American legacy automaker General Motors conceded that it will fall short of its ambitious 1 million electric vehicle delivery target in 2025 due to stalling market growth.
GM ditches EV production target for 2025 due to slower-than-expected market growth
General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra admitted in an interview with CNBC that the automaker will not be able to achieve its set 1 million electric vehicle target in 2025 as the market is “not developing.”
Nonetheless, GM remains positive that its share of the electric vehicle market will still expand by then.
“We’re seeing a little bit of a slowdown here, we won’t get to a million, because the market just isn’t developing. But we will get there.”
General Motors CEO Mary Barra
In hindsight, the GM boss originally announced the company’s transition to zero-emission vehicles by 2035, way back in 2021. In order to achieve that, it shared a target of hitting an annual production output of 1 million EVs in North America by the end of 2025.
However, it seems that GM’s EV targets will face a major delay.
Affecting factors
General Motors has enjoyed notable growth in its electric vehicle sales in recent months. However, it must be noted that the American automaker also faced major challenges in its electrification.
For instance, alarming software, manufacturing, and initial quality issues troubled the launches of many of GM’s Ultium-based EVs.
As CEO Barra admitted, vehicle software is a very crucial part of GM’s electrification strategy. However, the company continues to fail to figure this out.
“General Motors, moving to an all-electric future, almost what’s more important, is that the vehicle really is a software platform.”
General Motors CEO Mary Barra
Despite these shortcomings, CEO Barra remains hopeful that the American automaker will eventually achieve its ambitious electric vehicle production and delivery goals. The GM exec noted that the charging infrastructure and EV tech continue to improve, potentially propelling the market’s growth.
“The next ten, eleven, twelve years is going to be pretty transformative in the way people move.”
General Motors CEO Mary Barra
Looking forward
General Motors has yet to announce its new electric vehicle production target for the following years. However, it hinted that the company will now focus on delivering customer demand.
“We’re being flexible. We haven’t announced a new capacity target and we will build to demand.”
General Motors CEO Mary Barra
With all that said, it would be interesting to watch GM’s future moves on how it can achieve its 1 million electric vehicle production capacity target beyond 2025. Hopefully, the company can get there eventually to further boost North America’s EV adoption rate.
