Suddenly, the words on the lips of every auto executive are “ plug-in hybrid .” GM CEO Mary Barra said earlier this year that her company expects to begin offering plug-in hybrid models to cope with disappointing sales of electric cars. That’s curious, because until very recently, GM only offered one electric car, the Chevy Bolt.
The Lyriq was slow out of the gate. The Chevy Blazer EV and Equinox EV were delayed, and the Chevy Silverado EV was years away from production. Buick dealers have never had any EVs to sell in the US and future Cadillac EVs other than the Lyriq are still years away from production.
So, how GM could know there was a slowdown in EV sales is hard to figure. The Bolt was actually selling quite well when General Motors decided to kill it off without have a replacement model ready. Is there anyone at GM who knows anything about product planning? Because it sure doesn’t seem like it.
Through the years, the company has done this over and over again — take a car like the Chevy Malibu that is selling reasonably well and shut it down. It’s like there is some corporate schizophrenia at GM headquarters, with various parts of the organization at war with other parts. The abrupt changes in direction are baffling to outside observers.
This week, Barra told Detroit News that GM was “timing the launches to help us comply with the more stringent fuel economy and tailpipe emission standards” that are set to kick in later this decade. To comply with those .