GM to Double Electric and Autonomous Programs over Two years

General Motors released this week its 2018 Sustainability Report titled, “Navigating the Road to Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion.”

The report, delivered by Mary Barra, GM’s chairman and CEO,  delves into the automaker’s initiatives regarding developing and transitioning to autonomous, connected, and shared models of mobility.

“Climate change is real, and we take the challenges it presents seriously,” Barra says in the report. “We also recognize the transportation sector needs to be part of the solution, which is why we believe in an all-electric future.”

In the report, GM noted it plans on doubling resources allocated to electric and autonomous vehicle programs over the next two years.

The automaker also highlighted the development of an electric pickup, a $300 million investment in its Orion Township, Mich. assembly plant for a new Chevrolet all-electric vehicle, and that Cadillac will be GM’s lead EV brand when it launches its next-generation battery-electric vehicle architecture.  

“This global architecture will be flexible and versatile, allowing us to build everything in our portfolio from just three drive units,” the report states. “This flexibility will allow us to deliver profitable EVs that also meet our customers’ needs for affordability and range.”

To support the growth of its EV portfolio the company has decided to invest $28 million in a battery lab at the Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.

The company announced that it will be working with Bechtel to build public EV fast-charging infrastructure in the U.S. This comes after GM announced its intent to work with EVgo, ChargePoint, and GreenLots to give customers access to more than 31,000 charging ports.

The report highlights the automaker’s development of autonomous vehicles (AVs) through its Cruise AV subsidiary and the high-profile partnerships to develop AVs, with investments from the SoftBank Vision Fund ($2.25 billion), Honda ($2.75 billion), and funds advised by T. Rowe Price and existing Cruise partners ($1.15 billion).

“These investments and strategic partnerships validate our approach to AV development, and importantly, give us the resources to tackle what we believe is the greatest engineering challenge of our generation,” the report states.