LANSING, Mich.—General Motors (GM) has announced it is investing over $7 billion in four Michigan manufacturing sites to increase its battery cell and electric truck manufacturing capacity—GM’s largest investment announcement in its history, according to a news release.
GM plans to build a new Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Lansing and is investing in its two Lansing-area vehicle assembly plants for near-term product enhancements. The company is also converting GM’s assembly plant in Orion Township, Michigan, for production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the electric GMC Sierra, which is GM's second assembly plant scheduled to build full-size electric pickups.
The Orion and Ultium Cells Lansing investments will support an increase in GM’s total full-size electric truck production capacity to 600,000 trucks when both Factory ZERO and Orion facilities are fully ramped.
GM says it wants to become the electric vehicle (EV) market leader by 2025. The current leader is Tesla, which sold about 352,500 vehicles in 2021 or about 72% of all battery-electric vehicles purchased. In comparison, GM sold about 25,000 last year, and Ford sold around 27,000 electric vehicles in 2021.
Tesla also posted record profits of $5.5 billion last year on $53.8 billion of revenue, reports the Wall Street Journal. In 2020, the EV company posted $721 million in profit and $31.5 billion in sales in 2020—the first year Tesla posted a profit.
Tesla announced that it’s not rolling out any new vehicle models this year, and instead is focusing on increasing deliveries amid supply-chain disruptions. The company navigated last year’s global computer-chip shortage by utilizing in-house software engineering. However, Tesla was forced to run its factories below capacity due to supply chain issues.
A recent Convenience Matters podcast episode discusses how EVs are the future, and another episode explains how convenience retailers can attract and retain EV customers. A free NACS webinar helps retailers understand how EVs and environmentally conscious consumers will affect their business.
At the 2021 NACS Show, NACS held three education sessions that focused on the opportunity that EVs bring to retailers. Receive six-month access to this primer on electric vehicles for $49.
Read more about electricity demand charges and what they mean for retailers’ ability to turn a profit from EV charging in the September issue of NACS Magazine.