GM Killed Its Electric Cars And Lost A 10-Year Battle With Tesla

Despite what GM executives may say, it is not leading in electric cars.

GM does, however, have the dubious distinction of being a leading EV killer. That hall of shameful decisions includes killing the EV1, the Chevy Spark EV, the Cadillac ELR, the Chevy Volt, and the Chevy Bolt. I’ve owned two of those EVs.

Who killed the (GM) electric car?

General Motors beat Tesla to market with an EV by 12 years. The GM EV1 debuted in 1996, twelve years before Tesla’s first car, the Roadster.

The EV1 was a remarkable car, way ahead of its time. And it instantly became a favorite of Hollywood celebrities, environmentalists and green energy advocates in the U.S.

But ultimately GM didn’t believe in the EV1 and seized the cars from lessees and destroyed them, as documented by Chris Paine in Who Killed the Electric Car?

Then came another groundbreaking car in 2010, the Chevy Volt. A plug-in hybrid that could be a pure electric car locally and a long-range hybrid via its gas-powered generator.

The Volt was $20,000 cheaper than the Tesla Model S — which came out in 2012 — but it was barely marketed by GM and, not surprisingly, never sold well, selling roughly 177,000 worldwide over the lifetime of the nameplate. And GM killed it too in 2019.

Oh, and before that, in 2016, GM killed the Chevy Spark EV (which you’ve probably never heard of). Who knows but that compact could’ve become a popular inexpensive EV for first-time buyers if GM had actually believed in it. But GM never believed in it. It was a compliance car and GM killed it as soon as it could. Suffice to say, Tesla would have never done what GM did to the Spark.

Then came the Chevy Bolt. That was killed too. Again, GM came up with lots of intelligent-sounding reasons for killing the Bolt. But to anyone outside of GM’s internal bubble, it was just another excuse in a long line of excuses.

After decades, GM still struggles mightily with EVs

Yes, GM has been selling the Hummer EV and reservations for the pickup and SUV are closed due to demand. And Cadillac Lyriq reservations are full too. And reservations for the 2024 Silverado EV pickup are piling up.

But deliveries paint a different picture. GM sold 968 Lyriq models in the first quarter and 1,348 in the second quarter. And GM delivered only 47 electric Hummer EVs in the second quarter (via GM Authority). That’s up from a mere 2 units in the first quarter.

Put in context, those numbers are absurd. This is 13 years after the Volt debuted and 27 years after the EV1.

Meanwhile, Tesla is on its way to selling millions of EVs a year and may be on track to become the largest car manufacturer by output in the world by 2030. GM is selling a fraction of Tesla’s numbers and is just one of many EV runners-up.

I’ll end this by being charitable. The Chevy Volt* was an amazing car. Ditto on the Bolt. Now they’re both extinct. Who killed my electric car? GM did.

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NOTES:

*I leased a Volt in 2013 and later bought out the lease. I had the Volt for five years. Later, I got a Chevy Bolt, which I still drive. I also drove a Chevy Spark EV for about six months.

See GM’s official EV1 overview video here and GM’s internal training video for the EV1 here (first 3 minutes of video).