“I never thought the propulsion of a vehicle would become a political issue,” GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Tuesday.
While the executive didn’t expand on this statement, former President Trump has railed against EVs and claimed, wrongly, that there is a mandate to make and sell electric vehicles in the United States.
“General Motors’s goal is to just keep providing great vehicles, keep supporting the charging infrastructure to be more robust …and opening up the Tesla charging network, as well, so people choose it because it’s a great vehicle,” Barra continued. “And that’s the journey we’re working on, while we’re getting battery costs down. We’re still looking for battery innovation to get energy density up, cost down, all those things are going to be unlocks.”
Lowering battery costs could help lower the price of EVs. Affordability is top of mind for Barra who said it major factor for consumers.
“That’s why we’re so excited to have the Equinox and the Blazer on that because we’re getting into the affordable range, especially when you look at an Equinox EV that will be starting in that mid $30,000 range,” she said.
“But they want affordability with the right range,” she continued. And that sweet spot is really 300 miles before people start getting range anxiety.
Finally, accessibility to working, well lit, easy to pay for charging stations is what consumers want.
“Charging is just going to continue to get better,” she said, noting that GM has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help boost charging infrastructure in partnership with companies like EVgo.
While EVs are a key component to Barra’s vision for GM, autonomy, cybersecurity and a strategy for China are also important. Here are some of the highlights.
Cruise will still help GM transform the industry
“I became the CEO in 2014, and in 2015 we actually spent quite a bit of time in Silicon Valley, at Stanford and other places within the leadership team,” Barra said. “What were the technologies that were really going to transform our industry? We started looking at those. And autonomy was one.”
She noted that when GM acquired Cruise in 2016, the automaker kept its hands out of the AV startup’s business and let it develop as a startup would, which did lead Cruise to commercialize fully driverless robotaxi in San Francisco. Cruise’s permits to operate were suspended after a safety incident last October.
Nonetheless, Barra is still bullish on the possibilities for AVs to drive safety. She also believes the Cruise investment will continue to help GM one day provide personal autonomous vehicles.
GM will someday make a purpose-built AV
Following Cruise’s safety incident, the company scrapped its plans to produce the Origin, a purpose-built AV with no steering wheel or pedals. While Barra acknowledged that there are challenges to getting such a vehicle onto public roads – namely federal motor vehicle safety standards – she believes an AV built without human controls is still in the future for GM.
Keeping data secure
Electric vehicles today are computers on wheels, and as a result, they collect a lot of data, including the environment in which the car is driving, how the car is performing, and driving behavior. That data could contain sensitive information, which is something Barra says GM is prioritizing.
“I take cybersecurity really seriously from a vehicle perspective, because again, if something goes wrong, it can have dire consequences,” Barra said. “So that’s something we’ve been investing in for years. Privacy as well, treating data with respect and continuing to raise the bar on how to manage data and make sure we’re doing the right thing.”
It should be noted that GM is among a number of automakers who were sharing consumer driving data with insurance companies, the NYT reported earlier this year. GM has since stopped sharing that data with LexisNexis Risk Solution and Verisk, two data brokers that created risk profiles for the insurance industry, and also hired an executive to oversee customer privacy.
Moving away from China
Barra has referred to competing for EV market share in China as a “race to the bottom,” and she doubled down on those comments Tuesday.
“There’s a lot going on from a political perspective,” she said. “Our business in China is shifting.”
During the third quarter, GM’s China JV lost $137 million, compared with a $192 million profit a year ago. That’s because it’s tough to compete with domestic brands that have government backing to produce excellent vehicles at low costs.
“The competition is just continuing,” she said. “From a pricing perspective, it’s lower and lower and lower. And so you have to look at what’s the sustainable business? Because the situation that’s there right now is not sustainable. We have 100 or so companies, less than a handful are profitable.”