EV Rust Belt -- March 31, 2026

Locator: 50382EVS.

Interesting, huh? High gasoline prices won't rescue EVs this time around. 

Ticker: Rivian -- 

Back to GM:

 

And Ford?

GM -- Update -- Mid-Year 2025

Locator: 48743GM.

GM: will invest $4 billion in US manufacturing plants. This is huge. The emphasis will be on high-margin, large, gasoline-guzzling SUVs and pick-up trucks. Interestingly, no mention of hybrids which would greatly improve fuel mileage.

Announced June 10, 2025:

Plants in Michigan, Kansas, and Tennessee will expand finished vehicle production of several of GM’s most popular vehicles:

• Orion Assembly, Orion Township, Michigan: GM will begin production of gasoline-powered full-size SUVs and light duty pickup trucks at Orion in early 2027 to help meet continued strong demand. As a result, GM’s Factory ZERO in Detroit-Hamtramck, Michigan will be the dedicated assembly location for the Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV, Cadillac ESCALADE IQ, and GMC HUMMER EV pickup and SUV.
• Fairfax Assembly, Kansas City, Kansas: Fairfax Assembly will support production of the gasoline-powered Chevrolet Equinox beginning in mid-2027. Sales of the recently redesigned Equinox were up more than 30% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025. Fairfax remains on track to begin building the 2027 Chevrolet Bolt EV by the end of this year. GM expects to make new future investments in Fairfax for GM’s next generation of affordable EVs.
• Spring Hill Manufacturing, Spring Hill, Tennessee: GM will add production of the gasoline-powered Chevrolet Blazer at Spring Hill starting in 2027, alongside the Cadillac LYRIQ and VISTIQ EVs, and the Cadillac XT5.

July 15, 2025: update from GM via Reuters, just part of the entire press release:

General Motors said on Tuesday it will move production of the Cadillac Escalade to a Michigan assembly plant, while adding new capacity for gasoline-powered Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light-duty pickups at the same facility.

The Escalade is currently produced in Arlington, Texas, alongside other large SUVs such as the GMC Yukon, Chevrolet Suburban and Chevy Tahoe. Production at Arlington is expected to remain consistent after the Escalade moves to Michigan.

The automaker will be adding production of the Silverado and Sierra trucks at its Orion Township, Michigan factory, in addition to existing production in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The gasoline-powered trucks and SUVs are among GM's biggest money makers.

GM told Reuters the moves would "help meet continued strong customer demand."

GM said it will begin manufacturing the SUVs and light-duty pickup trucks at its Orion Assembly plant in early 2027. Orion Assembly was previously slated to build electric trucks starting next year.

Mary Barra Throws In The Towel -- May 28, 2025

Locator: 48699GM.

GM: backpedals on EVs. Will invest "hugely" in V-8 engines. Are you kidding me. V-8 engines. Huge investment. Link here.

The plant, located in Buffalo, New York, will continue to produce the fifth generation of the engine while it prepares to start production on the new engines in 2027.

The engines, used in full-size trucks and SUVs, use new combustion and thermal management innovations to improve performance while reducing emissions.

The investment includes new machinery, equipment, tools and facility renovations, and builds on GM’s work to boost its manufacturing facilities in recent years, including a half-billion-dollar investment in its Flint engine plant in 2023.

The bean counters over at Ford and the Ford analysts have to be watching this very, very closely.

Wow, This Is Huge -- I Was Wondering When GM, Ford Would Face Reality -- April 28, 2025

Locator: 48536EVS.

At the state level, California is the country's biggest auto market. For years, Ford and GM have played along with California.

So, why now? EV credits are disappearing and President Trump is not exactly a huge supporter of EVs / renewable energy -- then take a look at his cabinet. It only gets worse.

Link here. 

My hunch: EV profits are drying up, dying, not enough to cover up their expenses, and GM / Ford vice-presidents no longer want their legacy (ICE) divisions to subsidize a losing EV program. Ford is the only major auto manufacturer that breaks out its financial statement, EV - ICE. I wonder when Ford stops that practice. 

There are only a handful of folks on x worth following, Giovanni is one of them:

GM -- Batteries -- Archives -- December 11, 2024

Locator: 48375EVS.

For more background, see this post.

EVs, Batteries, Now Robotaxis -- Upheaval In Detroit -- December 10, 2024

Locator: 48372EVS.

Updates

December 15, 2024: link here. This is truly a bigger story than analysts, Mary Barra, and others are letting on. GM goes back to becoming simply a legacy US auto maker. No real growth opportunities with the demise of the Cruise.

December 12, 2024: link here.

From the linked article:

Eight years and $10 billion later, GM has decided to pull the plug on its grand robotaxi experiment.

The automaker’s CEO, Mary Barra, made the surprise announcement late on Tuesday, arguing that a shared autonomous mobility service was never really in its “core business.” It was too expensive and had too many regulatory hurdles to overcome to make it a viable revenue stream. Instead, GM would pivot to “privately owned” driverless cars — because, after all, that’s what the people really wanted.

“Customers like to drive,” Barra said in a call with investors. “And there’s times they don’t like to drive.”

If some of this sounds familiar, Ford essentially made the same decision two years ago when it pulled its funding for Argo AI, the autonomous driving startup it had financed since 2017. It cited as one of its reasons a belief that partial autonomy — often described as Level 3 or Level 3-plus — will have more near-term payoffs.

Original Post

I've completely lost the bubble on what GM is doing with regard to EVs, batteries, and, now, robotaxis.

I saw the headline on CNBC but it seemed CNBC didn't spend much time on the story. Talk about a debacle. One link here; links are everywhere, including The WSJ. 

The lede:

General Motors said Tuesday it will no longer fund the development of a commercial robotaxi business and will instead absorb its self-driving car subsidiary Cruise and combine it with the automaker's own efforts to develop driver assistance features — and eventually fully autonomous personal vehicles.

The pivot is a remarkable step for the automaker, which acquired the self-driving startup Cruise in March 2016 for $1 billion. Since then, GM has poured billions into the company in a bid to commercialize autonomous vehicle technology via a robotaxi business.

From the story and other sources, a short history of GM and Cruise:

• GM acquired Cruise Automation, a self-driving car startup on March 11, 2016
• price paid: undisclosed; estimated to be between $500 million and over $1 billion
• GM brought on numerous other external investors
• since then, GM has invested over $8 billion in Cruise
• March, 2022: a $2.1 billion acquisition of SoftBank Vision Fund 1's equity stake
• at same time, a separate $1.35 billion investment
• almost exactly one year ago, October 2, 2023, Cruise became embroiled in scandal, following an incident that left a pedestrian stuck under and then dragged by one of its robotaxis
• ultimately, GM took over more direct control of Cruise
• in the fallout, Cruise lost its commercial operating permits from California regulators; laid off 900 employees, about 24% of Cruise's workforce;
• shuttered plans to build a custom robotaxi called the Origin
• Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt resiged and GM brought in outsiders to restructure the company, regain trust
• June, 2024: GM hired Marc Whitten -- a video game veteran as CEO of Cruise
• Whitten: a founding engineer at Xbox and Xbox Live
• For me, the bottom line is this:
• this history of Cruise, though interesting, is now but a footnote in GM's story
• going forward, "Cruise" is going to be the ignored stepchild
• Some other data points:
• Waymo, owned by Google-parent Alphabet, is logging "about" 100,000 rides / week in California and Phoenix
• a five-day week makes that about 20,000 rides / day
• NY has "over" 13,000 licensed taxicabs
• at ten rides / day = 130,000 rides / day

From today, google AI reply to a query:

From an earlier post:

December 4, 2024

***************************
Investing

GM should be of some concern.  

A huge day on Wall Street today: Dow breaks through 45,000 for the first time ever. Art Cashin, who famously wore a "Dow 24,000" cap back in 2017, and perhaps one of the finest men on Wall Street, died two days ago. He might have something to say about this/that.

GM was down during regular hours and continued to go down after the market closed. 

The thing that would concern me if I were a GM investor, and I'm not, is the abruptness with which the company ended its relationship / stake in the huge Lansing EV battery factory. GM has/had sunk about $1 billion into the venture, but said it expected to recoup its investment. I assume that was said to "appease" GM's more gullible shareholders. It's chump change.

$1 billion. Sounds like a lot of money. Chump change to the tech CEOs and their companies.  Musk is worth $333.6 billion. That's with a "b." If a company like GM is concerned about $1 billion, there's more to the story. There's a short-term story and a long-term story. 

The last five days have been miserable for GM. And longer term? One could have bought GM for $63.37 / share back on June 4, 2021. Today, GM closed at $53.36. Ouch. 

Ford? Back on June 14, 2022, F was trading for $25.19. Today, F closed at $10.74.

See disclaimer. Just some rambling thoughts. Not making a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold. 

********************************
$1 Billion

That number keeps popping up: $1 billion. 

How one would love to be a fly on the wall during board meetings.

October 18, 2024: Barra says GM will make a profit on EVs this year. Link here. GM's 3Q24 earnings.

EVs are tracked here. 

My question: how closely related are EVs and autonomous driving (to include robotaxis)? Ten years from now, for an EV manufacturer to be successful, will its EVs need to be fully autonomous?

CNBC didn't seem to spend much time on this story (GM / Cruise) today, but something tells me this is a much bigger story than folks seem to be letting on.

*****************************
Rivian

Rivian was in the news today; stock rises. News:

Benzinga link here.

Tesla Superchargers Can Now Accommodate GM Vehicles -- October 1, 2024

Locator: 48455EVS.

I track the status of "EV charging" at this site. It appears I need to update the site with the GM announcement.

From The Verge.

From the linked article:

General Motors says it has updated the software in its electric vehicles so its customers can finally use Tesla’s Supercharging network.

To gain immediate access, owners of electric Chevy, Cadillac, and GMC vehicles will need to purchase “GM approved” Tesla adapters through each brand’s smartphone app for $225.

Future GM vehicles will come with Tesla’s charging port natively installed.

The announcement comes more than 15 months after GM first announced it would adopt Tesla’s EV charging plug for its vehicles. The automaker had originally said it expected to complete the software coordination with Tesla by “early spring” 2024, but production bottlenecks and layoffs at Tesla have delayed the process. 

Folks may recall that Elon Musk cut "most" of the staff at the "supercharging" division. That was some time ago. 

This Was Not On My Bingo Card Today -- Stellantis -- US -- January 9, 2024

Locator: 46502AUTOS.

Updates

January 19, 2024:

Original Post 

January 9, 2024: one-two punch -- 

• sticker shock -- incredibly expensive;
• confusion -- incredibly complicated; and,
• then there's the range problem
• 2024: will be the watershed year for BEVs; PHEVs will continue to grab bragging rights;
  

January 9, 2024: link here.

January 9, 2024: link here.

From the linked article:

Stellantis reports 343,552 vehicle sales in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2023 (down 1.2% year-over-year). 

Similarly, the full-year result of 1,527,090 is also 1.3% lower than in 2022. 

At the same time, the group noted significant progress on the electrification front, more than doubling its plug-in hybrid car sales to new record levels. 

According to Stellantis, in Q4 2023 its PHEV sales in the U.S. increased by 118% year-over-year, which we estimated at around *44,000 units. That's a new quarterly record and a noticeable 12.8% share out of the group's total volume. 

No one sells more PHEVs in the U.S. than Stellantis, which currently offers five models, under four brands: Alfa Romeo Tonale model (PHEV-only), Dodge Hornet R/T (PHEV) (alongside the ICE version), Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, and Jeep Wrangler 4xe. 

The two Jeeps and the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid are the highest volume PHEVs on the market (top three plug-in hybrids). Meanwhile, the Alfa Romeo Tonale and Dodge Hornet R/T are quickly gaining share within their brands. In the case of Alfa Romeo, the PHEV share is already at 37%, although that's mostly because the brand's presence in the U.S. is very small. 

A very significant achievement is that almost one in four new Jeeps is rechargeable. 

Plug-in car sales in Q4'2023 (some numbers estimated): 

• Alfa Romeo PHEVs: 1,233 (new) and 37.3% share 

• Chrysler PHEVs: 2,848 (down 30%) and 27.5% share 

• Dodge PHEVs: 3,591 (new) and 8.4% share 

• Jeep PHEVs: 36,405 (up 125%) and 23.8% share 

• Stellantis PHEVs: 44,077 (up 118%) and 12.8% share 

In 2023, Stellantis sold more than 142,000 plug-in hybrid cars in the U.S., which is 124% more than in 2022 and 9.4% of the group's total volume. 

Stellantis says that it holds the highest PHEV market share in the industry, owning 47%. It means that the total PHEV sales must be slightly above 300,000 and that all of the other carmakers sold about 161,000 PHEVs. Toyota (including Lexis) was able to sell 39,551 PHEVs, BMW brand sold 25,318 and Mitsubishi sold 6,681 to give you some perspective for manufacturers that shared PHEV sales data.

*******************************

Autos

Previously and recently:

Ford: annual sales increase lower than the overall industry's growth. Link here.

EVs: Ford loses EV bragging rights to GM: link here. Best summary to date.

For the full year, Ford shipped almost 2 million vehicles in the U.S., up about 7% compared with 2022. BEV sales came in at about 73,000 units, up 17%. Hybrid (fake EVs) sales amounted to almost 134,000 units in 2023, up 25% from 2022. 

Despite Ford’s sales growth, General Motors still edged its rival out for the title of second-largest EV maker in the U.S., behind Tesla. Ford had held the No. 2 spot in 2022. GM shipped 75,585 BEVs in 2023. 

Tesla U.S. numbers aren’t available yet, but its lead is immense. It probably sold roughly 600,000 BEVs in the U.S. in 2023.

EVs -- Sales -- Rivian And Tesla -- January 2, 2024

Locator: 46442EVS.

Breaking news: Harvard president resigns. About time. My hunch, one very powerful individual, thinking long term, weighed in. Note that "the governing board still 'stood by her.'"

***********************************
Now Back To Autos

Autos:

• Rivian: link here. Down 10% at the moment, mid-day trading.
  
• Tesla: link here.

Rivian:

Tesla: link here. Hits his 2023 target. Pretty amazing.

***************************
More

From the CNBC link:

Shares of Rivian Automotive declined by almost 10% during early trading Tuesday after the company reported increased vehicle production during the fourth quarter but fewer deliveries than the previous period.

The company said it delivered 13,972 vehicles from October through December, down 10.2% from the third quarter of 2023 but in line with Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected Rivian to deliver about 14,000 vehicles during the quarter.

Rivian produced 17,541 EVs during the fourth quarter, an increase over the 16,304 it produced during the third quarter.

It produced 57,232 vehicles for the full year, all at its factory in Normal, Illinois. That topped the company’s full-year 2023 production guidance of 54,000 vehicles.

Rivian will announce its fourth-quarter earnings result after markets close on Feb. 21.

Rivian’s results come on the same day U.S. EV leader Tesla easily topped Wall Street’s expectations for fourth-quarter deliveries.

From the CNBC link:

Tesla just published its fourth-quarter vehicle production and deliveries report for 2023.

Here are the key numbers:

• Total deliveries Q4 2023: 484,507
• Total production Q4 2023: 494,989
• Total annual deliveries 2023: 1,808,581
• Total annual production 2023: 1,845,985

In 2022, the Elon Musk-led automaker reported annual deliveries of 1.31 million and production of 1.37 million electric vehicles. The new numbers represent delivery growth of 38% year over year and production growth of 35% year over year. In 2022, the company reported 40% growth year over year in deliveries from 2021.

In its last earnings call in October 2023, Tesla execs offered guidance that the company would notch at least 1.8 million deliveries for the full year, a number they had revised down from a 2 million goal earlier.

Analysts had expected Tesla to report deliveries of 477,000 for the year-ending quarter, according to a consensus of estimates compiled by StreetAccount as of Dec. 28. Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales reported by Tesla but are not precisely defined in the company’s shareholder communications.

During a third-quarter earnings call in October, Tesla CEO Musk said the company’s Model Y entry-level SUV was likely to “be the bestselling car on Earth, but not just in revenue, but in unit volume,” for the year. Tesla does not break out delivery and production numbers by individual model but reported combined numbers of:

Tesla produced 476,777 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles during the quarter and reported 461,538 deliveries for these models. It didn’t break down Model S or X production or delivery numbers, instead batching them into “Other Models.” It produced 18,212 other models and delivered 22,969 during the quarter.

GM Vs Ford — Paths Forward Diverge — November 30, 2023

Locator: 46210EVS.

GM: $10-billion buyback; increases dividend by 33%. Why? Why now? Not needed for EV ramp? That seems strange. This is huge story. Analysts aren’t addressing this. At least not so far.

F: reinstates guidance: says agreement with UAW will cost company almost $9 billion over life of contract. Debt issue: something different between F and GM? See debt graphic at this post.

Folks tell me I shouldn’t invest if I can’t read a financial statement. The linked post and Ford’s comments this week seem pretty clear.

Both will take a breather on EV development. 

CNBC analysts spot something interesting: Americans differentiate between EVs and Teslas. Very, very interesting observation. For Americans to buy non-ICE vehicles, the automobiles need to be cool. Teslas are cool. The other makes are not. Interesting observation.

Same with pick-ups and the Cyberbeast. The Cyberbeast is beyond cool. The other makes, at best, are simply utilitarian.

Tesla continues to raise the bar. It almost seems like GM and F need to go back to drawing board. 

EV acceptance hasn’t gotten past “early adopter” stage after a decade of pushing EVs.

A CNBC anchor didn’t complete his answer but, today, when asked directly he said he had an EV but it sounded like he almost said he didn’t have it any more. Facial expression and body language suggests he doesn’t have his EV any more.

For me: the options are “messy”: range, payload, motors, prices. And that’s true with all EVs. I just don’t get the feeling there’s pent-up demand for EVs. 

Bolt: It’s Still The One — November 23, 2023

Locator: 46140BOLT.

 

Barron's: 

GM, which owns about 80% of Cruise, told Barron’s earlier this month it was finishing production of a small number of commercial Cruise vehicles and then planned to pause production temporarily.

Cruise is still important for GM, which projected the robotaxi company could generate $50 billion in annual sales by 2030. That forecast hasn’t been updated in recent months.

Link here. 

 

Link here.

General Motors' Cruise driverless-car unit plans to eventually reintroduce its robotaxi service following safety mishaps, but will narrow the focus to one city and shelve plans for the Origin, a GM-built driverless taxi. Cruise’s new co-president, Mo Elshenawy, outlined in an employee email Wednesday the plan to scale back future operations to one market, a change from an earlier strategy to deploy service in more than a dozen cities, according to people familiar with the matter. Cruise previously had launched efforts in several cities including San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, Houston and Miami. Elshenawy didn’t cite a timeline to resume service or specify the city, the people said.

Can you find any good news in this story?

In a statement, Cruise confirmed plans to narrow its focus, and said the Origin would be part of its longer-term plans. 

“Our strategy is to re-launch in one city and prove our performance there, before expanding,” it said. 

The new plans come nearly a month after California regulators revoked Cruise’s driverless permits following an incident in which a self-driving Cruise vehicle hit a pedestrian and dragged her nearly 20 feet. Cruise then chose to suspend operations nationwide. 

Since then, Cruise’s board has hired a law firm to investigate Cruise’s response to the incident, and its chief executive, Kyle Vogt, resigned. 

If Cruise chooses San Francisco as its singular market, it would need to re-apply for the operational permits it lost. In the email Wednesday, [the new guy] Elshenawy said the Origin would factor into the company’s long-range plans, but near-term service would continue to use retrofitted Chevrolet Bolts, which the company has been using for years.

The EVs Wars -- An Existential Issue For Automobile Manufacturers -- September 15, 2023

Locator: 45671EVS.

Updates

September 18, 2023: link here.

Original Post 

This post has not been completed, but I'm bored with the subject and won't add anything more to this page for now.

Link here.

Wow, wow, wow.

Someone is reading the blog.

I've been saying the same thing, for several years now. Not always explicitly. 

But there it is, in Barron's -- EVs are an existential threat to the US auto companies. Ford is probably most at risk, having stated very clearly, the company will be 100% EV sooner than later. Some companies have already back-pedaled, and are moving to PHEVs as an interim option. 

We'll come back to this. The link to the Barron's article: https://www.barrons.com/articles/ford-gm-tesla-ev-war-aa553d83?mod=hp_HERO.

The headline and the lede.

The numbers are daunting. I don't think folks realize these are mature companies literally attempting to move into a new industry. Mature companies that have taken 100 years to get to where they are today.

The old industry: automobiles. Everything built around an ICE and a driver.

The new industry: batteries. Autonomous mobile batteries with walk-in baggage and/or safety observers.

So much more at the Barron's story. EV investors need to save this article and pull it out twenty years from now.

Embarrassing! Absolutely Embarrassing -- July 7, 2023

Locator: 45925AUTOS. 

Hyundai overtakes GM: link here: