Rory Harvey, General Motors' incoming North American president, joined Cheddar News to discuss GM's foray into the rapidly-changing electric vehicle market along with what lies ahead. "It's a very dynamic time in the automotive industry," he said. "If you look to the transformation across the EVs, it's happening and it's happening at a pace."

<div class="block">Rory Harvey, General Motors&#39; incoming North American president, joined Cheddar News to discuss GM&#39;s foray into the rapidly-changing electric vehicle market along with what lies ahead. &quot;It&#39;s a very dynamic time in the automotive industry,&quot; he said. &quot;If you look to the transformation across the EVs, it&#39;s happening and it&#39;s happening at a pace.&quot;</div>

Closing Bell

GM North American President Rory Harvey on EV Market

And after seeing Tesla's success, many companies are looking to get in on the E V market and General Motors is no different. Cheddar news, senior reporter Michelle Castillo spoke to gm's incoming North American President Roy Harvey on why the company is launching additional and more. Where do you think the company has to go in order to remain competitive? If you looked at the first quarter of this year? As an example, GMC had record sales and share. Uh If you looked at Buick in terms of an overall mainstream brand, it was the fastest growing mainstream brand in the industry. Uh And if you looked at Chevrolet in terms of a brand that has offerings in most segments as an example, the fastest growing full line uh mainstream brand of the industry. So I think we've got great momentum and that's a, a perfect foundation to be able to build upon. So, uh the challenge for us now is that it's a very dynamic time in the the automotive industry. Uh If you looked at the transformation across the E V S, it's happening and it's happening at a pace. Uh E V adoption continues to grow and it's uh it's building in terms of the momentum there. So, you know, for us really, it's uh maximizing the opportunity that we've got with the current that we have today. Um Whilst also complementing that with a full suite of E V s across the spectrum from both affordable E V s to top end luxury E V S G M said it would announce three new E V S in 2023. So what's on the list? Cadillac will introduce an all new first ever electric escalade called the Escalade I Q. Uh So if you looked at escalate as an example, uh I think that everybody knows that escalate has been iconic. It's been uh a leader out there for, for 20 years as an example. Uh we will continue in terms of uh the overall um ice portfolio. Um But we are super pleased to be announcing shortly. The Escalade I Q Cadillac was the fastest full line luxury car manufacturer in the US over the last year. So how do you plan to sustain that growth? Well, I think, you know, quarter one actually shows that we are already sustaining it. So as an example, if you looked at our total sales in quarter one of this year, they were up 29%. And if you looked at our retail sales this year, they were up 20%. So uh if you looked at the demand that we have just for the Cadillac lyric as one example, uh you know, we started deliberately uh in terms of a slow pace, in terms of build up of production on that vehicle and that lifts significantly as we come into half two of this year. So just taking that vehicle alone uh gives us another platform to be able to build in terms of the momentum. Now, not every family can afford to buy a new car right now. So what is G M doing to make vehicles more affordable? Yeah, you're absolutely right. Just one data point that uh that's been shared now within the industry. As an example is uh you know, if you looked at the average transaction price today uh here in the US, uh it's actually $48,000. Uh So if you looked at it from a A G M perspective, we have the ability through different brands to be able to compete in different segments. And if you just take Chevrolet Buick and GMC, if you collectively add up those brands and those brands performance, we anticipate that one million vehicles will be sold starting below $30,000 in terms of MS R P through 2023 2024. So one of the great things about the organization like General Motors is that we have the ability to be able to scale and that we could be competitive and affordable whilst also having top of the range vehicles as well. Now, E V S tend to be more expensive than their gas powered counterparts. So are you planning any price cuts at this time for your E V line? No, not really. I mean, if you looked at the, the performance of our E V s at the moment, if you looked at the uh that the GMC Hummer E V as an example, the demand is significant. If you looked at the, the sales performance of the uh the bolt, the demand is significant. If you looked at the sales performance of the lyric, uh the the sales performance, uh you know, in terms of customer demand is significant. So I think when you looked at it, we put a very competitive proposition together to consumers. So we don't see at this stage any need to uh uh change prices globally. Electric cars are only going to make up 18% of sales this year. And that's according to the International Energy Agency. So what needs to be done to increase adoption? I I think that's not one answer to that question. It's a, it's a great question, but there's so many different things there. Um You know, if you looked at it again on a global basis, there's country legislation, there's county or state legislation, there are incentives, there is charging infrastructure, there is cost of vehicles, there is opportunity for choice in terms of vehicles. There is range variability of vehicles, there's just a whole multitude of things and I think, you know, if you specifically relay that into North America, I think that we're addressing many of those also with the support of other areas of the business to make sure that we can continue to accelerate in terms of growth. Ok. Thanks to Michelle and the G M of an gm's incoming E V P and North American President Roy Harvey for that interview.