US automakers just can’t seem to make up their minds about EVs. Last fall, GM and Ford gave the anti-EV crowd (which includes many of their dealerships) an early Christmas present, announcing that they would push back EV production plans in response to slower sales (actually a slower rate of increase in sales).
In fact, part of the EV sales slowdown that the automakers were trumpeting may have had more to do with supply than demand—in GM’s case, the company wasn’t able to build enough Ultium EVs to get the needed stocks to dealerships, thanks to problems on the battery pack production lines.
Now GM CEO Mary Barra has announced that the bottlenecks are a thing of the past. Several new models, including the Chevy Equinox, Blazer and Silverado EVs, are on dealers’ lots or heading thither soon, and the company aims to build 200,000 to 300,000 EVs this year.
Barra told The Detroit News that the production problems have been solved: “It’s not an issue now. As we move forward, we’re going to build to demand. We now have the capability: Factory Zero is up and running, Spring Hill is up and running, Ramos is launching.”
CFO Paul Jacobson made a similar statement earlier this year: “We’ve had some challenges scaling up. I think most of those are behind us.”
Not only has GM solved its production issues, but the flagging demand that GM and its colleagues were telling everyone about a few months ago is apparently no longer a concern (or never really was?).
At a recent opening ceremony for a new Silicon Valley office, Marissa West, President of GM North America said, “You may be reading reports where the growth in EVs and EV demand has stalled and that’s simply not true. We actually see notable growth, particularly in the EV retail space.”
Apparently, the party’s back on. Okay, glad to hear it.
