GM joins electric vehicle industry in expanding US market

Receive free updates from General Motors Company

we will send you one myFT Daily Digest Latest Email Rounding General Motors Company News every morning.

General Motors’ US electric vehicle sales more than doubled in the second quarter compared to the same period a year earlier, providing evidence of a growing appetite among consumers for battery-powered cars and trucks.

The Detroit carmaker said Wednesday that it sold more than 15,000 EVs to retail customers between April and June, while about 7,000 during the second quarter of 2022. The 113 percent growth was fueled by strong demand for both the smaller and larger versions. The Chevrolet Bolt, which costs around $27,000, is one of the most affordable EVs in the US market.

GM’s report came after strong production and delivery data from EV makers Tesla and Rivian, which sent shares of both companies rising sharply. Tesla sells the most EVs in the US market, followed by GM. GM’s Detroit rival Ford is scheduled to report sales volumes on Thursday.

Volkswagen, with the fourth-largest share of the US EV market, said on Wednesday that sales of its ID.4 electric SUV more than quadrupled year-on-year to 6,690 vehicles in the second quarter.

Even though car buyers buy more battery-powered cars and trucks, they remain a small part of the total US market. The trade group Alliance for Automotive Innovation said EVs made up 8.6 percent of US new vehicle sales in the first quarter, up from 5.9 percent in the first quarter of 2022.

GM sold about 692,000 cars, trucks and vans in the second quarter, of which 2 percent were electric. Total sales volumes were projected to increase by 19 percent compared to the same period in 2022, when supply chain problems limited how many vehicles carmakers could make.

The company sold less than 1,400 of the electric Cadillac Lyric and just 47 of the GMC Hummer EV. But Bolt sales increased from 6,900 to nearly 14,000.

GM plans to stop manufacturing the Bolt at the end of the year. It wants to move away from the Bolt so that it builds all of its vehicles using its new battery platform, Ultium, which costs 40 percent less.

Chief executive Mary Barra hinted at some sort of future for the Bolt name last month said in an interview that GM was “taking advantage of the names of our vehicles that are well understood” and that the Bolt had “built up a lot of loyalty and equity”.

The carmaker plans to launch six electric vehicles in the second half of the year, including electrified versions of the Chevrolet Silverado pick-up and the Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle.

GM shares were up 1.4 percent at midday on Wednesday.