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General Motors (GM) will invest $27 billion in electric vehicles and automation technology over the next five years. It is aiming for a faster market launch by increasing more than 35% over investment in gasoline and diesel.
GM plans to allocate more than half of its investment and development teams to electric vehicles and electric self-driving vehicle programs. It will also accelerate the GTM strategy timeline to add more EV portfolio plans.
On November 19 (local time), GM announced its ambitious plan to bring 30 electric vehicle models to the global market by 2025. Previously, it had pledged to release 20 models of electric vehicles by 2023. According to the company, more than two-thirds of these models will be deployed in North America, and EVs will be deployed in all GM brands, including Cadillac, GMC, Chevrolet and Buick.
GM advances its plan by nine months to launch the Cadillac Lyriq SUV in the first quarter of 2022, amid an active electric vehicle movement in the auto industry. Numerous startups have announced mergers with SPAC to go public. The purpose is to secure capital necessary for large-scale expansion. Existing automobile manufacturers such as Ford and Volkswagen Group are developing electric vehicle plans at their own expense. Tesla, which has secured its position as an electric vehicle manufacturer in the automotive industry, will build factories in Austin and Berlin to increase production. By 2021, consumers will have far more electric vehicle options than today, including Lucid Motors, Libian and Ford.
GM Senior Vice President Doug Parks says he wants to lead, not just participate. Tesla has made a good start and said there are formidable competitors who have done great things, and many startups have entered the field, but GM does not want to lose leadership.
GM’s strategy is to change the old approach to condense the typical 50-month development cycle and adopt a team-focused approach rather than a bureaucracy. For example, the GMC Hummer electric vehicle will be 26 months from design to market launch. Investments in the Ultium battery architecture and drive units that form the basis of the next-generation EV program have made this reduction possible.
As a result, GM is developing three model GMC electric vehicles. In addition to these models, four Chevrolet electric vehicles and four Cadillac models all use Ultium. The wealth lineup is expected to include two Ultium-based electric vehicles.
GM is also looking for talent to keep pace and ultimately survive the competition. In early November, it announced that it is hiring 3,000 engineers for controlling electrical systems and infotainment software, as well as developers of platforms such as Java, Android, and iOS.
GM also established a joint venture with LG Chem to develop and supply batteries for modular architecture. Called the ultimate, the modular architecture consists of 19 types of batteries and drive units. The capacity is 50 to 200 kWh, 400 and 800 volt packs, and it corresponds to the configuration of front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive and Sarun drive.
GM has so far committed up to $2.3 billion to invest in the joint venture and to establish a battery assembly plant on the site in Rosetown, Ohio. The new factory is expected to hire 1,100 new people. The plant already under construction can manufacture 30 GWh per year. For reference, the Tesla plant in Spark, Nevada, which is partly affiliated with Panasonic, has a production capacity of 35GWh. Related information can be found here .
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