GM has committed to an additional $7 billion in funding for electric car and autonomous vehicle programs and will launch 30 new EVs globally through 2025, CEO Mary Barra announced today. Two-thirds of these new EVs will be available in North America, and 40% (!) of GM’s US model line will be battery electric vehicles by 2025. GM also announced it would be moving its US debut of the Cadillac Lyriq SUV up from late 2022 to early 2022.
But GM has been making a lot of announcements lately, yet if you go to a GM dealership today, there’s a very small chance you’ll see an EV. Should we take GM at its word?
With this announcement, GM has now dedicated more than $27 billion to EVs and AVs through 2025, which eclipses its planned spending on gas and diesel vehicles and represents a majority of GM’s capital spending and product development in that timeframe.
Cadillac, GMC, Chevrolet, and Buick will each have electric vehicles available at all price points. GM will make at least three unannounced GMC vehicles, four Chevrolets, four Cadillacs, and two Buicks, including GMC- and Chevy-branded pickup trucks and a compact crossover from Chevy.
GM’s plans don’t just end with money and promises of future vehicle launches, though. The company is pushing forward with its “Ultium” battery technology (developed jointly with LG Chem) and expects batteries to cost 60% less and have double the energy density of today’s packs by mid-decade. This will allow some Ultium-based vehicles to achieve a maximum range of up to 450 miles (which is probably way more than you need). GM is exploring the possibility of licensing Ultium to other automakers including Honda which it announced and Nikola, which it has been silent about lately.
EV batteries have consistently improved over the years, generally at a rate of 5-10% per year. So GM’s expected improvement is about in line with the high end of that technology curve, though these projections may be slightly hopeful.
GM also shared that it plans to sell a million EVs by mid-decade (a number which Tesla, a much smaller automaker, already passed back in March). GM has currently sold under 100,000 BEVs with its Chevy Bolt, though the Volt PHEV/Cadillac ELR also sold fairly well before it was retired
As for specific models, GM has accelerated plans for both the Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq EV. GM announced $2 billion in investment for an EV factory in Tennessee just last month, where the Lyriq is planned to be built. Cadillac now plans to launch the Lyriq in the first quarter of 2022, nine months ahead of its previous schedule of late 2022.
The Hummer EV was originally announced with a slow rollout, with the first trim levels being available in 2021, while base model buyers will have to wait until 2024. GM didn’t specify whether this announcement means the timeline for lower trim levels would be accelerated.
They did state, however, that the development time for the Hummer EV was only 26 months, down from a standard of around 50 months. GM expects this to be its new benchmark for new vehicle development, which will enable them to roll out promised EV models on a much tighter timeline than has traditionally been the case.
In comments about these announcements, Barra said:
“Climate change is real, and we want to be part of the solution by putting everyone in an electric vehicle. We are transitioning to an all-electric portfolio from a position of strength and we’re focused on growth. We can accelerate our EV plans because we are rapidly building a competitive advantage in batteries, software, vehicle integration, manufacturing and customer experience.”
President-elect (and Chevy Corvette owner) Joe Biden met with Barra, labor leaders, and other automotive and tech CEOs on Monday. We can imagine that electric vehicles were a topic of conversation, given Biden’s nearly $2 trillion climate plan, which includes plans to expand electric vehicle adoption. When asked specifically, GM says that the change in US leadership was not a factor in today’s announcement, though they would welcome a return to the $7500 tax rebate for all makers that Biden has pushed.
During a conference call with reporters last night, GM said it would make some announcements about specific EVs today at the Barclay’s Automotive event. Electrek will of course be “on the scene’.
Electrek’s Take
Despite these big plans, GM is sending mixed signals. The company is still allied with the coal-lobbyist-led EPA to sue California over higher emissions standards, which makes little sense for a company that is supposedly serious about electric cars. When we asked GM President Mark Reuss about this early this year, and he gave us a bogus, Orwellian rationale that GM’s opposition to higher emissions standards is somehow meant to encourage a faster shift to EVs. When asked about siding with Trump this week, Doug Parks, GM’s executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain disappointingly echoed these claims saying that “all GM wants is a level playing field.”
We’ve also heard big new model plans like these before. Back in October 2017, GM promised two new EVs within 18 months and 20 new EVs within five years. Currently, GM sells one battery-electric vehicle in the US, the Chevy Bolt, which it was also selling prior to that promise. It’s a great little car, but it’s quite short of the big promises we’ve heard. And it’s not the first time GM has broken EV promises.
Even with a 26-month development timeline, GM is going to have to rush to release 20 new EVs by (*checks calendar*) 23 months from now. Also, notably, all of those draped vehicles in this article’s featured photo, which originally came from GM’s October 2017 announcement (37 months ago), are still not available and most have not been shown publicly. The fact that we can run the same photo more than three years later and GM’s available model line hasn’t changed at all is a pretty big indication that things are going slower than they should.
So, as it seems like we keep saying virtually any time any automaker announces anything: great talk, now show us some action. Many of these EV commitments are already weaker than what we need as a planet to avoid the worst effects of climate change, and automakers keep missing even the mild commitments they set for themselves. Even when the cars do hit the road, GM will have to struggle with getting its dealerships to sell them, which remains a problem for most companies with franchised dealership models.
GM’s commitments today are stronger than most and reasonably impressive, but the company’s mixed history on EVs, legal advocacy against emissions standards that will save both lives and money, and the current status of its previous promises give us reason to be skeptical. Show us the cars at the dealership, GM.
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TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
