Despite a pandemic that shuttered auto factories for nearly two months and sent car sales tumbling, General Motors made more than $6 billion last year, one of its highest profit totals ever.
The automaker is going to need every penny and more for years to come to meet its lofty ambition of an all-electric model lineup in about 15 years.
Last month GM said it hoped to end production of petroleum-powered cars and trucks by 2035. It has also set interim targets of introducing 30 new electric cars and trucks in the next four years, and selling 1 million of them a year in the United States and 1 million more in China by 2025 — all at a time when electric vehicles still make up a little more than 4 per cent of global auto sales.
The price tag is steep: GM plans to spend $27 billion on electric and autonomous cars by 2025, and more than $7 billion just this year.
To make that math work, the company needs to squeeze as much profit as it can out of its pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles. In other words, the gas guzzlers of today will foot the bill for the electric cars of tomorrow.
“When you look at our internal combustion business, we are well positioned and that puts us in a place where we can be investing more in electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles,” GM’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, said in a conference call Wednesday. “We think we can grow as we make this transition.”
GM earned $6.4 billion in 2020, down from $6.7 billion a year earlier, as brisk sales of pickup trucks and SUVs in the second half of the year offset the damage from the pandemic in the spring. Revenue declined 11 per cent, to $122 billion.
The first of GM’s new electric vehicles will be introduced next week — an updated version of its Chevrolet Bolt compact hatchback and a roomier version called the Bolt EUV, or electric utility vehicle. An electric Hummer pickup and an electric Cadillac SUV are to follow later this year and in 2022.
The automaker is going to need every penny and more for years to come to meet its lofty ambition of an all-electric model lineup in about 15 years.
Last month GM said it hoped to end production of petroleum-powered cars and trucks by 2035. It has also set interim targets of introducing 30 new electric cars and trucks in the next four years, and selling 1 million of them a year in the United States and 1 million more in China by 2025 — all at a time when electric vehicles still make up a little more than 4 per cent of global auto sales.
The price tag is steep: GM plans to spend $27 billion on electric and autonomous cars by 2025, and more than $7 billion just this year.
To make that math work, the company needs to squeeze as much profit as it can out of its pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles. In other words, the gas guzzlers of today will foot the bill for the electric cars of tomorrow.
“When you look at our internal combustion business, we are well positioned and that puts us in a place where we can be investing more in electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles,” GM’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, said in a conference call Wednesday. “We think we can grow as we make this transition.”
GM earned $6.4 billion in 2020, down from $6.7 billion a year earlier, as brisk sales of pickup trucks and SUVs in the second half of the year offset the damage from the pandemic in the spring. Revenue declined 11 per cent, to $122 billion.
The first of GM’s new electric vehicles will be introduced next week — an updated version of its Chevrolet Bolt compact hatchback and a roomier version called the Bolt EUV, or electric utility vehicle. An electric Hummer pickup and an electric Cadillac SUV are to follow later this year and in 2022.
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