“GM is currently assessing potential future investment,” GM spokesperson George Svigos said in a statement, adding: “No final decision has been made. GM is committed to an all-EV future globally. On that pathway, we continue to study consumer preferences and powertrain options, to ensure we best respond to customer demand and comply with an uncertain, complex and increasingly stringent regulatory landscape for 2027 and beyond.”
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Embarrassing. Having none of the right fuel-efficient cars when gas prices spiked is exactly why GM needed to be bailed out in 2008.
Now gas prices are again high. GM has no hybrids and is discontinuing both the Bolt and Malibu. It’s malpractice how badly they’ve run the business.
Why in the world did they stop?
And yet no one is saying how Toyota pulled a genius move by basically integrating hybrid tech into their entire lineup. Ahead of the game. The grid can’t handle everyone having an EV at the same time.
Definitely wish there were more hybrid options. A full on EV isn’t practical since I live in an apartment in a rural town, but with gas prices staying high, I’d definitely be open to a hybrid for my next car. Especially if they make them fun to drive.
The last thing GM needs to do is build hybrids. They’re twice as complex as BEV and ICE, both of which they can’t build for shit right now. What makes anyone think combining them would somehow make a better product?
Either GM relegates itself to a forever-inferior station within the automotive world, or they develop a great aptitude at Hybrids. GM did a very good job with the Volt. BEVs shouldn’t be. Hybrids enhance the performance and efficiency of IC powertrains. It’s like a critical feature. It makes internal combustion get ~30-50% more efficiency to the gallon, and better performance, too.
That would be wise.
And once again, shouting to the heavens: We are not ready for a full transition to EV. The hybrid phase was supposed to be an intermediate measure to help reduce emissions and fuel usages WHILE we build an EV infrastructure.
Its not that “we are not ready”, its that the US companies, apart from Tesla and maybe Hyundai/Kia, are completely uncompetitive at building EVs. Tesla, H/K and BYD are not going to take their feet off the gas just because these bozo companies are struggling to build EVs.
I mean, we aren’t ready lol. I don’t live in some podunk little hole in the earth and there are only enough charging units in my area for a gaggle of township board members.
Why? I thought their EVs were the future? Or did they realize that their ridiculous investment in Cruise was a loser move from the get go, and now they’re trying to backtrack? lol. This is what happens when a company is run by incompetent idealists who push ESG nonsense on their employees and don’t actually focus on creating good products that work.
A 30K Volt with the 7.5k fed tax credit would sell out instantly.
The best possible thing for GM to do is to offer every model of theirs in Hybrid (HEV).
GM should not pursue PHEV or BEV. Plugging in cars is a gimmick and passing fad.
The market has proven that people most highly demand Hybrids (HEVs).
Well the gimmick on my wifes outlander PHEV seems to be working pretty well. 3L/100km (78MPG) with our usage. Electricity is cheap where I live as well. It costs a premium over the ICE version but also has more power. The wife charges for free at work and it costs a whopping $1.20 to charge from empty at home.
My Chevy bolt cost the same as a new civic and made my commute go from $14/day in fuel to the same $1.20. all costs in (payment and electrical) my monthly costs are the same as just my fuel bill vs my old subaru.
If the vehicle isn’t a super expensive expensive PHEV/BEV, they do in fact make sense and are quite nice to live with. The bolt/volt were great cars and GM killed them. Mitsubishi has been making the outlander PHEV for over a decade. From A to B and commuting you simply can’t beat how cheap running on electric is per km/mile. Not spending 70k on one to say you’re saving money on gas, but regular priced cars.
The outlander PHEV base cost what a fully loaded ICE version does (slightly less after the rebate), the wife wanted efficiency over the bells and whistles so we went base phev. And my bolt? Base as well. These things can work out in the owners favor if the vehicle cost isn’t astronomical. This is what the manufacturers need to sort out.
Anyone remember in the 2000s when GM had hybrid versions of full-size body-on-frame SUVs and trucks - such as the Escalade and Silverado - that were barely any more fuel efficient than their pure ICE counterparts? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
EPA or real world? Based on EPA, it looks like the Tahoe hybrid would save $600 a year over the regular Tahoe. RAV4 hybrid vs RAV4 is around $500.
2013 Tahoe hybrid was 20/23 city/highway. The gas equivalent 15/21.
Better? Yes.
The issue was the starting price. The hybrid was $53,620 - the ICE $40,405.
$13,000 buys a lot of gas.
Even assuming all-city, you’re buying ~5,000 gallons of gas to go 100k miles with the hybrid. ~6,666 in the ICE.
1,600 gallons of gas would cost ~$5200 at today’s national average price. At ATHs it’s still only an $8,000 fuel difference over 100k miles.
You’d had to have to run the hybrid - napkin math here, for a quarter million miles to break even. That’s assuming maintenance, repairs, and insurance costs are equal or lesser for the hybrid - which is unlikely.
Hybrid transmissions are amazing things because the gears are always meshed. Hybrids use regenerative braking like EVs. You definitely have a maintenance edge with hybrids, through 12k buys a lot of brake pads too.
Yeah, GM can get a little ambitious with hybrid pricing. Curious what dealers actually sold them for. (Also, the ELR for $75k was a joke.) But my point was just that it wasn’t an insignificant difference in fuel economy. Had they gone hybrid only, they probably could have sold enough volume to price it competitively.
GM has basically gone out of their way to not sell hybrids, even the ones they were already producing, over the years. GM’s entire new car sales model pre-pandemic shortages relied on sales incentives to move vehicles, and they never had incentives on hybrids, on top of the already much higher price they commanded.
It doesn’t matter what powertrain GM decides to use, they need to make their pricing reasonable and worth buying over gas engines.
When they slashed the price of the Bolt it was starting to be a reasonable buy given its compact car status. Really it should be priced around $10,000 brand new. They have lost it with these compact car prices.
Most manufacturers should have gone to hybrid awhile ago. Have hybrid cars for a while average consumers get to grips with understanding a car that needs to be plugged in. Let the infrastructure for full fledge EVs to be built up in that time, as well as battery tech to get even better/fully mature. Once we reach that point slowly transition over to all electric.
HEV is the future and the now.
Ubiquitous BEV ownership was a delusional fever dream of a greedy man and should never have been placed in people’s minds as an idealized eventuality or goal. It’s not even a serious thought. The charlatans should never have been taken seriously.
Humanity should never have gotten sidetracked by BEV.
Improving performance and efficiencies is a worthwhile pursuit, and that’s exactly what HEVs do. I’m glad and grateful that the BEV spell is being broken. The world doesn’t need more BEVs or more BEV chargers. BEVs were the wrong way. The world shouldn’t build any more of either.
Plugging in cars is a passing fad. What a gigantic mess that has been made. What a civilizational mania. I’m glad that it is coming to a swift end.
I love watching this shit crumble at the seams lmao
I truly believe the EV boom that began in 2020 was because of Covid. You had nowhere to go anyways so charging and driving distance wasn’t really thought of too much. Well now that everything is back to normal again commuting wise, the shortcomings of EVs are much more apparent
I love watching this shit crumble at the seams lmao
EVs are the future of cars and if you think the continued sales increases year over year aren’t a clear sign of that, just look at China’s auto-market.
China is literally the worst possible example right now. Besides the fact that China has only a luxury car market because of the cost of getting a license, sales are down and BEVs have still struggled since subsidies expired.
Considering the Billions in fines that they’re expected to receive for not meeting fuel economy standards, hybrid propulsion may benefit them while also catering to those who’d like a hybrid powertrain in their products.
I’d march over to the nearest Buick dealership if they offered a hybrid Envista.