GM CEO discusses catching up to Tesla, adopting NACS, hints at Bolt EV successor
General Motors (GM) is going all-electric, but the transition hasn’t happened as quickly as many anticipated. The automaker is overcoming supply chain hurdles as it ramps up EV production. With several high-volume EVs launching, GM’s CEO Mary Barra believes “it will be dramatically different” next year. But will it be enough to surpass Tesla?
In an interview with NBC News’ Rebecca Blumenstein at the Aspen Ideas Festival this week, Barra discussed the automaker’s future as the leader transitions the company to go all-electric by 2035.
Barra said that setting a date to go all-electric (passenger vehicles) stopped the internal debate around when and shifted things to how to get it done. Shortly after, GM’s leader said she was confident the automaker would catch up to and surpass Tesla to become the top EV seller in the US.
After producing just over 39,000 fully electric vehicles last year compared to Tesla’s 1.4 million, GM’s goal seems like it’s getting out of reach.
When asked why production isn’t higher, Barra explained the automaker’s move from the Volt to the second-generation Bolt EV and EUV. Although the Bolt has become a top-selling electric car in the US as one of the most affordable options, it was an ICE vehicle modified to become electric.
In turn, the Bolt’s limited range and performance led GM to develop a dedicated EV platform, Ultium. Despite launching the first Ultium-based vehicle, the Hummer EV pickup, in late 2021, the automaker sold a total of two in the first three months of 2023.
Ramping electric vehicle production
Battery production is currently holding GM back. As Barra explains, the company has plans for four EV battery plants in the US.
The first plant, a 2.8 million sq ft facility in Warren, Ohio, began producing battery cells last September and is now “running really well.” GM’s other three will be in Tennessee, Michigan, and Indiana.
The ramp-up is constraining its Ultium-based vehicles, such as Hummer EV and upcoming Silverado EV, Blazer EV, and Equinox EV, all due out by the end of the year.
GM’s leader says as the facilities come online, it will support the automaker’s target of producing 400,000 EVs by the middle of next year and one million in 2025.
GM catching Tesla in sales, potential Bolt EV successor?
When asked if she still believes GM will catch Tesla while maintaining its leadership role in the US auto industry, Barra said the automaker has “sold more vehicles in the US” and knows its customers well and what they are looking for out of an EV.
As part of GM’s “EVs for everyone” strategy, GM is not concerned with replicating its ICE portfolio. Instead, it’s being strategic with affordable options, luxury models, pickups, SUVs, and more.
After GM announced plans to discontinue the Bolt EV later this year, many wondered what would take its place. Will we see an Utlium-based EV? Barra teased a next-gen model by saying:
It’s a very important vehicle in our lineup, so you will have to wait and see what we end up doing.
This is now the second time Barra has teased the idea of an Ultium-based Bolt EV.
After adopting Tesla’s NACS connector earlier this month, Barra explained the company wanted to offer customers the best possible experience. GM chose NACS because it provides better durability and reliability at a lower cost, as Barra said:
Anytime you make a decision from a customer perspective and you’re not choosing the most cost-effective, better solution, you do that at your own peril.
Instead of having 13,000 chargers across the US, GM will now have 25,000, which will help support EV adoption.
Barra says she sees Elon Musk as both a partner and competitor after the NACS deal. She said the decision was the right one for everyone as several other OEMs have also moved toward the standard. You can watch the full interview below.
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On today’s fleet-focused episode of Quick Charge, we talk about a hot topic in today’s trucking industry called, “the messy middle,” explore some of the ways legacy truck brands are working to reduce fuel consumption and increase freight efficiency. PLUS: we’ve got ReVolt Motors’ CEO and founder Gus Gardner on-hand to tell us why he thinks his solution is better.
You know, for some people.
We’ve also got a look at the Kenworth Supertruck 2 concept truck, revisit the Revoy hybrid tandem trailer, and even plug a great article by CCJ’s Jeff Seger, who is asking some great questions over there. All this and more – enjoy!
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Thanks to Trump’s repeated executive order attacks on US clean energy policy, nearly $8 billion in investments and 16 new large-scale factories and other projects were cancelled, closed, or downsized in Q1 2025.
The $7.9 billion in investments withdrawn since January are more than three times the total investments cancelled over the previous 30 months, according to nonpartisan policy group E2’s latest Clean Economy Works monthly update.
However, companies continue to invest in the US renewable sector. Businesses in March announced 10 projects worth more than $1.6 billion for new solar, EV, and grid and transmission equipment factories across six states. That includes Tesla’s plan to invest $200 million in a battery factory near Houston that’s expected to create at least 1,500 new jobs. Combined, the projects are expected to create at least 5,000 new permanent jobs if completed.
Michael Timberlake of E2 said, “Clean energy companies still want to invest in America, but uncertainty over Trump administration policies and the future of critical clean energy tax credits are taking a clear toll. If this self-inflicted and unnecessary market uncertainty continues, we’ll almost certainly see more projects paused, more construction halted, and more job opportunities disappear.”
March’s 10 new projects bring the overall number of major clean energy projects tracked by E2 to 390 across 42 states and Puerto Rico. Companies have said they plan to invest more than $133 billion in these projects and hire 122,000 permanent workers.
Since Congress passed federal clean energy tax credits in August 2022, 34 clean energy projects have been cancelled, downsized, or shut down altogether, wiping out more than 15,000 jobs and scrapping $10 billion in planned investment, according to E2 and Atlas Public Policy.
However, in just the first three months of 2025, after Trump started rolling back clean energy policies, 13 projects were scrapped or scaled back, totaling more than $5 billion. That includes Bosch pulling the plug on its $200 million hydrogen fuel cell plant in South Carolina and Freyr Battery canceling its $2.5 billion battery factory in Georgia.
Republican-led districts have reaped the biggest rewards from Biden’s clean energy tax credits, but they’re also taking the biggest hits under Trump. So far, more than $6 billion in projects and over 10,000 jobs have been wiped out in GOP districts alone.
And the stakes are high. Through March, Republican districts have claimed 62% of all clean energy project announcements, 71% of the jobs, and a staggering 83% of the total investment.
A full map and list of announcements can be seen on E2’s website here. E2 says it will incorporate cancellation data in the coming weeks.
Read more: FREYR kills plans to build a $2.6 billion battery factory in Georgia
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Tesla has reportedly delayed the launch of its new “affordable EV,” which is believed to be a stripped-down Model Y, in the United States.
Last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a pivotal decision that altered the automaker’s direction for the next few years.
The CEO canceled Tesla’s plan to build a cheaper new “$25,000 vehicle” on its next-generation “unboxed” vehicle platform to focus solely on the Robotaxi, utilizing the latest technology, and instead, Tesla plans to build more affordable EVs, though more expensive than previously announced, on its existing Model Y platform.
Musk has believed that Tesla is on the verge of solving self-driving technology for the last few years, and because of that, he believes that a $25,000 EV wouldn’t make sense, as self-driving ride-hailing fleets would take over the lower end of the car market.
However, he has been consistently wrong about Tesla solving self-driving, which he first said would happen in 2019.
In the meantime, Tesla’s sales have been decreasing and the automaker had to throttle down production at all its manufacturing facilities.
That’s why, instead of building new, more affordable EVs on new production lines, Musk decided to greenlight new vehicles built on the same production lines as Model 3 and Model Y – increasing the utilization rate of its existing manufacturing lines.
Those vehicles have been described as “stripped-down Model Ys” with fewer features and cheaper materials, which Tesla said would launch in “the first half of 2025.”
Reuters is now reporting that Tesla is seeing a delay of “at least months” in launching the first new “lower-cost Model Y” in the US:
Tesla has promised affordable vehicles beginning in the first half of the year, offering a potential boost to flagging sales. Global production of the lower-cost Model Y, internally codenamed E41, is expected to begin in the United States, the sources said, but it would be at least months later than Tesla’s public plan, they added, offering a range of revised targets from the third quarter to early next year.
Along with the delay, the report also claims that Tesla aims to produce 250,000 units of the new model in the US by 2026. This would match Tesla’s currently reduced production capacity at Gigafactory Texas and Fremont factory.
The report follows other recent reports coming from China that also claimed Tesla’s new “affordable EVs” are “stripped-down Model Ys.”
The Chinese report references the new version of the Model 3 that Tesla launched in Mexico last year. It’s a regular Model 3, but Tesla removed some features, like the second-row screen, ambient lighting strip, and it uses fabric interior material rather than Tesla’s usual vegan leather.
The new Reuters report also said that Tesla planned to follow the stripped-down Model Y with a similar Model 3.
In China, the new vehicle was expected to come in the second half of 2025, and Tesla was waiting to see the impact of the updated Model Y, which launched earlier this year.
Electrek’s Take
These reports lend weight to what we have been saying for a year now: Tesla’s “more affordable EVs” will essentially be stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3.
While they will enable Tesla to utilize its currently underutilized factories more efficiently, they will also cannibalize its existing Model 3 and Y lineup and significantly reduce its already dwindling gross margins.
I think Musk will sell the move as being good in the long term because it will allow Tesla to deploy more vehicles, which will later generate more revenue through the purchase of the “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) package.
However, that has been his argument for years, and it has yet to pan out as FSD still requires driver supervision and likely will for years to come, resulting in an extremely low take-rate for the $8,000 package.
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