GM’s EV Sales Were Off The Charts In May

At GM’s Annual shareholder meeting held Tuesday evening, CEO Mary Barra announced the company experienced its best North American EV sales month ever in May. It currently builds and sells five different electric vehicles under three brands, and until recently was plagued by production issues and delays that have slowed the rollout of its models or prompted massive stop-sales. This news signals a massive change in fortune for the company, especially as its EV plans have shifted over the past few months.

Unfortunately, GM doesn’t reveal month-to-month sales numbers, instead opting for quarterly numbers that won’t be released until July 2nd, so we’ll just have to take Barra’s. According to the Detroit Free Press, her claim was backed up by GM spokesman David Caldwell who says the growth was driven by an increase in sales led by the Cadillac Lyriq and Chevrolet Blazer EV.

Existing Models Find Renewed Interest

According to InsideEVs, GM’s total North American output was around 9,000 vehicles, which beats out the brand’s previous best month of around 7,000 vehicles in 2023. One could make the argument that this was buoyed by the fact the Equinox EV recently went on sale, but deliveries only started within the last few weeks. According to Caldwell, the real catalyst was the Cadillac Lyriq, which saw more than 3,000 sales in May alone as buyers flocked to the attractive and luxurious crossover.

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Most of this was achieved without a particularly cheap EV for sale, as the Chevy Bolt was discontinued at the end of 2023, though another generation is on the way. As the Equinox slowly rolls out and the brand introduces new models like the Cadillac Optic, Escalade IQ, and GMC Sierra EV this year, it’s possible we could see these numbers improve even more as 2024 wears on, despite the company changing its tune on EVs in recent months.

Hybrids Are Coming

Dealing with the fallout of production woes and the brand’s poor decisions, the company made the smart move to expand its hybrid lineup in the future, with plans to offer plug-in hybrid variants of select models by 2027. This came as EV sales were faltering and competitive offerings increased between brands while pricing remained high.

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CEO Barra said there would be “ebbs and flows in EV adoption” necessitating fluid strategies the likes of which the industry has never seen. The company is slowly realizing where its strengths lie, like in its powerful and attractive Cadillac sedans that have been stealing customers away from the German and Japanese luxury brands.

Giving your customers what they want is important, and can change the opinions of even the most steadfast companies. Realizing this, Cadillac has already dashed its EV-only plan, and we wouldn’t be surprised if combustion models continue for all GM brands for many years to come.

Sources:
Detroit Free Press
and
InsideEVs