[AllTerrain]

An interview with General Motors VP of Electric & Autonomous Vehicles revealed what's ahead.

Here’s Why General Motors Believes Electric Vehicles Will Dominate its Product Lineup Sooner Than You Might Think

Ken Morris, General Motors’ vice president for electric vehicles, explains why EVs will soon be GM’s main offerings—perhaps much sooner than you might expect.

www.automobilemag.com

Here's what he had to say about the HUMMER EV

"The first EV models you introduce—the Cadillacs, the GMC Hummer—all will be at the top of the Ultium-powered price range, which can better absorb the current battery cost …
KM: On a daily basis we're talking about how we drive that down. And we really don't see a limit of the downside yet because there are so many opportunities in that chemistry and how they're put together. We do have entries in every category and every brand. [Beside the GMC Hummers and Cadillacs] … we have Chevy entries, too. It's going to have a broad band of price entry points. That'll come very quickly between now and 2025.
Do you see a floor to that price range? The Chevrolet Bolt and competitors like the Nissan Leaf and Hyundai Ionic start in the $30,000s. Will consumers looking for sub-$30,000 models stop shopping for brand-new cars?
KM: I wouldn't put a number on what the floor is, because of where things are changing so rapidly and how quickly we're getting the cost out of the system. As we're getting toward production with these, we're learning a lot. So that's the good news. And I do think the price of vehicles that are higher in the food chain, like the Cadillacs and Hummer EVs and the bigger SUVs, makes a more palatable business case. [Barra] and [Reuss] have said that, "We're going to do these profitably, we're not going to take huge losses on these." What we have to do is evolve over time like I said, where we can hit top-to-bottom in our portfolio."

 

[Oakwood]

This article from the New York Times has an interesting section it that explains why automakers are making the emphasis on electric trucks and SUVs. Simply put, they can better hide the costs with SUVs compared to cars.

The price of batteries has a lot to do with that, even as automakers have driven down costs sharply. Mr. Brauer said that was another reason automakers were recruiting trucks and S.U.V.s to lead their electric invasions.

“There’s been an ‘aha’ moment among carmakers,” he said. “There’s a massive amount of profit built into the average truck. And you can hide and absorb the cost of these batteries much easier in a $50,000-to-$70,000 S.U.V. than a $20,000 economy car.”

New Breed of Pickups Mixes Horsepower and Battery Power (Published 2020)

Electric Hummers and Cybertrucks, as well as the next generation of S.U.V.s, will signal the arrival of the E.V. era in America if they start to sell in big numbers.

www.nytimes.com