GM investing $6.6 billion in bid to dethrone Tesla in EV sales by

On Jan 25, 2022

Mary Barra, chief executive officer of General Motors Co., presents the new Silverado elective vehicle during a live-streamed event at the CES 2022 trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022.

Bridgett Bennett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

DETROIT – General Motors will invest roughly $6.6 billion in its home state of Michigan over the next several years to increase electric pickup truck production and build a new EV battery cell plant.

The new investments are part of a plan to increase GM’s North American production capacity for electric vehicles to 1 million units by 2025, the automaker announced Tuesday.

GM has said it will overtake Tesla as America’s top seller of electric vehicles by mid-decade. The investments are part of the $35 billion GM has pledged to spend on EVs by 2025.

“We will have the products, the battery cell capacity and the vehicle assembly capacity to be the EV leader by mid-decade,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a release.

GM has a lot to catching up to do by 2025. Tesla, which does not release U.S. sales specifically, delivered 936,172 electric vehicles globally in 2021. GM sold less than 25,000 EVs last year — ranking third in U.S. EV sales behind Tesla and Ford, which sold 27,140 of its Mustang Mach-E EVs.

Auto insights and forecasting firm LMC Automotive expects Tesla’s U.S. production capacity to increase from about 580,000 units to about 1 million later this year, when its second domestic plant in Texas comes fully online later this year.

EV trucks

The investments announced Tuesday include $2.6 billion for a new battery plant though a joint venture with LG Energy Solution in Lansing, Mich. and $4 billion to convert its Orion Assembly plant in suburban Detroit to produce electric trucks such as upcoming versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra beginning in 2024.

GM on Tuesday also announced an additional $510 million in investments in two Lansing-area vehicle assembly plants to upgrade for current, non-electric vehicles.

Many of the new investments had previously been reported, but GM hasn’t disclosed how many vehicles it hopes to build by 2025, a production timeline or the products that will be built at Orion. The influx of capital is expected to create 4,000 new jobs and retain 1,000 current employees.

“Michigan will be the recognized hub and leader of innovation in the U.S. for EV R&D and manufacturing,” GM President Mark Reuss said during a media briefing.

Orion Assembly and GM’s Factory Zero plant in Detroit are expected to build a majority of the 1 million units electric vehicles in North America, according to Reuss. Orion is expected to be able to produce 360,000 vehicles annually by mid-decade. Factory Zero is targeting 270,000 units. GM is also converting plants in Tennessee, Canada and Mexico to build EVs.

GM projects it will convert 50% of its North American assembly capacity to EV production by 2030 – five years ahead of a plan to exclusively offer light-duty electric vehicles by…