Mary Barra said that GM’s electric pickup will capitalize on the company’s knowledge and experience in the segment
Today has been marked by a welcome announcement about the General Motors/LG Chem battery joint venture, which will result in a huge lithium-ion cell factory (more than 30 GWh annually with options for expansion) in the Lordstown area of Northeast Ohio.
CNBC took the opportunity to speak with Mary Barra, General Motors CEO and LG Chem CEO Hak-Cheol Shin about both, the upcoming $2.3 billion investment and a Chevy/GMC all-electric pickup truck.
GM intends to introduce an all-electric pickup truck in fall 2021, which is within two years from now, but we don’t know any details about the upcoming vehicle.
Mary Barra expressed a conviction that BEVs might represent a significant share of the pickup truck market in the future.
When asked about the Tesla Cybertruck (see from 2:58), Barra evaded a direct answer and promised that “GM will have a strong battery electric truck that meets consumers’ needs”.
Well, with two years to launch, GM probably already has all the assumptions and goals for the truck, which is now under development. Knowing that others also are working on electric trucks (Tesla, Rivian and Ford, to name a few) forces GM to treat the task seriously as consumers will have the choice and the product needs to be a solid offer to survive.