Is General Motors' Commitment to an EV Product Line in 2035 Sincere or "Smoke and Mirrors?"

 I was contacted by Steve Mufson of the Washington Post yesterday about GM's commitment to an EV product line in 2035, but then nothing came of it. So I did read his article this morning, and it was interesting given the number of interviews that Mufson did include in his article. GM is now going with the flow of Europe and Biden administration initiatives, and promises an extensive shift away from internal combustion engine vehicles over the next fifteen years. Is this a sound business strategy or a reflex to government pressure from California, the federal government, and European mandates? Is GM coming (or going) Clean? Or just for today, so to speak. Can a firm that has marketed ICE automobiles for over a 100. years actually make the shift to a new technology? Perhaps if it does not, then in the long run it will die. The world turns, but can GM?

For more than a century the internal combustion engine has reigned supreme in the global automotive industry. After a brief competition with steam and electric power at the begining the 20th century, the ICE was the dominant technology until about 2008. GM experimented with the EV-1 in the late 1990s, but it was clear that it had no intention to move forward then. Elon Musk came on the scene around 2008, and his Tesla firm has paved the way for EV in the US and China. One can think of Musk as the Henry Ford of the 21st century.

Will the EV revolution move forward now that we are seemingly listening to science about climate change? Has since and the pandemic paved the way for us to convincingly believe that the earth's warming is due to man-made activities? Are we willing to make the sacrifices to endure a rather costly and painful transition? Especially since once the Covid pandemic ends, we will find the perhaps we don't have the capital to make it happen. The US can't print money forever before there is a reckoning. 

For the post-boomer generation, the EV has a promise of new jobs for a generation of new engineers not tied to explosions in cylinders. Batteries should be much more efficient by 2030. 15 years will give us more time to develop a complete infrastructure. It is one thing to set up charging stations in urban areas, but to extend that net to rural America is another matter.

Will the rise in power of the Progressive Democratic Party continue long enough to see this EV revolution to completion? There are plenty of Americans in what we might want to call the "deplorable" classes who won't be a part of this new story. They will cling to ICE cars, even though gasoline will cost much more. They will remain in low-tech jobs not a part of the transition to a greener environment. Will they politically rise up as they did in 2016? Will then GM  pivot back to a more comfortable and familiar technological matrix? What are the limits to GM's subservience to government before it will exert its autonomy?