One is making money. One is making progress. Slight progress.

By Gary S. Vasilash

In her Q2 2024 earnings letter to shareholders released yesterday, GM CEO listed the “four key drivers” of the company’s performance—and that performance includes record revenue in both Q1 and Q2—and it is interesting what the first item on the list of four is:

• In North America, we have a consistently high performing portfolio of ICE trucks and SUVs on a volume, share and margin basis.

Now because the company is in the process of spending billions of dollars on EV technology, the second point on the list goes to EVs, although it doesn’t exactly sound robust:

• Our EV portfolio is scaling well, and we’re encouraged by the early sales results, including record second-quarter deliveries and improving market share.

To put some data to that “scaling well,” in Q2 the company delivered:

• 7,294 Cadillac LYRIQs
• 6,634 Blazer EVs
• 1,374 Bolt EV/Bolt EUVs
• 1,013 Equinox EVs
• 2,196 Silverado EVs
• 2,926 HUMMER EVs

and to throw in for good measure a commercial product:

• 490 BrightDrop Zevo 400/600s

That is a total of 21,927 EVs sold in Q2.

Yes, there are increases in numbers.

The LYRIQ was at 1,348 units in Q2 2023. And the HUMMER was at a mere 47 in Q2 2023.

But to put things into some context: the Chevrolet Malibu, which is going out of production later this year, had Q2 2024 deliveries of 36,360 units, or 14,433 more than all the EVs combined.

And isn’t the accepted wisdom that “Nobody buys sedans anymore?”

If we look at ICE truck or SUV numbers. . . well at this point it isn’t even a fair comparison.

But Barra goes on to write:

“To unleash the next cycle of EV growth, we’re scaling production of the Chevrolet Equinox EV. . . . Then over the next several months, GMC will launch the Sierra EV and the Cadillac LYRIQ will be joined by the OPTIQ, Escalade IQ and CELESTIQ.”

On the one hand, this is completely understandable for at least a couple reasons.

For one, there are those billions spent on getting capacity, so they need to use it.

For another, regulations are going to require the sale of more EVs, especially to offset the sales of things like trucks and large SUVs (e.g., in Q2 there were 151,112 Silverados sold).

That said, one wonders: Given the increasing popularity of hybrids, why is there no discussion of that in the forthcoming product portfolio?