Punching the Accelerator on the Road to EVs

Every day I come to work, either in the office or the home office, excited. And that’s because the pace of change seems to accelerate each day. Every day, we’re moving General Motors, and the world, closer to an all-electric future.

That might sound dramatic, but it’s true. It’s exciting to see the progress we’re making toward that goal, and exciting to consider the prospect of bringing the world and its drivers along with us. And we’re doing it because it’s good for the company, good for our customers, and good for our planet.

Climate change is a real problem, and an urgent one. An all-electric future is essential to addressing it.

To get to an all-electric future – not just an all-electric GM lineup – we need to get consumers as excited about it as we are, and we need to ensure communities make the necessary changes to be ready. GM will do our part, but we cannot do it alone.

I’d like to share my view on what that roadmap to an all-electric future needs to include.

1.   Battery technology breakthroughs that make EVs more affordable and faster to charge. Our Ultium technology platform is already enabling batteries that charge faster, go farther on a charge and require less expensive materials. Today, I’m thrilled to share news that represents another improvement to affordability and range, two major concerns when it comes to mass EV adoption. We have a new joint-development agreement with lithium metal battery innovator SolidEnergy Systems that will drive our next-generation Ultium battery system to an industry-first combination of affordability, high performance and energy density.

Our first-generation Ultium-based products go on sale later this year, and we’ve accelerated the timeline for several of the vehicles, as we work toward having 30 EVs globally by 2025.

 2.   Getting Communities Ready. We have real work in the next five years and beyond to get communities ready to support mass adoption of EVs.

Our current EV owners say charging is convenient – much like plugging in a smartphone for a charge at home or at work. But we have a long way to go before cities have charging infrastructure so all EV owners can charge fast and easy at home, at work and on-the-go. We’re doing what we can to move the needle, but it’s going to take public and private partnerships to get our communities ready, such as our partnership with EVgo to add 2,700 fast-charging stations in cities and suburbs.

There is also real opportunity to green the grid and invest in this critical infrastructure so that it can power an all-electric future at all times – even the worst of times.

3.   Smart and effective public policy. It’s great that we’ve seen growing enthusiasm for an all-electric future from federal, state and local policymakers because we need them to achieve this bold vision.

Several key policy elements would help the U.S. lead in electrification:

• Investing in infrastructure that includes fast-charging stations, particularly in urban areas and along highway corridors. This will help give consumers the confidence to buy.
• Consumer incentives, including a modification to the EV tax credit so that customers of first movers like GM are not penalized, and also one that makes used EV buyers eligible. 
• Investment tax credits to incentivize companies to establish manufacturing capacity in the U.S. and to help build out the U.S. supply chain.

4.   Creating Confident and Excited Consumers. To be sure, many ingredients are needed in the recipe for success, but the most important one will be terrific EVs that people love and adopt as a primary daily driver, one that won’t have them pining for conventional internal combustion vehicles.

Anyone who knows me knows how I feel about cars and driving. Enthusiast is almost an understatement. That’s why I’m the least worried about this element of a roadmap to an all-electric future. I’m here to tell you … EVs are a blast to drive. I’ve been driving our new Chevrolet Bolt EUV, and I love it. I have no doubt that when more people have a chance to drive an EV, they won’t want to go back.

2021 is the tipping point toward EVs. That’s what we believe and that’s what I believe – and we are committed to making it happen. And as we all know by now, a lot can happen in a year.