On Wednesday, the largest automaker in the U.S., General Motors, announced that it will boost investments in electric vehicle (EV) and autonomous driving (AV) technology to $35 billion by 2025, an increase of 75 percent from its pre-pandemic guidance. In a statement confirming the news on Wednesday, GM said the enhanced commitment will “accelerate its transformative strategy” to become the market leader in EVs in North America, the global leader in battery and fuel cell technology, and the first automaker in the world to safely commercialize self-driving technology at scale.
“We are investing aggressively in a comprehensive and highly-integrated plan to make sure that GM leads in all aspects of the transformation to a more sustainable future,” GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra said on Wednesday. “GM is targeting annual global EV sales of more than 1 million by 2025, and we are increasing our investment to scale faster because we see momentum building in the United States for electrification, along with customer demand for our product portfolio.
“There is a strong and growing conviction among our employees, customers, dealers, suppliers, unions and investors, as well as policymakers, that electric vehicles and self-driving technology are the keys to a cleaner, safer world for all,” Barra added.
GM had previously committed in March 2020 to $20 billion in EV/AV investments by 2025, including capital, engineering expenses and other development costs. In November 2020, GM raised this commitment to $27 billion.
This latest increase was announced amid GM’s higher guidance for second-quarter 2021 earnings, with expected first-half adjusted EBIT between $8.5 billion-$9.5 billion despite the industry-wide impacts of a global semiconductor shortage.
Additionally, GM will speed up plans to build two new battery cell factories (locations yet to be announced) in the U.S. by mid-decade to complement its Ultium Cells plans currently under construction in Tennessee and Ohio. GM intends to deliver 30 new EV models by 2025 globally, two-thirds of which will be available in North America. Given today’s latest round of new capital expenditures, GM will add new electric commercial trucks and other product, and add more U.S. assembly capacity for EV SUVs.
Cruise, GM’s majority owned autonomous driving subsidiary, became the first company to receive permission from California regulators to provide a driverless AV passenger service to the public. Cruise was also recently selected as the exclusive provider of AV rideshare services to the city of Dubai and is working with Honda to begin development of an AV testing program in Japan.
Trains
Earlier this week, GM announced a partnership with U.S. freight rail equipment provider Wabtec to develop GM’s Ultium battery technology and HYDROTEC hydrogen fuel cell systems for Wabtec locomotives.
“The rail industry is on the cusp of a sustainable transformation with the introduction of batteries and hydrogen to power locomotive fleets,” said Rafael Santana, CEO and president of Wabtec, upon announcing the partnership on Tuesday. “Our FLXdrive locomotive, the world’s first 100-percent battery powered locomotive, has proven its potential to slash carbon emissions by up to 30 percent when operating at 6 MWh. But we can’t stop there.
“By working with GM on Ultium battery and HYDROTEC hydrogen fuel cell technologies, we can accelerate the rail industry’s path to decarbonization and pathway to zero-emission locomotives by leveraging these two important propulsion technologies,” Santana said.
