General Motors Pushes its EV Plans Back by 6 Months

­General Motors has become one of the first high-profile victims of green overreach – the automaker announced an electrification delay of about six months, a result of lags at its battery cell plant in Warren, Ohio.

COVID-19 caused a broad swath of chip and parts delays across the globe, leading to a cascading shortage of all manner of end-products, including vehicles (and especially electric vehicles, which are amongst the more high-tech autos on the market).

The pandemic slammed China – the epicenter of lithium-ion batteries – particularly hard, leading to production and supply-chain disruptions and severely impeding the worldwide EV market.

Automakers like Tesla suddenly found themselves with delivery delays of a year or more. And while the EV backlog has mostly eased up (for more, see my November “Final Thought” column), batteries are still a somewhat rare commodity – even domestically-sourced ones.

At the time of its announcement, GM’s Warren, Ohio plant was aimed at “dramatically enhancing electric vehicle affordability and profitability.” It would employ more than 1,100 people, with an annual capacity of more than 30 gigawatt hours.

But GM’s electrification goals have fallen prey to personnel issues, with the company having trouble hiring and training the necessary 1,000+ workers, though they also mentioned difficulties assembling the actual Ultium Cell battery packs.

While the original goal was 400,000 electric vehicles in North America by the end of 2023, that’s been pushed back by about six months.

“Due to a slightly slower launch of cell and pack production than we expected, our plan is now to produce 400,000 EVs in North America over the course of 2022, 2023, and the first half of 2024,” said GM CEO Mary Barra.

For what it’s worth, the automaker actually plans to expand its manufacturing capacity – to the tune of several billion dollars – and its Bolt EV and Bolt EUV supposedly achieved record sales in the third quarter.