What's Next for Electric Vehicles as Market Turns Murky? (caranddriver.com)
What's Next for Electric Vehicles as Market Turns Murky? (caranddriver.com)"This will be especially important over the next 10 to 15 years as ICE continues to dominate but battery-electric powertrains will be necessarily phased in over time."
The auto market will become EV-centric no earlier than 2040, Fiorani says, and until then "a considerable number of vehicles" will have internal-combustion power.
GM CEO Mary Barra was asked about this in an exclusive interview on NBC Nightly News recently. Her answer prompted the misleading online link to the NBC News interview, "All-electric commitment will now play out over decades, GM CEO says."
Barra's reply was, "We'll be guided by the customers. It will be led by what customers want."
A day later, NBC News changed the online headline to read, "GM CEO says commitment to all-electric fleet remains firm despite industry-wide sales slowdown."
A spokesman confirmed to Autoweek that GM still plans an all-EV lineup by 2035. He also confirmed GM remains on-target to produce 1 million EVs in North America by 2025, and that it expects to build 200,000 to 300,000 EVs on the continent this year.
The "we" in Barra's statement that "we'll be guided by the customers" refers to the industry as a whole rather than GM, the spokesman said.
Shortly after, Automotive News reported that new EV motor production planned for GM's St. Catharines Propulsion Plant in Ontario, Canada, was being delayed.