Summary of The DECLINE of General Motors

00:00:00 - 00:15:00

General Motors has been struggling to keep up with sales, and their electric vehicle market share is declining. They are planning to invest 35 billion dollars into electric vehicles by 2025, but it is unclear if this will be enough to help them catch up to Tesla. There have been disagreements within the company about the future of their autonomous vehicle business, which could further hinder their progress.

• 00:00:00 GM's sales have declined year after year, but the company and the country appear to be in denial that this is occurring. Tesla, which has a multi-year lead on every EV automaker, uses the best technology available and holds a 63 percent market share in the US.
• 00:05:00 GM believes that they are the leaders in the electric vehicle market, but their sales have been declining. GM is targeting 30 new electric models by 2025 and is looking to spend 35 billion dollars on electric vehicles annually by 2025. GM's strategy seems strange, as they are trying to catch up to Tesla, who has been working hard to eliminate different package options and limit the number of choices to be made when purchasing a vehicle. GM is also looking to have 40 to 50 percent of its fleet become electric by 2030, five years later than investment firm Arc Invest estimates.
• 00:10:00 GM plans to offer electric vehicles exclusively by 2035, but says this depends on infrastructure and other factors. In October, GM's automotive analyst, Adam Jonas, asked GM CEO Mary Barra how GM plans to exit the ice vehicle business. She replied by saying that GM has 14 years to move at its own pace. However, since Tesla has deals with all the major battery manufacturers, GM's new battery platform with its Altium batteries is likely to be more expensive than Tesla's.
• 00:15:00 According to a Bloomberg report, GM's treasurer, Ammon, was abruptly dismissed from the company in December 2021 due to disagreements with CEO Barra over the future direction of the automaker's autonomous vehicle business. This change affects GM's autonomous vehicle business at a time when Tesla is heating up the competition in the autonomous vehicle market. It is unclear what led to the disagreement, but it is possible that it had something to do with the company's insistence on maintaining in-house crew deployment for autonomous vehicle testing, which Ammon disagreed with. Without Ammon's guidance, GM may struggle to keep up with demand for its autonomous vehicles.