General Motors has been slow to introduce plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) as it still says electric vehicles (EVs) are the end goal.
The company’s CEO, Mary Barra, also pointed out an inconvenient truth about PHEV technology: Many owners aren’t using it for its intended purpose.
“What we also know about plug-in hybrids today is that most people don’t plug them in,” Ms. Barra said at an Automotive Press Association conference this week.
“So we try to think very carefully about what we do from a hybrid and plug-in hybrid perspective.
“We invest mainly in electric vehicles and continue to work on them because we think that is the end goal and we want to be careful with our owners’ capital.”
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Ms. Barra pointed out that one of the statistics GM tracks is that once a customer purchases an electric vehicle, they are 80 percent likely to purchase another electric vehicle afterward.
The company offers a wide range of electric vehicles in the United States under the Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC brands, and others are offered in China under Buick and its Chinese joint venture brands Baojun and Wuling.
However, GM currently does not offer any hybrid or PHEV models in its home market other than the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray super sports car.
In early 2024, the company announced the introduction of PHEVs to meet both federal regulations and consumer demand, abandoning its goal of switching to an all-electric lineup by 2035.
GM had already announced in 2018 that it would not invest in hybrid vehicles and would instead focus on combustion and electric vehicles.
Of course, US President Donald Trump’s return to office after the 2024 election has caused turmoil in the automotive market, with tougher tariffs on imports into the US, the waiver of penalties for automakers that fail to meet their fuel economy targets and the removal of federal incentives for electric vehicles.
These policy changes have been mixed for GM.
While the removal of penalties for failing to meet fuel economy targets has a positive impact on GM’s bottom line as it offers a wide range of full-size V8-powered pickup trucks and SUVs, the removal of electric vehicle incentives has impacted demand for its new, extensive range of electric vehicles, and the imposition of tariffs is also negatively impacting a company that produces vehicles in markets such as Mexico.
GM still hasn’t committed to the launch date for its previously confirmed PHEVs, which overseas reports suggest will be derivatives of its existing full-size pickups and SUVs.
Ms. Barra noted the uncertainty about what the regulatory environment will look like after 2028; The next presidential election will take place this November, and if a Democrat takes office instead of a Republican, policy changes made under the Trump administration could be reversed.
“In the past, plug-ins were the only hybrids that actually counted from a regulatory perspective, so we have plans to implement those and we will have hybrids where we think we need them,” Ms Barra said.
“We continue to evaluate both and see what the market offers. But you probably remember that a decade ago, or not even a decade ago, hybrids were rising and then, almost as quickly as the share grew, the share fell.”
GM’s hybrid and PHEV efforts have been patchy, despite the former’s rising popularity in its home market of the United States and the latter’s popularity in its second-largest market, China.
It was earlier than most in the hybrid space, releasing its first conventional hybrid vehicles in the 2008 model year, shortly after introducing its first mild hybrids.
However, the first hybrid vehicles – all full-size SUVs and pickups – only survived a single generation.
Shortly after introducing its first hybrid vehicles, GM introduced the Chevrolet Volt – a plug-in hybrid featuring the brand’s Voltec technology – for the 2011 model year, which spawned the renamed Opel/Vauxhall Ampera and Holden Volt, as well as the related Cadillac ELR.
Only the Chevrolet Volt got a second generation, briefly renamed the Buick Velite 5 in China, and by the end of the decade all PHEVs on that platform had disappeared.
Aside from the Volt and the Cadillac CT6 and ELR PHEVs briefly sold in the United States, GM has not offered any other PHEVs in the United States.
There have been a handful more in China, including a recently launched PHEV version of the latest Chevrolet Equinox, but GM can’t compete with the likes of BYD in terms of the breadth of its PHEV lineup.
When Ms. Barra was asked if she would bring hybrids to market if she could go back in time, she said “no.”
“Looking back, I think that given everything we knew at the time, we would have made the same decision because, again, we have to be very careful with our capital and how we deploy it,” she said.
“And you know, frankly, a lot of our internal combustion engine vehicles are more efficient than a hybrid. So we’re going to continue on that path.”
