On January 28th, 2021, General Motors (GM) announced plans to electrify their entire sales offerings by 2035. This follows announcements made in late 2020 that the company will increase their overall investment in EVs to a total of $27 million in support of at least 30 new EV models by 2025. GM is now leading the total investment commitment to EV manufacturing in the United States. The new announcement is part of a wider ambition for the company to reach carbon neutrality across all operations by 2040. GM is also the first of the “Detroit 3” automakers to make a commitment of this nature and follows European auto giants Volkswagen and Daimler who made similar commitments in 2020.
This first-of-its-kind commitment by an American automaker aligns with a string of executive orders and commitments made throughout the same week by the Biden administration. Some of the most notable of these is a commitment to electrify the entire federal fleet by 2030 and strengthen provisions to buy American-made products. In addition to their plans to electrify all GM lines, the company established a new commercial vehicle arm, BrightDrop in January 2021. One of the first vehicles they will produce is an electric delivery van to help electrify goods movement throughout the country. The newest GM EVs are expected to enter the market in the second half of 2021.
