In the last quarter of 2021, GM's sales in the United States were dismal, down 43% year-on-year. GM sold a total of 2.218 million vehicles in the U.S. market last year, down from 2.55 million in 2020. At the same time, Toyota sold 2.332 million vehicles in the U.S. market, up 10.4 percent from 2020. Toyota has replaced GM as the number one car company in the U.S. market. In terms of electric vehicles, GM sold only 26 electric vehicles in the United States, including 25 Chevrolet Bolts and an electric Hummer, while GM sold 6701 Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles in the United States in 2020. As the data came out, Elon Musk commented on Twitter, "There's room for improvement." ”
This number of sales is equivalent to Tesla's one-hour sales in the third quarter of last year. According to third-party statistics at the time, Tesla Model 3 sold an average of 24.5 vehicles per hour, and Wuling Hongguang sold 14.4 vehicles per hour. In the fourth quarter, Tesla's sales exceeded expectations. Musk's comments "have room for improvement," have a sense of encouragement, and are more of a satire.
A few days ago, Toyota Motor announced that it would sell 2.332 million units in the U.S. market in 2021, while General Motors has maintained its position as the top seller in the United States since surpassing Ford in 1931, which is the first time that an overseas car brand has won the championship in the United States. In the 1960s, two decades after japan's economy took off, Toyota began to export to the United States, which also coincided with an increase in the immigrant population, and there was a strong demand for Japanese economy cars that were cheap and cheap and had low failure rates. In 1986, Toyota Motor's sales in the United States exceeded 1 million units for the first time, and in order to avoid friction with the United States, it also promoted production in the United States from the initiative to restrict the export of automobiles to the United States, and by 2021, Toyota Motor was put into production in Alabama, which is Toyota's fifth automaker in the United States.
Affected by the chip problem, automakers, including General Motors, have reduced their production in 2021, and whoever solves the chip problem will be able to keep their sales. In the last few months of last year, GM began a massive production cut in September, with half of its north American plants shutting down, while Toyota adjusted its production models and production plans to avoid long-term production stoppages, thereby surpassing GM's sales, but also running out of supply chain inventory. As the chip problem eases this year, GM is restoring production speed, and the analysis indicates that GM will still return to the top position in 2022. GM made the following statement about the throne of the first position: "We pay more attention to profit than sales. If we were Toyota, we wouldn't label ourselves as the number one sellers at the first time." On a January 4 conference call by Toyota North America, Jack Hollis, vice president of Toyota North America, admitted: "Yes, we surpassed GM, but taking first is not our goal, nor do we feel sustainable." In fact, their common goal is electric vehicles, and in 2017, Tesla surpassed General Motors in market capitalization and Toyota in 2020.
In the middle of last month, at the Tokyo Electric Vehicle Strategy Development Conference, Toyoda Akio announced that he would invest $35 billion in the development of electric vehicles by 2030, launch 30 electric vehicles in 2030, and also displayed 15 of them in one breath. This scene also happened to GM in the United States before. U.S. President Joe Biden signed a presidential decree in August 2021 calling for electric vehicles to increase the share of new U.S. car sales to 50 percent by 2030. GM CEO Mary Barra then announced in 2020 that she would invest $25 billion in electric vehicle research by 2025, adjusting this budget twice last year, and finally increasing it to $35 billion, an increase of 75% higher than the original plan, and GM China President Bai Li also said that in 2025, GM plans to launch 30 electric vehicles, more than 20 will be launched in China at the same time, the urgency of the two is self-evident.
But in fact, at present, GM's product layout on electric vehicles is not much, only the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV are carrying GM's electric vehicle sales in the United States, and both will sell 24,828 units in 2021, an increase of 19.6% year-on-year. The Chevrolet Bolt EV starts at $31,995 (about 206,500 yuan), has a maximum motor power of 150kW (201.15 hp), a maximum torque of 360N·m, a battery pack capacity of 65kWh, and a DC fast charge function as standard throughout the series, which can provide a cruising range of 161km in 30 minutes and a cruising range of about 416km.
GM has recalled the Chevrolet Bolt three times and stopped production twice in the past year or two because of battery defects, and the fourth quarter sales were caused by the impact of large-scale shutdowns, and GM expects to resume production of this model in February this year.
The Chevrolet Bolt EV has been recalled three times in the past year because battery failure could lead to fires. The first occurred in November 2020, and the second and third occurred in the past few months, with the second recall involving a total of 69,000 vehicles. Electric vehicle spontaneous combustion regardless of the country, faulty batteries have caused at least 13 cars to spontaneously ignite, the American people have also talked about the discoloration of electric vehicles for a while, in some parking lots, it is forbidden for Chevrolet Bolt EV to enter the parking.
At the beginning, GM also used the method of locking electricity to try to reduce spontaneous combustion. GM advises car owners not to exceed 90% and not to charge when the battery is too low. Subsequently, GM upgraded the Chevrolet Bolt EV battery management software, but it did not work, there was still spontaneous combustion, and GM had to announce the discontinuation of the model and replace the battery for the owner.
Fortunately, this loss of nearly $2 billion, battery supplier LG New Energy hard to carry down, the two sides claimed to reach a $2 billion compensation settlement is a huge victory. Last August, GM expanded its recall of bolts to 140,000 vehicles, recalling most of the vehicles sold to replace batteries. The key technology is stuck in the neck of the thing, really happened to GM, according to GM's plan, providing batteries for other manufacturers is also one of the future businesses.
Overall, there are still many problems with electric vehicle products, but the competition of electric vehicles has begun to change the way people travel, and it is also slowly changing the rules of world trade, and China's curve overtaking policy has begun to bear fruit.
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