General Motors has accelerated development of its electric vehicles to get them to the market faster. Scaling production to improve EV profits comes next.
"A vehicle is coming to market much, much sooner than it otherwise would. That's a good thing," CFO Paul Jacobson said Tuesday at the J.P. Morgan Auto Conference in New York. "Unfortunately, the production isn't there because we are ramping up the supply chain and ramping up the tooling and ramping up the scale as we are producing. So that's why you've seen some of the lower volumes in the Hummer and the Lyriq."
The automaker took steps to speed the development of big-ticket EVs, such as the GMC Hummer pickup and Cadillac Lyriq, to get them to market quickly. Scaling production of those vehicles will soon speed up as Ultium Cells, a battery cell joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution, opens its first plant this month.