GM confirms 12 new EVs across Chevy, Buick, GMC and Cadillac – Roadshow

Buried within General Motors’ latest sustainability report, published Thursday (PDF), the automaker spilled a bunch of news about its upcoming electric vehicle portfolio. We’ve known the automaker’s goal is to bring 20 EVs to market globally by 2023, but for the first time we have some US-specific information.

A total of 12 new electric cars are confirmed and coming soon across all of GM’s divisions: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac. A few of them we already knew about, but some were mentioned publicly for the very first time.

Let’s start from the mainstream divisions and work our way into the luxury-oriented brands.

Chevy

The Bowtie brand has three new electric cars coming, according to GM. The first is the Bolt Electric Utility Vehicle that GM’s mentioned in the past. Expect it to look a lot like the Buick Velite 7 that it recently revealed for China. We’ll see the Bolt EUV debut next summer as a 2022 model and it will be the first vehicle outside of Cadillac to receive the automaker’s Super Cruise partially automated driving assistant for the highway.

GM didn’t provide timeframes for the next two EVs, but we should see them by 2023 to keep up with the automaker’s aggressive timeline. The biggest news is a battery-electric Chevy pickup truck that will feature at least 400 miles of range. Details are scarce, but GM said it will occupy the full-size segment, so expect it to be about the same size as a Silverado. Finally, a midsize SUV will come from Chevy for “customers looking for an electric option in this segment.” That’s all GM had to say about this vehicle, but it could take inspiration from the latest Trailblazer.

It’s not new, but GM also confirmed a new Bolt EV is on the way and will launch next year as well.

Buick

Two new SUVs with electric powertrains are on the way for Buick. One is a more traditional vehicle with a crossover shape to “maximize interior space and cargo,” while the other model will be “expressive.” Buick’s built some gorgeous concepts over the past few years, so hopefully we see something really stunning. 

GMC

The obvious vehicle GM talked about for GMC is the upcoming Hummer EV pickup truck, but after numerous rumors, GM also confirmed we’ll see an electric Hummer SUV based on the pickup. It should share a lot with the truck, so when we finally see the pickup, we’ll likely get a good look at the SUV to come, too.

Cadillac

GM’s luxury division is meant to spearhead the automaker’s EV onslaught, and it has a total of five EVs coming soon. We know about two of them: the Lyriq electric SUV set to debut next month and the Celestiq flagship model. The latter is the only sedan mentioned of the bunch. Aside from these two models, Cadillac will get three additional electric SUVs.

The first will be an entry-level luxury model of sorts, similar to the space the XT4 fills for Cadillac today. Next is a “globally sized” three-row SUV with an emphasis on interior space, and finally, we’ll see a full-size electric SUV that takes cues from Escalade. We’ve heard many rumors about an electric Escalade to come, but it’s not clear if this will be an extension of the current SUV or a totally new model.

500-600 mile ranges? Doable, says GM

Expect all of these new models (save for the Bolt EV and EUV) to ride on GM’s new BEV3 platform, which supports the automaker’s Ultium battery technology. The tech is meant to help better hunt Tesla, with ranges exceeding 400 miles on a single charge and ultrafast charging at rates up to 350 kilowatts.

But the automaker stresses it’s already looking further ahead. Engineers are already working on technology to replace Ultium with low-cobalt alternatives, to be more Earth- and budget-friendly. Instead, they could house high nickel qualities, and with other advances, we could see EVs from GM come with 500 to 600 mile ranges.

GM’s long said it believes in an electric future, but clearly, the automaker’s putting its money where its mouth is.

Source: Electric - cnet.com