Please to say. Joining us in the Bloomberg Savantage studio alongside me is GMCO Mary Barra. On the later results with GM stock at the moment positive by about seven percent. Mary Barr, the General Motors Chair and CEO, joined us. Now, Mary, wonderful to catch up with you. A better story to tell this morning. Let's start with that story. What's underpending these higher profits for twenty twenty four.
Well, if you look at the strong twenty twenty three results, we had very strong internal combustion engine sales and we had strong EV sales from our Bolt EV and EUV. But as we go into twenty four, we're going to build on that strength and we think twenty four can be another strong year because we're going to be building many more ultim based evs. We had a constraint with modules. We have addressed that. We're on track for the first month and by the middle of the year that should
be well behind us. So that's going to allow us to build many more of the existing vehicles like the Cadillac Lyric and the GMC Hummer EV, the Silverado EV work truck, etc. And then this year we're also going to be launching this Chevy Equinox EV along with a CRA EV. So we have many new evs coming out, and so it's going to be a strong year for us from an EV perspective as well, and we've indicated that in the second half of the year we expect our EV portfolio to be variable profit break even.
Mary, Let's talk about the EV market, because you are optimistic and constructive at the same time, there's been some setbacks over the last few months of thinking of hurts, they need to dune twenty thousand evs. More recently, a competitive forward had to cut the workforce making the electric F one fifties. What do you think is behind the slowdown and EV growth more broadly over the last few months the last few.
Quarters, Well, there definitely is a slowdown of EV adoption, although I think this transformation of this magnitude was never going to be completely linear. I think one of the important things is continuing to build out the charging infrastructure, but it's also about having purpose built, ground up evs
that have all the performance requirements. Because as we continue to grow in the EV market, and you know, outside analysts expect that this next year, even the lowest is that it'll be an ev penetration of ten percent versus this year of seven percent. So although it's slowing, if we were to grow from seven to ten percent, that would still be significant and a record year for evs, and to participate in that this year, we're well positioned with a portfolio of purpose built evs.
Mary, you and I have always talked about where the market is and where it's going. There was a belief for a while that we could move from the internal combustion engine to evs, and now it feels like there's an interim step towards hybridge. You've been reluctant in the past on the ONIXT core you went to tain that idea. What's changed your mind?
Well, you know again, as we're going through this transformation, a lot has changed. I think, you know, a few years back when we made that statement, I think we've thought we'd be farther along on the charging infrastructure again across the entire country. But I also think the regulatory environment has changed to be even more stringent, and so as we get there within now hybrids are going to
play a role. We already have the technology, it's been deployed in other regions, so we'll apply it in North America at a timeframe that we think is important primarily from a regulatory environment as we move forward.
Can we talk about that time frame just a little bit. How quickly can you get those cars to market? Given as you've just said, you have that technology ready to go.
Well, we're going to be launching those vehicles, the hybrids, in key segments of our portfolio, but we haven't put specific plans out. We'll be filling that in more later as we move on, because twenty four is really a year to focus on our EV production. Again, we've seen since last September the lyric. As we've been able to
build more vehicles, demand keeps growing. We've even had a strong January that's matching we believe will match December even with all the weather challenges we've seen throughout the country. We have one hundred thousand either orders or reservations for our EV trucks that we're going to fulfill between twenty four and twenty five. So again, when you think about new purpose built EV's, I think we're in a different position than some if for some reason we don't see
that EV demand materialize. We've got the flexibility with two plants that can build both ice in EV.
That just raises the question again, Mary, how quickly you can deploy that? Is that something you can do in a quarter, something that has to take place over the space of a year. How long does that take?
Again, we're not giving specific details and when the hybrid vehicles will come out. That will follow later, but it will be timed, not because we have such strong evs right now, it will be timed later when we see hybrid's plain an important role in meeting the regulatory environment.
You'll have to forgive me for sounding slightly combative, but I'm just trying to understand myself. So Mary, help me understand just a little bit more. If EV's really strong, why are we entertaining hybrids? If that's the aultimate goal and it's going to be a distraction where entertain hybrids?
Well, as I've said, we've seen EV demand slowly. We think there's still an opportunity for general motors. But we think if you think about it, we're seven percent this year, getting all the way to one hundred percent. There's going to be a lot of adoption and there's some customers with their use cases are more comfortable with a vehicle that has two propulsion systems, the electric and internal combustion engine, and so we're responding to that. A lot is what
is going to guide. This is related to getting a robust charging infrastructure. So we're keeping our options open and we're going to look to what the market wants. We've already seen hybrid demand go up and down over the last few years, so you know, I don't think it's going to be you know, a long term stable growth either.
Got it. You've always been pragmatic about the situation. Let's talk about the situation with competition as well. They test the CEO Ela Musk said just last week, the Chinese order makers will demolish that global competition without tariffs. We noted in the last few months that GM sold few vehicles last year in China that in the US for the first time I think since two thousand and nine. Mary, How difficult is it to compete in China at the moment, Well.
The China market is under tremendous change. There's over one hundred domestic EV companies that have started up. I think important to note many of them are not profitable. We are changing our business, uh and we need to get more evs out that can compete. But I think when you look at the you know, the intense price competition that you're seeing in China right now, that's not sustainable for any company. And so we're positioning for where GM has to be to compete in a very different market
with many more DOMESTICI EV competitors. But we still think there's a place and a growth opportunity there as we move forward, but it'll be different than it was. You know, three four or five years ago, you've.
Said you're evaluating your business there. Could you have this understand a little bit more? We ultimately that statement, Mads, What does that mean to evaluate your business on the ground in China?
Well, we have to evaluate with how much the market is changing and with the different competition competition, we have to understand where can GM play and win and that's where we'll deploy our capital. We have a very strong partner with SAIC and so we're going to work with them together. We have been to make sure we have a strong business going forward. That's getting Ultium evs launched
there and we're considering other products as well. So more to come on the China story, but we're going to make sure we set up the business with this very dynamic market to succeed.
Mary, let's talk about competition domestically at home as well. That statement for Elon muss that ultimately Chinese automakers will demolish their global competition without tarif. Do you have a position on that. Do you feel the same way? Is that something that the automakers in America need to be able to compete successfully? We need to put the barriers up.
Well, I think across the board. You know, when you look at how do you win in this business, it's by having beautifully designed products that meet customers need, that have the right functionality, right software, right technology, add a very competitive price point. And that's why GM has been so focused on taking cost out and being more effective with our capital. And so that's what you need to
do to win. I would say that you do need a level playing field, and I believe with our portfolio in many of the markets we compete around the globe, if there's truly a level playing field, we have a strong portfolio and we're going to do well.
The stock is doing well this morning, hire by about six or seven percent. I wanted to finish up here. You've had some run ins with activists shareholders during your tenure. You've got plenty of experience with this back in twenty fifteen,
I think twenty seventeen again with David Idhorn. Are you all concerned about in Vesta's losing patients with some of these bets on technology with Cruise, on the EV transition as well and ultimately facing that all together again or do you think the capital re term program announced only a few months ago, together with a share pace performance and a better outlook, we'll keep those people away.
Well. Again, we've got to run the business well. Last year we had some disappointments in EV and I think that created some cause for concern as well as some of the challenges at Cruise. We're addressing both of them. I think this is going to be a breakout year for ultium based evs and we're going to demonstrate that
this year. We have taken the steps necessary and the underlying technology of our autonomous technology with Cruse is strong, and so we're revising the plan that will work very closely with local, state, and federal regulators as well as first responders. So I think there's a very strong growth opportunity there and just let me say from an autonomous perspective. You know the benefits of autonomous are safety when you look at and saving lives when you look at today.
I think the latest some of the latest statistics show that ninety percent of fatalities on US roads are caused by human error. So this technology holds great promise for safer travel. So we're going to continue to invest in that, but we're going to be measured and make sure what we deploy we're going to generate returns on. So it's ours to execute.
Mary. I know you're non stop this morning and you've got a run. We appreciate your time here at Bloomberg. Thanks for being with us. Mary Power there, the General Motors chair and CEO,