General Motors is starting to build an electric future
Car manufacturer General Motors Company (GM) has announced its intention to build a giant battery factory in the United States. Thus, the company is preparing to switch to electric drive, a positive signal for long-term investors. GM was one of the first companies that, following Tesla, tried to establish large-scale production of electric vehicles.
Her Chevrolet Bolt electric car became successful in the USA, but production volumes were limited, and since October 2021, production has been stopped altogether due to a defect in the batteries. To establish a full-scale series of electric vehicles capable of replacing the current lines of cars with internal combustion engines, we need our battery production plant.
GM plans to invest $7 billion in constructing such a plant in Michigan and repair some other production facilities. Approximately $800 million of these costs will by state subsidies, thanks to GM’s creation of 4,000 jobs. In addition, new battery assembly workshops will allow GM to mass production of electric pickups by 2024.
This is an important project since other significant players, such as Ford and Toyota, are already creating the infrastructure to gradually transfer the product line to electric drive. Ford will spend more than $11 billion on constructing two plants, and they will also be in the United States. GM’s strength is a large set of brands, and some may experience a resurgence in popularity thanks to an eco-friendly power plant. For example, these are new, fully electric HUMMER SUVs.
Last November, US President Joe Biden took part in the presentation of this car. Ultimately, by 2025, General Motors expects to increase production volumes to 600 thousand electric vehicles per year. It is less than Tesla or Ford will have by this time. But GM decided to spend extra time and effort creating its modular battery packs that can reduce cost and the possibility of an easy upgrade of the chassis to new batteries in the long term. Thus GM expects to gain competitive advantages.
