road and seeing the country and the world, and this conference gave me a great opportunity to talk about two of my passions: cars and the joy of traveling.

The travel and automotive industries have undergone transformative changes in the last decade, with the pandemic speeding up the need for both to be seamless, secure and sustainable.

Throughout the pandemic, General Motors made remarkable progress on our vision of an all-electric future, working hard toward an all-electric fleet. But as we endeavor to create a world with zero emissions, one of the greatest steps we can take to get communities, businesses, and consumers comfortable and excited is by making charging convenient at home, at work, or on-the-go — whether across town to the store or across the country on a road trip. We’ve made solid progress so far, but there is still much more to do.

To help make our all-electric future a reality, we’re taking another huge step to expand charging access through our Dealer Community Charging Program: providing GM’s more than 4,000 dealers with 10 Ultium Chargers to place throughout their communities.

With nearly 90% of the U.S. population living within 10 miles of a GM dealership, this program will ensure we are installing charging nearest to where drivers live and work, and where charging is needed most.

This program will accelerate charging across every corner of the country — including underserved, rural and urban communities — so no matter where customers find themselves, they can feel confident that they’ll have access to reliable charging. ?

While this program will increase charging availability, there is still more to do and GM cannot do it alone. We must come together across the public and private sectors to boost charging installations and opportunities, in pursuit of a zero-emission future and a greener American road trip. That’s why I was so excited to meet with policymakers and leaders from across the travel industry to discuss how EV charging access at hotels, airports, tourist attractions and other locations is not only critical to the consumer experience, but also how it will transform travel.

One thing I know for certain: with rapid innovation across all sectors, travel will never look the same again. As we embark on future adventures, we will be able to enhance our road trips by having an easy and convenient place to plug in our EVs while we go enjoy a great meal, or stroll through a museum or a park, or simply relax and enjoy a beautiful view – the things that remind us why we love road trips so much in the first place.?