GM had $6 billion to spend on next-gen EVs, chose stock buybacks | opinion
Despite numerous delays and mounting competition from Ford, Stellantis, and the Chinese, the GM board decided to take $6 billion and pump its share price instead of investing in the company’s future.
A few short weeks after labor negotiations led to a six-week UAW strike at GM plants, GM board members approved a $10 billion accelerated stock buyback plan. This week, the board kicked off that initiative with a $6 billion purchase and raising its shareholders’ stock dividend by 33 percent (to 12 cents per share) in the first quarter … a move that, to this writer, seems like a blatantly cynical cash-grab and shockingly shortsighted dereliction of the board’s fiduciary duty to the well-being of the company.
Stellantis is serious
Stellantis may have been slow to the electric party back in 2020 and 2021, when it seemed like you couldn’t go two weeks without some OEM or other announcing plans to go “fully electric” by 2035. But the Carlos Tavares-led company seems like it’s rising to the challenge – in a big way.
“While the BEV market may be experiencing a slowdown, Stellantis remains undeterred, capturing a 13.8% share in the EU29 region,” writes Max McDee. “The company’s electric vehicles are leading the charge in France, where sales soared by 56% to reach a 37.9% market share.”
In Germany, the world’s number two producer of electric vehicles, Stellantis is on a charge. The company’s sales there are up 22% over the year before, and it remains a market leader in Italy on the strength of its Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and well-received new Lancia offerings.
To make matters worse for GM, Stellantis seems to have rediscovered the fact that Jeep is a young, fun brand, and the company announced plans today to launch an “affordable,” $25,000, all-electric Jeep Renegade somewhat sooner than later.
And Stellantis isn’t even a strong example! GM’s arch-rival Ford is securing some top new product talent, as well. The blue oval is ramping up its efforts to produce an affordable EV and get it to market as quickly as possible, and its compact Maverick hybrid truck and E-Transit electric van are dominating their respective markets
If you look at import brands, Hyundai and Kia are closing the gap with Tesla, experiencing double-digit growth in the EV market without Stellantis’ advantage of having started in the single digits. Hyundai, along with Tesla, have driven down the price of 300-mile, fast-charging EVs to well below the $47,218 average new car transaction price.
At the same time, Kia’s design team is going from strength to strength with cars like recently updated EV6, American-made, seven-passenger EV9, and upcoming EV3 compact all looking like real winners for the Korean brand.
It’s not just legacy brands
Upstart carmakers like Rivian, with its compact R3 (above) are also coming to eat GM’s lunch with fresh, innovative products that compete directly with GM’s bread-and-butter offerings like the Chevy Silverado (Rivian R1T), Tahoe (R1S), and the Blazer/Equinox (R2), which are still getting crushed in the marketplace by Tesla’s super best-selling Model Y.
And that’s saying nothing of the Chinese.
China is a problem for GM
Once upon a time, GM could depend on China to at least buy some Buicks here and there – but the domestic Chinese manufacturers have stepped up their game significantly in the past decade, to the point that it’s no longer clear whether or not Buick will still be a desirable brand in the world’s largest auto market in five-to-ten years’ time (or in the US, for that matter).
Meanwhile, GM’s big talk about its Ultium platform bringing costs down with the economies of massive scale seem to have stalled, with the company producing far fewer mainstream EVs like the Silverado and Blazer than you get the feeling they’d have liked.
What’s obviously needed for GM to survive the next big evolution of the auto market as it transition to electric fuel is more product. Better product. Cheaper product. And, while we’re at it, more significant investment in its workforce, so that they can not only help develop that next generation of GM EVs, but be able to afford to buy them, as well – something that the latest UAW deal tried to address, even as it failed to secure pensions for employees hired after the ’07/08 bailout.
Instead, GM is getting a stock buyback. As a GM fan, I hope they reconsider.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Fueled by incentives from the Illinois EPA and the state’s largest utility company, new EV registrations nearly quadrupled the 12% first-quarter increase in EV registrations nationally – and there are no signs the state is slowing down.
Despite the dramatic slowdown of Tesla’s US deliveries, sales of electric vehicles overall have perked up in recent months, with Illinois’ EV adoption rate well above the Q1 uptick nationally. Crain’s Chicago Business reports that the number of new EVs registered across the state totaled 9,821 January through March, compared with “just” 6,535 EVs registered in the state during the same period in 2024.
Those numbers represent more than 50% growth in EV registrations – far beyond the expected 12% first-quarter increase nationally being projected by Cox Automotive. (!)
What’s going on in Illinois?
While President Trump and Elmo were running for re-election, they campaigned on the threat promise of canceling the $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs. Along with California Governor Gavin Newsom, Illinois’ Governor JB Pritzker made countermoves – launching a $4,000 rebate for new electric cars and up to $1,500 for the purchase of a new electric motorcycle.
At the same time, the state’s largest utility, ComEd, launched a $90 million EV incentive program featuring a new Point of Purchase initiative to deliver instant discounts to qualifying business and public sector customers who make the switch to electric vehicles. That program has driven a surge in Class 3-6 medium duty commercial EVs, which are eligible fro $20-30,000 in utility rebates on top of federal tax credits and other incentives (Class 1-2 EVs are eligible for up to $7,500).
We covered the launch of those incentives when the program was announced at Chicago Drives Electric last year, but the message here is simple: incentives work.
SOURCES: Chicago Business, Ray Cunningham; featured image by the author.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
The electric construction equipment experts at XCMG just released a new, 25 ton electric crawler excavator ahead of bauma 2025 – and they have their eye on the global urban construction, mine operations, and logistical material handling markets.
Powered by a high-capacity 400 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery capable of delivering up to 8 hours of continuous operation, the XE215EV electric excavator promises uninterrupted operation at a lower cost of ownership and with even less downtime than its diesel counterparts.
XCMG is delivering on part of that reduced downtime promise with the lower maintenance and easier repair needs of electric equipment, and delivering on the rest of it with lickety-quick DC fast charging that can recharge the machine’s massive battery in 1.5-2 hours … but that’s not the slick bit. The XCMG XE125EV can be powered up without leaving the job site thanks to its BYD battery swap technology.
We first covered XCMG and its battery swap technology back in January, and covered similar battery-swap tech being developed by MOOG Construction offshoot ZQUIP, as well – but while XCMG’s battery tech has been in production for several years, it’s still not widely known about in the West (even within the industry).
XCMG showed off its latest electric equipment at the December 2024 bauma China, including an updated version of its of its 85-ton autonomous electric mining truck that features a fully cab-less design – meaning there isn’t even a place for an operator to sit, let alone operate. And that’s too bad, because what operator wouldn’t want to experience an electric truck putting down 1070 hp more than 16,000 lb-ft of torque!?
Easy in, easy out
The best part? All of the company’s heavy equipment assets – from excavators to terminal tractors to dump trucks and wheel loaders – all use the same 400 kWh BYD battery packs, Milwaukee tool style. That means an equipment fleet can utilize x number of vehicles with a fraction of the total battery capacity and material needs of other asset brands. That’s not just a smart use of limited materials, it’s a smarter use of energy.
You can check out all the XE215EV’s specs at this tear sheet, and get an in-person look at the Chinese company’s latest electric excavator this week in Munich, Germany.
SOURCE | IMAGES: XCMG.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
As “extreme” weather events become more commonplace, the demand for reliable and portable energy continues to rise. In response to that growing demand for dependable off-grid power, Volvo has developed the new PU500 Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) designed to take electrical power when it’s needed most.
Designed to be deployable in a number of environments at a moment’s notice, the Volvo Energy PU500 BESS is equipped with approximately 500 kWh of usable battery capacity (up to 540 kWh total). More than enough juice, in other words, to power a remote construction site, disaster response effort, or even a music festival – anything that needs access to reliable electricity beyond a grid connection.
That’s great, but what sets the PU500 apart from other battery storage solutions is its integrated 240 kW DC fast charger.
“With an integrated CCS2 charger, the PU500 is designed to work with all brands of electric equipment, trucks, and passenger cars,” says Niklas Thulin, Head of BESS Product Offer at Volvo Energy. “This ensures that no matter what type of electric vehicle or machinery you rely on, the PU500 can provide the power you need, making it a truly flexible solution for any grid constrained site or location.”
The integrated charger in the PU500 has the impressive ability to charge a heavy equipment asset (be that an electric semi truck or something like a wheel loader) in under two hours. Its on-board capacity allows to fully recharge up to 3 electric HD trucks or 20 electric cars per day, making it an incredibly versatile disaster response asset.
Electrek’s Take
As we often say over at The Heavy Equipment Podcast, “just because you’re working for the power company doesn’t mean you have power,” and there are hundreds of scenarios where the extra power provided by something like the new PU500 would be useful. Its ability to be palletized and easily moved or swapped out of a larger BESS array, too, just add to its flexibility.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway