GM’s 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV is pictured at a media launch event in Detroit on May 16, 2024.
Michael Weiland / CNBC
Detroit – General Motors The company said Tuesday it was again delaying its all-electric vehicle plans, further delaying production of its second U.S. electric truck factory and the Buick brand’s first electric vehicle.
A six-month delay to mid-2026 in construction of its electric truck factory in Michigan also means GM will not be able to meet its previous goal of having production capacity for 1 million electric vehicles in North America by 2025.
“We are committed to growing responsibly and profitably,” GM CEO Mary Barra told investors on a conference call to release the company’s second-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
Barra’s comments come a week after GM expressed concerns about whether it would be able to meet its North American EV production capacity targets.
Barra did not provide an updated timeline for Buick’s first EV, which is expected in 2024. GM plans to offer only consumer EVs by 2035, with a goal of having the entire Buick brand fully electric by 2030.
The change raises new questions about the Detroit automaker’s plans to build future battery cell factories in North America beyond the two facilities it is currently building in a joint venture with LG Energy Solution Co. GM has previously announced plans to build four multi-billion-dollar factories in the U.S. by 2026.
Barra said Tuesday that the company will continue to expand cell production at a “meaningful pace.”
GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson declined to comment on any plans that might slow or stop the company from building future EV battery cell factories, beyond its two cell-making facilities in Ohio and Tennessee.
“We will continue to follow our customers’ guidance as we rapidly scale up cell factories one and two,” Jacobson said at a press conference. “We have no comment to make at this time.”
GM’s U.S. EV deliveries rose 40% year over year to 21,930 units in the second quarter. Still, EVs accounted for just 3.2% of its total U.S. sales in the quarter.
Jacobson said the company plans to ramp up assembly to produce and wholesale 200,000 to 250,000 electric vehicles in North America this year. He said the company wholesaled about 75,000 of the new electric vehicles in the first half of the year.
Jacobson reiterated that GM expects EVs to become profitable on a production, or contribution, basis once production reaches 200,000 vehicles by the fourth quarter.
“We remain consistent in that direction,” Jacobson said, adding that he expects rising EV sales to lower the company’s bottom line because variable margins on EVs are lower than GM’s traditional gasoline-powered vehicles.
