General Motors (GM) remains confident in its electric vehicle (EV) investments but acknowledges the need for flexibility to respond to changing consumer demand, according to outgoing executive vice president of Global Manufacturing and Sustainability, Gerald Johnson.
In an interview with Automotive News, Johnson highlighted the importance of agility in the automaker’s strategy. “We’re still confident in those investments, but we do have to be agile enough to time and/or retime some of our startup dates so that we are hitting the market with the right product at the right time frame. The plans that we laid out a year ago, we have to be able to look at the market today and make adjustments and act accordingly. I think that’s smart business,” he said.
Johnson cited the delayed production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV pickups at the Orion Assembly plant in Michigan by six months as an example of GM’s flexible approach. Additionally, GM is increasing battery cell capacity at its Ultium Cells LLC joint venture with LG Energy Solution with a “measured cadence.”
Despite these adjustments, GM is set to launch several new EV models this year, including the Sierra EV, the Cadillac Optic, and the Chevrolet Equinox EV. Johnson emphasized the company’s ability to adapt to market conditions: “We can control capital spend. We can control execution and timing. We can’t control demand. That, we have to respond and react to. The market will tell us the right time and, quite frankly, the right product and the right product mixes. We’ve allowed ourselves enough flexibility, though, with our ICE and EV portfolio and interplaying our plants so that they’re flexible to move with the market demand,” he noted.
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