GM News: GM Delaying Launch of EV Drive Production

[Anthony Fongaro]

GM has decided to postpone EV drive production at its Toledo Propulsion Systems plant in Ohio. They have revised their schedule, with plants to start EV production by the end of 2024. 

This postponement has affected EV drive unit production by nine months. GM announced this information during a Wednesday meeting with employees at the Toledo plant. GM, in a statement on Wednesday, indicated that the decision to "retime the launch of Electric Drive Unit at the plant to Q4 2024" was made to better synchronize with the planned production schedule at the Orion Assembly.

This development follows GM's previous announcement of a substantial $760 million investment aimed at preparing the Toledo plant to manufacture the first electric drive units for its EV lineup in the United States. GM's recent delays also extend to its electric trucks at the Orion Assembly, including the Chevy Silverado RST and GMC Sierra Denali EVs. The revised timeframe for production is late 2025.

Despite these setbacks, GM continues its electric vehicle efforts, currently producing the Chevy Silverado EV Work Truck at Factory ZERO, already available for purchase. The Silverado RST EV, set to roll off the same facility's assembly line, is expected to be available in the first half of 2024. The GMC Sierra EV, slated for production at Factory ZERO, is expected to hit the market next summer.

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[G. David Felt]

The Hyundai Motor Group (Hyundai, Kia, Genesis) has raced ahead of GM taking #2 spot for Q3 in EV registrations and now leads for all of 2023 EV registrations behind Tesla. 

How much more can GM screw this up with now a 9 month delay on EV Power Train production that would bring mass production!

On top of killing off Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in the weak ass excuse of safety. 

The Real Reason GM Is Dropping Apple CarPlay, Android Auto (gmauthority.com)

This just makes it harder and harder to ever buy from GM again. I might have just bought my last GM with my SS.

1 Ford, 1 Toyota, 2 Dodge, 2 Jeep and 5 GM auto's in my household till this week when my son traded in his Jeep for a Telluride. Now my daughter is considering trading in her Dodge Durango for a Kia Sportage Hybrid.

I really like what I saw in the Rivian when I checked it out, but need to test drive it and the Kia EV9 will be on dealer lots come January 2024, even without the IRA on these EVs, they could still win my money as GM continues to screw up and cave into big oil and other interest groups. 

Pathetic.

[smk4565]

A 9 month or even a year delay isn't a problem if they can get the cost of their EV's down.  That is the real issue that a Blazer EV is like $60,000, the Equinox EV is launching over $50k.  They need to suck cost and weight out of Ultium.

And Hyundai isn't the threat, BYD and the Chinese are, because they already have cheap EV's in China, they are entering Europe now and they'll be in the USA by 2030.  And for the "people won't buy a Chinese car" argument, they said that about Japanese and Korean cars too, and they will buy a Chinese EV when you can get a 7-seat SUV with a 350 mile range for $40k like the BYD Tang delivers now, and the BYD has a better interior than the Blazer.  

[surreal1272]

10 hours ago, smk4565 said:

when you can get a 7-seat SUV with a 350 mile range for $40k like the BYD Tang delivers now, and the BYD has a better interior than the Blazer.  

Couple of things. While looks are subjective, there is nothing about the BYD interior that screams “better” than the Blazer EV and at $40k, you can bet the farm that you will get exactly what you pay for with the BYD, ie cheapness everywhere. Second, it won’t be $40K if and when it gets here and you know that already. You are correct about GMs pricing but to say that the BYD is the answer when not one is actually sold in this country yet, is pure SMK style speculation. 

[Drew Dowdell]

13 hours ago, smk4565 said:

A 9 month or even a year delay isn't a problem if they can get the cost of their EV's down.  That is the real issue that a Blazer EV is like $60,000, the Equinox EV is launching over $50k.  They need to suck cost and weight out of Ultium.

And Hyundai isn't the threat, BYD and the Chinese are, because they already have cheap EV's in China, they are entering Europe now and they'll be in the USA by 2030.  And for the "people won't buy a Chinese car" argument, they said that about Japanese and Korean cars too, and they will buy a Chinese EV when you can get a 7-seat SUV with a 350 mile range for $40k like the BYD Tang delivers now, and the BYD has a better interior than the Blazer.  

Not that Chevy-level materials are fantastic, but they're a complete league better than what BYD is doing.

I've noticing a lot of this recently where the press pictures look great, but when you sit in the car, it looks and feels cheap even if there's lots of gee-wiz lights and pageantry to distract you.  The Ioniq 6 is worse in person than its pictures (particularly the center console), the EQ-Benzes don't live up to anywhere close to their brand name,  Tesla is abysmal,  the Cadillac Lyriq is meh in person but their pictures aren't great either, Escalade EQ meets expectations. Toyota interior materials are a letdown across the board.  Jaguar/Land Rover have mid-range VW interiors unless you're spending money for Autobiography models. Genesis, Telluride/Palisade, and most Buicks are better than you might expect. 

As for your argument that people will buy Chinese cars because they bought Japanese and Korean cars... I think you are correct on this, but it will be 25 years before they're where the Koreans are today.

[smk4565]

5 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Not that Chevy-level materials are fantastic, but they're a complete league better than what BYD is doing.

I've noticing a lot of this recently where the press pictures look great, but when you sit in the car, it looks and feels cheap even if there's lots of gee-wiz lights and pageantry to distract you.  The Ioniq 6 is worse in person than its pictures (particularly the center console), the EQ-Benzes don't live up to anywhere close to their brand name,  Tesla is abysmal,  the Cadillac Lyriq is meh in person but their pictures aren't great either, Escalade EQ meets expectations. Toyota interior materials are a letdown across the board.  Jaguar/Land Rover have mid-range VW interiors unless you're spending money for Autobiography models. Genesis, Telluride/Palisade, and most Buicks are better than you might expect. 

As for your argument that people will buy Chinese cars because they bought Japanese and Korean cars... I think you are correct on this, but it will be 25 years before they're where the Koreans are today.

I think it is more like 10 years.  BYD will probably be the largest car company in the world by 2030, I'd be worried about them if I were any legacy OEM that operated in Asia.

[Drew Dowdell]

3 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

I think it is more like 10 years.  BYD will probably be the largest car company in the world by 2030, I'd be worried about them if I were any legacy OEM that operated in Asia.

Not in the US they won't when the average new car is older than 10 years.  Vehicles simply don't cycle through that quickly and most people are slow to trust a new brand. 

 

BYD's current total of dealers in the US:  0

[G. David Felt]

14 hours ago, surreal1272 said:

Couple of things. While looks are subjective, there is nothing about the BYD interior that screams “better” than the Blazer EV and at $40k, you can bet the farm that you will get exactly what you pay for with the BYD, ie cheapness everywhere. Second, it won’t be $40K if and when it gets here and you know that already. You are correct about GMs pricing but to say that the BYD is the answer when not one is actually sold in this country yet, is pure SMK style speculation. 

My Boss is from China and was here last week and all she did was complain about how terrible her BYD EV was and that American Auto's were so much better. She rode in Escalade and my son's new Telluride and said that Chinese auto's have nothing on Korean or American auto's. If your a badge snob then your buying the German Luxury Brands.

BYD is about 30 years out from whenever they actually get a dealership here in getting where the Hyundai/Kia were 10 years ago.

This is coming from a woman who lives in China.

[smk4565]

Why does BYD need a dealership?  They can just sell direct like Tesla does.
 

The other issue is VW, GM and others are getting clobbered in China where they used to do a lot of volume.  Once they lose that market, GM has no European business and VW has a small American business.  Their economies of scale are getting hit.

These guys underestimated Toyota and Honda in the 70s and 80s, underestimated Hyundai and Kia in the 2000s, they better not underestimate the Chinese EV’s because they’ll figure it out and they’ll win on price.  To Cadillac or Audi buyers it may not matter but to Chevy and VW buyers it will.