General Motors Isn't 'Walking Away' From EVs: Exec

A fourth-gen EV platform powered by LMR cells is coming soon.

GM Gen 4 EV Platform Render

Photo by: General Motors

Kevin Williams

By: Kevin Williams

Oct 21, at 2:00pm ET

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GM says a fourth-generation EV platform is coming soon.
Despite sinking sales in the U.S., GM is not "walking away" from EVs.
This new-generation EV platform will use lithium manganese-rich (LMR) cells.

It is safe to say that the Ultium platform hasn’t been the rousing success that GM envisioned it would be. Sales of many of its electric products have come in below expectations, necessitating that GM fundamentally reconsider how it interprets its EV plans. Gas trucks are back in tocushe picture; the Bolt is ending production with fewer than expected units produced, Honda’s variants of GM’s Ultium cars are dead, leading some critics to argue that GM is scaling back its electric ambitions.

Nope, not at all. During today’s "GM Forward" future tech briefing event in New York, General Motors President Mark Reuss reiterated that the company is not giving up on EVs at all; in fact, it’s coming back stronger with cars that are better tailored for the existing realities of our EV market.

“We're a global company; one of every four vehicles sold around the world is [an EV], and that number is only rising,” said Reuss. “We're not walking away from that. We're embracing it. We continue to develop our future EVs and work to reduce battery costs. And when the U.S. market is ready for EVs in large numbers, we will be there for them,” he continued.

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These comments come during a high-level announcement of GM’s plans with respect to its EV and ICE models. This future is led by shorter development times, software-defined vehicles, and a fourth-generation EV platform. Details are still scarce aside from a rendering of the fourth-generation EV chassis it sent to the press, but GM says it is designed for mainstream adoption and uses GM’s lower-cost lithium manganese-rich (LMR) cells. These LMR cells are what GM says are key to reducing costs for both manufacturing and consumers, with the potential to be cheaper than lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. The new platform will also use a new centralized computing platform.

EV sales are only continuing to grow globally. In some European countries, new EV sales are already outpacing ICE vehicles. GM already knows this from its business in China, where electrified vehicles vastly outnumber pure ICE vehicles. Thus, it sees the writing on the wall: we’re all going electric. Softer sales of EVs in the market are temporary. Anyone without a world-class EV plan or platform will be left behind. No timeline was announced at GM Forward, but given global desire for EVs, I can only expect that we’ll learn more about GM’s plans sooner rather than later.