Barra said one amazing very honest thing, the most important thing of the GM EV unveil. She said EVs are much simpler and will be much cheaper to produce than ICE vehicles. That's been true for a while now. Pretty sure it was Lawrence Livermore labs for DOE that said $128 at the cell level (not pack level) was the break even way back in 2011 or it could have been 2008. You'd have to adjust that for inflation so possibly even an higher number of todays $$ for break even. All this talk of $100 at the pack level being a break even is just more move the goal posts bs kind of pro fossil fuel stuff we get from BNEF or the IEA. As for the rest, notice that copper top battery they showed and how it had a transmission tunnel spine running across the top meaning the EVs would be compromised by a BMW type EVs as an afterthought approach - despite claiming they were going all in it was instantly obvious even in their props that it was more rhetoric. Right before laying off tons of workers GM spent 25 billion on useless stock buy backs. Now it plans to spend 5 billion less than that over a period of 5 years to try to catch up in EVs. It announced a 400 mile vehicle it said would come out in the next 5 years and that this would best Tesla. Would that be on the the Bolt clown mobile compliance platform that Musk correctly predicted would only sell compliance numbers? Seems like almost a couple years ago Tesla announced a 620 mile roadster and in November announced a 500 mile pick-up truck. Look at GM's actions from vapor ware Cruise mobility (rebadged Waymo) to fighting against CA's EV regulations. Now it says it will produce 1 million EVs a year by 2025. Do we believe this? I'd believe it if it planned on dropping the production of about 6.8 million ICE vehicles a year to 0 due to self-driving, but that is not what it is saying. it is saying that only about 12% of its vehicles will be electric in 5 years if that. From 2018 to 2019 its total vehicle sales dropped from a low 8.4 million to 7.7 million. That is an 8 percent decline. That is the same amount of decline that sunk it in 2008. The year prior to that 8% decline 2017-2018 GM had a 12.5% decline, it is in free fall and its back to where it collapsed before. For context in 2018 the German autoworkers union negotiated a 28h hour work week and a 4.5% pay increase and auto workers in Shanghi make more than in the US! But GM during its bankruptcy tried to blame its union when its workers had half the pay and benefits of German workers. Tesla just put its factories in Berlin and Shanghi. Notice how GM didn't even have the actual prototypes it could show in its newest not made or invented here hype show (think of Cruise rebranded Waymo.) Notice GM's execs scrambling (see the panic on the faces of its investors at its EV unveil) because they've been hit harder than then the petrol derivative generated 2008 economic collapse (collapse of insuring bad debts on obviously stranded petrol assets) with GM sales collapsing 23% over the last 4 years, they had to do something so they so they rip the ejection cord with "all electric" but they couldn't even speak the lingo of electric or answer basic questions outing them on their where's the beef position. GM isn't just suffering because people don't want their products (clueless to think people want EV versions of their exact same bottom falling out products) its GM getting divested over its window closing. Whose' going to bail them out- Exxon mobile on its corporate welfare subsidies- xom has to borrow just to pay its idiotic dividends? Tesla sales are skyrocketing. I think this the Tesla effect. GM looks like the BMW 3 series over the recent span of free fall. GM has actually gone to zero in whole major markets and abandoned those markets like it has been abandoning its factories. Is LG going to bail out GM? The only progressive thing GM has going for it is a female CEO Every last cent of the value in GM when it gets liquidated needs to go to its workers!!!!!!!!!!!!! Imagine if Bara and that crew had instead of spending 25 billion on stock buy backs (despite not having paid back its bankruptcy loan due in part to its stock not recovering) had done the smart thing and invested in electrics instead of following its history of sabotaging and compliancing electrics. Will a GM bankruptcy be a October surprise for Trump. I don't think he will bail it out if able to stay in after that. Will GM merge with Ford and FCA? Notice Microsoft, its the Chrysler of Tech. And Apple, aside from the ear buds why would anyone believe that company is going anywhere, its become another vitamin formulator, another neoliberal profit driven societal sell out. When you look at these companies what we have to ask about is societies return on equity and many of them suck so bad they need their charter yanked in the name or freedom.
