GM CEO Mary Barra: We’re Pivoting Back to Hybrids
At an Automotive Press Association appearance on December 4, 2023, General Motors CEO Mary Barra said GM was considering bringing back hybrids. “We have the technology,” she said. “We’ll continue to look at where the market is, where the regulatory environment is.”
Now, market factors such as customer demand, problems with building electric models, and government pollution standards have caused Barra to admit that GM will begin building plug-in hybrids. Her comments came last Tuesday in a fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts.
She reiterated that GM is still on track to convert its portfolio to all-electric by 2035, as it promised in January 2021, “but in the interim, deploying plug-in technology in strategic segments will deliver some of the environmental benefits of EVs as the nation continues to build its charging infrastructure.”
She declined to say when we’ll see plug-in hybrids, or in which market segments GM will offer them. “We plan to deliver the program in a capital- and cost-efficient way because the technology is already in production in other markets. We’ll have more to share about this down the road.”
It’s lost on no one that GM had a leg up on plug-in hybrids with the Chevrolet Volt, which went on sale in December of 2010. The second-generation Volt, which had an upgraded powertrain and more battery capacity, went on sale in October of 2015. But GM pulled the plug on the slow-selling Volt in 2019 and began doubling down on plans to produce electric vehicles.
GM likely should have further refined a hybrid portfolio, as other manufacturers such as Toyota and Hyundai were doing, rather than dropping the technology altogether. “GM not only had a head-start on hybrids with the Volt but also with the SUVs more than a decade ago,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president for global forecasting for Pennsylvania-based AutoForecast Solutions. “Had they not decided on taking the all-EV route, they could have had a usable, and arguably more popular, hybrid lineup.
“The emissions regulations are going to require something more than the eventuality of electric vehicles,” he continues. “With the slowing transition to EVs, it makes sense to add hybrids to your lineup, especially since many of your products are V-8-powered trucks, and what are traditionally high-polluting models.”
Also in play is a “slowing of the transition to EVs,” Fiorani said. Early adopters jumped on EVs when they first became available, but the balance of customers have been more cautious about entering the EV market when they perceive that range and infrastructure may not be at the levels they require to abandon their ICE vehicles.
“Everybody anticipated that the growth would continue at this sharp angle, and it’s just not happening,” Fiorani said. “As we transition out of the early adopters, it’s been more difficult to move customers out of their ICE vehicles and into an EV.”
Indeed, simply building EVs and getting them to market has been difficult for GM, in part due to issues with weakened demand and with producing the Ultium battery platform. In a February forecast by AutoForecast Solutions, GM said it planned to build 416,300 EVs in 2023. Actual production was 120,900.
Presently, the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray is the only hybrid in GM’s North American lineup. As Barra mentioned, GM builds hybrids in other markets, most notably China.
But Fiorani said that simply bringing the Chinese hardware and software here won’t solve GM’s problems. The Chinese hybrids are mostly smaller vehicles, and one issue will be finding a vehicle small enough in the U.S. fleet to use the same technology. “There’s a potential that they could use it in vehicles the size of the Chevrolet Trax, which is produced in South Korea. But the big meat will be hybrids that compete with Ford and Toyota in full-sized trucks.” Both Ford (as of the 2021 model year) and Toyota (as of 2022 MY) currently offer hybrid versions of their full-size trucks, and hybrid offerings in that segment would go a long way to helping GM meet emissions goals across its portfolio.
So when can we expect to see some new hybrids from GM? “This will not be an overnight thing,” Fiorano said, because GM will have to bring back engineering they haven’t used in a decade and raise it to current levels.
“It’s important to note that GM and the rest of the industry should have seen this coming,” Fiorani said, “and should have been better prepared. Toyota, Ford, Honda—a few of these companies have hybrids in their lineup, and companies like Toyota didn’t expect the transition to EVs to happen anytime soon. Something between those two extremes probably would have been the best course of action.”
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Batteries freeze. Range is severely comprised in cold weather. How do you plan to ever convince Canada and the northern states of the U.S. that they will not be stranded in the cold. There will never be enough charging stations once all are driving EV’s. Chaos will rule the day and fights (and worse) will break out at charging stations for certain. Perfect spot for a car-jacking while you spend 30 minutes or more charging up. No one wants to buy your used EV with old batteries that need to be replaced at large expense. Simply a recipe for failure. Hybrids were not successful in the first place. If GM was making money, they would not have killed the Volt. Hydrogen is the solution to all these problems.
Hydrogen is even more expensive than the Batteries and even less infrasture. It works great but getting the needed fill stations and cost down are still down the road. I have driven them and they work great Just no place easy to fill.
I assume the current gas stations will replace pumps with Hydrogen pumps. Kits will be sold to convert existing engines to accept Hydrogen and all future ICE will be built from the ground up with Hydrogen fuel as the source. Infrastructure problem solved. Should work out seamlessly.
I love how people complain about EV cars catching fire but they are OK with pumping pressurized hydrogen and parking a car with a full tank of hydrogen parked in their garage.
I agree — hydrogen would be a much easier solution. As for EVs in really cold climates: forget it. They just don’t work there.
Fires are just a poor excuse to argue vs EV. My buddies T Bird burned in his garage.
I would disagree, a lot of race organizations don’t allow full electric vehicles because of the different requirements to be able to effectively put out the fires, and it’s a major concern for fire departments (source: family member that is a fire chief that talks with peers in other municipalities).
As far as your friends T-Bird, what was determined to be the cause of fire ignition?
I know a guy who once was safer withouyt his seatbelt.
He flew out the widsheild and landed on a bag of feathers.
I like the idea of a hybrid, but not the typical execution like I’ve seen. I’d like best a short-range battery and an almost completely separate small-engine drivetrain, like a front-wheel drive car with a battery and electric motor in the rear. I drove a friend’s Camry and it was way too complex- engine automatically starting, regen braking, etc. Like all that will be working in ten years. And if one part fails, you may be dead in the water. I’m sticking with ICE as long as possible if this complex stuff is all they can offer. Really, even ICE cars are too complex for me these days. Ten speed transmissions- really?
I have an idea. All the automobile manufacturers should band together & shut down their facilities at the same time to force the government to come to their senses & quit forcing this EV bs on the car companies! It the same old story. Supply & demand. If the people want it the manufacturers will respond!!
UAW might have something to say about that.
I bought a non-hybrid sedan with a V8. I don’t want a plug-in hybrid. If I wanted a hybrid it would be a non plug-in like most Toyota hybrids or the Corvette E-ray. If I want to plug in the car like my phone every day I’ll go EV and I won’t be doing that anytime soon. I don’t want the compromises that plug-ins and full EV’s have. The American car companies and the auto unions should be fighting these EV mandates, unless they don’t like working and building cars.
It is interesting that GM is going to build hybrids since that is what people actually want to purchase. Stellantis also did a backpedal recently on the new Charger that was originally supposed to be EV-only. Surprise – now it will be either an EV or ICE with the new twin turbo straight 6 engine. The difference is that Stellantis is trying to make it sound like that was their plan all along, which is not true.
They designed the platform to go either direction because the skateboard style is too difficult to adapt outside of BEV
These car maker’s are getting exactly what they deserve.
We as Americans have less and less power to make decisions, but one freedom we still have is our preference on what we drive!
Car makers tried to force feed us on electric vehicles and now there paying for it.
No big surprise here. Neither the buyers nor the grids are up to a complete transition yet, and probably will not be in a mere 11 years either.
BTW, the chatter from early adopters of EVs in the LA area that I am hearing is that around half of (non-Supercharger) charging stations simply do not work at any given time, and anything but a commute to work to charge there is not really feasible if you have to drive longer distances. That sounds to me like a plea for PHEVs.
EV’s are not the solution, hydrogen fuel cells are a better alternative, I for one will NEVER purchase a hybrid, electric vehicle or an import for that matter, I have always bought domestic vehicles for the last 55 years.
The powers at be want people to buy a car that they can control with a keystroke.
Mary may not be much of an engineer, but she can read sales figures. And she is noticing that Toyota is selling every RAV4 Hybrid they can make a $50K a pop. There are now two in our extended family, and they are both economical and fast. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Electric around town, ICE on the road. Toyota has figured it out, GM is just now getting the message. It is just like high school– everyone knows what is going on except the clueless.
Smart thing to do. The mining and construction industry have proven that hybrid technology is not only efficient, but reliability is also very good. I was disappointed that government interaction for EVs actually hurt hybrid development. It may be possible to have 120mpg hybrids in the future and wether or not you believe in green house gasses conservation of any resources is a good thing. I’ve been disappointed with GM for many years, but this decision may bring back my respect for that company.
Take a good hard look at the Toyota ABAT from the 2008 Chicago Auto Show that Toyota never built but should have. Make the HVAC electric for camping.
Its been my observation that the “Greens” were the ones pushing for the total elimination of all fossil fuel usage and that was what was driving Biden to pressure the US auto industry to focus only on pure plug in vehicles. In the last two years most everyone has come to realize that the technology does not support EV’s as a pure alternative, especially with such a limited infrastructure for recharging all types of EV’s from a single location.
A pivot to ’55 Bel Airs would also garner some attention.
In a free market country, maybe GM should get the hint…the dog ain’t eating what you’re trying to feed it.