Much like fellow ‘Big Three’ US automaker Ford, General Motors has reckoned with significant losses from its electric vehicle (EV) activities to date. Although these have narrowed—from US$3.3bn in 2022 to US$2.5bn in 2023—Chief Executive Mary Barra emphasised during GM’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (AMS) that growing EVs “profitably” would be one of the company’s ongoing commitments.
How GM proceeds with its EV business is clearly front and centre for shareholders themselves: four of the seven proposals announced during the 4 June event concerned EVs in some way. Three requested specific reports on aspects of the supply chain (child labour, deep-sea mined minerals, and sustainability risk), while one even called for EV-related targets to be eliminated from executive incentive compensation programmes.
All four were ultimately voted against, with the latter receiving only 1% shareholder support. EVs remain an important pillar of GM’s future strategy, but no longer to the exclusion of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Barra framed maintaining ICE, particularly the decision to scrap its elimination from the Cadillac brand by 2030, as staying “customer focused during the transition”. But do the company’s actions bear this out?
