General Motors Delays Production Target Of 1 Million Electric Cars

2024 GMC HUMMER EV. (Doc. GMC)

JAKARTA - General Motors (GM) has postponed its ambitious target of producing 1 million electric cars per year in North America by the end of 2025. CEO Mary Barra announced the delay in a recent interview with CNBC.

"The [electric car] market has not yet developed as expected. We will not reach the target of 1 million units, but we will continue to try in that direction," Barra said, quoted from InsideEvs, July 16.

Previously in 2021, Barra shocked the world by announcing GM's commitment to becoming an emissionless car manufacturer by 2035. The production target of 1 million electric cars by 2025 is an important first step.

Despite experiencing several months of best EV sales, GM's efforts in the electric vehicle transition face various challenges. The launch of most of Ultium's platform-based electric vehicles was marked by software, manufacturing, and initial quality problems. Starting from an infunction infotainment screen on the BlaZer or Lyriq, to a downed GMC Hummer truck at the DC fast charger, meaning that the launch of the GM electric car has not been running smoothly. Meanwhile, production problems at EV component factories and vehicles have added to the obstacles.

One of the main obstacles GM faces is software on their electric vehicles. Barra admits that software plays an important role in the future of GM electrification. The ability to develop reliable software is key, and so far it has proven difficult for GM.

"For General Motors, on the way to an all-electric future, the most important thing is that vehicles are actually a software platform," Barra said.

Unfortunately, GM's track record in the software field is not very good, and all of their brands have received negative attention and complaints from consumers.

However, Barra remains optimistic. Despite his statement about GM will follow consumer directions that can be interpreted as a step back from focusing on EVs, he assured that GM will eventually achieve the set production target.

Barra insists that the EV market will continue to grow along with the improvement of charging infrastructure and the increasing number of consumers who experience driving directly in electric cars.

"The next ten, eleven, twelve years will be a time of great transformation in the way people travel," Barra concluded.