Barra Says GM Growing Shareholder Value, BEV Lineup

As sales of electric vehicles continue to grow despite some hurdles, General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra says the automaker’s flexible strategy around EVs continues to reshape the company.

An increase in the dividends paid by the automaker and stock buybacks the GM board of directors approved in November have raised the price of the company’s shares, Barra says during the company’s virtual annual shareholders’ meeting. 

“All of our product programs are improving,” Barra says, noting the company is pursuing its goals for EVs while continuing to serve customers who prefer vehicles with the traditional internal-combustion engines GM has produced for more than a century.

Battery-electric vehicles will play a growing role in GM’s product line, the CEO says. The new Chevrolet Equinox can carry five passengers, has a range of 319 miles (514 km) on a single charge and is aimed at the heart of the new-vehicle market since it costs $27,000 after the application of federal tax credits.  The single-charge range of the Equinox is 60 to 100 miles (97 to 161 km) farther than EVs that cost “thousands of dollars” more, Barra notes.

Another BEV, the new Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, has a range of 440 miles (708 km), she adds.

Paced by sales of the Cadillac Lyriq SUV, GM posted record BEV sales last month, and annual BEV sales in the U.S. are now expected to reach 1.6 million, accounting for a 10% share of the market.

“We anticipated there would be ebbs and flows. May was our best month ever for EV sales in North America,” says Barra.

GM’s vehicle lineup will be shaped by customer demand, the CEO says, and she expects ICE vehicles, hybrids and plug-in hybrids to all have a role in the automaker’s future plans. “We will be nimble,” Barra says.

Shareholders voted down three proposals from various interest groups that challenged aspects of GM’s plans for electric vehicles.

One proposal demanded a stronger commitment from GM banning the use of materials such as cobalt – a key element in EV batteries – mined in central Africa using child labor. Another sought tougher restrictions on the use of rubber from areas in the Amazon, Southeast Asia and Indonesia where native forests have been uprooted to make way for rubber trees, while a third sought to bar the use of rare minerals recovered from the ocean floor.

GM’s top management says it has policies in place to prohibit the use of child or slave labor and is careful to source material from suppliers that follow environmental guidelines. GM says its supply chains do not use material recovered from the ocean floor.