On March 4, GM was at EV? Japan (Electric Vehicle Day) said that the global sales of electric vehicles are expected to exceed 1 10,000 in the next five years.
By 2025, it will invest more than $20 billion in the next generation of electric and self-driving cars, and plans to expand its electric vehicle lineup to 22 models by 2023.
The industry believes that GM's move is mainly due to the decline in profitability in the China market.
According to public data, China has been the largest market for GM since 20 14, but in 20 19, the annual revenue dropped by nearly half, only 1 1 billion dollars.
Overall new energy strategy
On March 4, GM was at EV? Week released its latest "Ultimate" battery and the next generation electric vehicle platform driven by it, and put forward the future strategy of leading the global electric vehicle market.
Mary barra, Chairman and CEO, said: "We have accepted the challenges that the company must overcome in terms of product innovation and the future of pure electric vehicles." ?
GM's ultimate battery can travel 400 miles on a single charge. ? 400 miles is also Tesla's latest model? s？ Dragon? Range? Maximum mileage of a car after a single charge. General Motors says it can go from a standstill to 60 miles per hour in three seconds.
General Motors plans to expand its lineup of electric vehicles to 22 models by 2023, adopting the next-generation electric vehicle platform. Except for trucks, most models will be equipped with a 400-volt battery pack with a maximum of 200? Fast charging system, and the truck platform will be equipped with 800 volt battery pack and 350? Fast charging system based on.
The core of GM's electric strategy is its third generation global electric vehicle platform, which adopts modular vehicle drive system and self-developed UL battery. The flexible modular electric vehicle platform has created economies of scale and created new income opportunities. Through this plan, the company plans to ensure market competitiveness in various categories focusing on economy, such as general electric vehicles, high-end electric vehicles, commercial electric trucks and high-performance electric vehicles.
The transformation of GM is imminent.
The transformation of GM is imperative.
In 20 12, GM's global automobile sales reached 9,285,991,ranking second only to Toyota Motor Group. In 20 12, GM's operating income reached152.3 billion US dollars, and its net profit reached 4.9 billion US dollars. Among them, GM's performance in its two most important markets in the world-the United States and China is very eye-catching.
In the 20 17 world top 500 list released on June 7, 20 17, GM ranked 18. On July 9, 20 18, the Fortune Global 500 list was released, and General Motors ranked 2 1.
Now GM is facing a rapid recession, and its market value ranking has fallen to sixth place.
Toyota among traditional car companies ($65.438+062.088 billion)
, Volkswagen ($654.38+002.6 billion), Daimler's market value ($3765.438+50 million), etc. Both of them surpassed GM (356.5438+0.8 billion USD), and PSA and FCA also successfully surpassed it (44.8 billion USD) through merger.
Founded only 18 years ago, Tesla easily defeated the century-old GM, with the latest market value as high as11700 million US dollars, more than the three GM's combined.
All this stems from the decline of GM's net profit in 20 19 17.3%, which is only $6.7 billion.
More importantly, GM's performance in China market in recent two years is not satisfactory, and its business income further decreased last year. According to GM's annual report, the equity income of the company's joint venture in China is 20165438+32 million US dollars, a sharp drop of 42.8% year-on-year.
In the whole year of 20 19, GM's new car sales in China decreased by 15% to 3.09 million vehicles, which was the second consecutive year that GM's market in China declined, surpassing the market. Last year, GM's brands launched more models in China, but for various reasons, GM failed to reverse the situation.
In addition to the overall downturn in the auto market, some of GM's own layouts have also been accused of being unreasonable. The most criticized is its bold and radical installation of three-cylinder engines on various models.
Zhang Zhiliang, an observer of the automobile industry, said: "The China market now strongly advocates energy conservation, emission reduction and electrification, but American cars are famous for their large displacement and strong power, which obviously does not meet the demand of the China market. GM is eager to change to maintain sales. "
Three-cylinder engine is a common solution to reduce vehicle energy consumption and emissions. Last year, SAIC-GM increased the promotion of three-cylinder engines. In the second half of the year, new models such as Buick Angola, Chevrolet Chuangjie and Chevrolet Chuangkuo are fully equipped with three-cylinder engines.
Although the technical strength of SAIC-GM three-cylinder engine is not bad in terms of parameters, its reputation among consumers is not so good. Many people think that the three-cylinder engine has strong jitter and poor experience.
A senior car appraiser told Caijing. In fact, all engines have jitter, because most internal combustion engines have four strokes of intake, compression, work and exhaust, and four-cylinder engines have four cylinders, so the inertia can cancel each other out and the jitter is small. The three cylinders and four strokes of a three-cylinder machine cannot completely offset the inertia of motion, so the jitter is relatively large. But by adding counterweight, balancing crankshaft and actively installing, the jitter is not so serious. However, when the parts that remain jitter-free in the later period are aged and the inertia of motion cannot be well offset, obvious jitter begins.
GM finally realized and faced up to this problem. Recently, it was reported that some models originally equipped with only three-cylinder engines will also provide four-cylinder versions this year to provide consumers with more choices.
Global slimming saves costs
GM is determined to turn to electrification, and plans to gradually withdraw from other markets except China and the United States. ?
Recently, GM announced its decision to withdraw from overseas markets such as Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.
In addition, GM also stated in the statement that it will gradually stop the sales and design of "Horton" brand cars in Australia and New Zealand before 202 1. Three years ago, GM withdrew its manufacturing links from Australia.
GM will also sell its factory in Luo Yong, Thailand to Great Wall Motor. By the end of 2020, GM's Chevrolet brand will officially withdraw from the local market.
Withdrawing from the market under the condition of insufficient return on investment is an important strategy of this American automobile manufacturer in recent years.
General Motors CEO Bora said in a statement: "I always say that we will do the right thing, even in difficult times, and now is the time. We have the right strategy to drive strong returns and give priority to global investment that will drive future liquidity growth. "
Almost all of GM's profits come from China and the United States. For many years, China market has been the largest single market for GM in the world.
In 20 19, GM sold nearly 2.9 million cars in the United States, while the sales of new cars in China reached 3.09 million.
In 20 19, GM's annual net income was137.2 billion USD and its net profit was 6.7 billion USD. After adjustment, earnings before interest and tax is $8.4 billion. Among them, China's market revenue accounts for 1 1 billion USD.
Ren Wanfu, an analyst in the automotive industry, told Caijing Automobile that due to the decline in global sales and the weakening of profitability of GM, electrification transformation requires a lot of capital investment, and it is imperative to cut costs. Closing some overseas factories and laying off employees are all effective ways to cut costs.
For GM's future, Ren Wanfu said that it is hard to say whether GM's electrification road that has gone through bankruptcy can succeed. The era of electrification is an era of great changes in the automobile industry. In this process, some large enterprises and groups are bound to close down, and some new forces will stand on the peak.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.