But it's not just about what goes in the bed, it's about what's under the hood. GM will offer no fewer than six different engine and transmission combinations, including a new 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder Duramax diesel paired to a 10-speed automatic gearbox. Naturally, gas engines will still command the lion's share of sales, with Chevy's 5.3-liter and 6.2-liter V8 engines picking up Dynamic Fuel Management, a new system that will allow for running on between one to seven cylinders, depending on load demand. That's right, this truck can sip fuel on just one cylinder.

Over the past month, we’ve noticed an uptick in letters informing us that GM’s new 3.0L Duramax engine for the 2019 Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500 had been delayed, supposedly due to issues associated with emissions testing. We are not aware how this rumor started, but we looked into it – and got some answers.

First things first: GM initially announced that it will launch the all-new 3.0L Duramax inline-six in its all-new, half-ton pickup trucks during the first half of the 2019 calendar year. Given that we’re writing this in February, The General still has a few more months – until June, in fact – to launch the new engine, to fit into its own time frame. But that’s not all.

“We had said it would be early 2019, and we are on track,” Chevy’s Monte Doran told us via email. “We will share more information about the engine once we have our final testing and fuel economy certification complete,” he added.

So, there you have it – rumors that the GM 3.0L Duramax has been delayed are false.

The only official details GM has shared about the new 3.0L Duramax I6 are these:

• It is assigned RPO code LM2
• It is an all-new engine design that’s part of GM’s ESS (Engine Set Strategy)
• It will be the best-performing diesel engine in its segment, according to comments made by GM president Mark Reuss
• It will be mated exclusively to the GM 10-speed automatic transmission in the 2019 Silverado and 2019 Sierra
• It will go on sale in the first half of 2019

GM hasn’t shared power and fuel economy figures whatsoever, but an unofficial leak last October pegged the new 3.0L Duramax as making 282 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque, while achieving 28 MPG on the highway and tow up to 7,800 pounds. Those numbers could be spot on, or could be totally off. We’ll have to wait for the official announcement from GM to be sure.

For now, all we know for sure is that GM is on track to introduce the highly-anticipated 3.0L Duramax diesel in its half-tons in the first half of the year.

General Motors has been forced to cancel orders and delay the new 3.0-liter Duramax diesel engine for its full-size Chevy Silveradoand GMC Sierrapickup trucks, which were originally scheduled to be available early this year, due to emissions testing for the engine taking longer than anticipated.

Automotive Newsreported that a memo sent out to GM dealers on Tuesday announced the delay, which was later confirmed to the publication by a company spokesperson. Here’s more from Automotive News:

Chevrolet spokesperson Monte Doran gave a little more context to Motor1about the cause of the delay:

The delay is enough to knock GM’s introduction of the diesel full-size pickup offerings out of the 2019 model year, meaning dealers were forced to cancel any existing orders for the pickups, but customers will be offered replacement 2020 model year pickups in the near future, according to Automotive News.

Here’s the a full statement from GM:

It was revealed and later confirmed back in March that the 3.0-liter diesel makes a claimed 277 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque, though payload and towing capacity figures have yet to be announced. Obviously there are no EPA figures just yet, either.

The engine is slated to be priced at the same $2,495 premium cost as the optional 6.2-liter V8 over the 5.3-liter V8, and $3,890 more than the optional 2.7-liter four-cylinder. GM previously announced that the Duramax would be available on LT, RST, LTZ and High Country trims of the Silverado, and every available trim of the GMC Sierra.

General Motors will use Google’s new Android Automotive OS to power the infotainment systems in its cars starting in 2021, the two companies announced on Thursday. That means Google Assistant, Maps, and other automotive-approved Android apps will be available in GM’s cars via the Play Store without requiring the use of an Android smartphone.

All GM brands outside of China will offer the native automotive version of Android, which is built on Android P, though it won’t come to all models right away. Cars outfitted with Android Automotive OS will still allow drivers or passengers to use Apple’s CarPlay as well as the smartphone-powered version of Android Auto, GM tells The Verge. GM will share the access to some anonymized data, according to CNBC, though Google won’t be able to see any information about the way someone drives or a vehicle’s maintenance needs, according to Reuters.
GM has been building its infotainment systems on Android since 2016 when it joined several other automakers that decided to leverage Google’s open-source operating system. But automakers had to do a lot more of the software work when integrating these older Android-powered infotainment setups, which were typically forked off of older versions of the operating system. That meant they couldn’t be easily be updated or offer the same kind of access to Android Auto-approved apps via the Play Store.

Google first started showing off a new embedded version of Android a few years ago, with Volvo as the first partner. After a series of refinements, the final version of Google’s embedded infotainment system is slated to roll out for the first time on the Polestar 2 (from Volvo sub-brand Polestar) later this year. Google also has a deal to bring its infotainment system to cars made by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.

The new embedded Android approach allows Google to do more of the heavy lifting on the software side, while leaving the automakers with the freedom to design the OS to match their tastes. (For instance, the embedded Android system on the Polestar 2 looks and feels a lot like Volvo’s Sensus infotainment system.)

GM will share the access to some anonymized data, according to CNBC, though Google won’t be able to see any information about the way someone drives or a vehicle’s maintenance needs

General Motors laid out its electric vehicle strategy on Wednesday, showcasing roughly a dozen products as part of a broader attempt to convey to investors how serious it is about embracing its electric future.

In addition to showing off some of its upcoming vehicles, GM revealed an all-new modular electric vehicle platform with an improved battery pack called Ultium. Much like Volkswagen’s so-called MEB platform, the GM platform is intended to be flexible and multifaceted, with the goal of eventually undergirding a variety of vehicle types and shapes.

The new batteries are unique because of the “large-format, pouch-style cells,” compared to cylindrical cells, which GM says enables them to be stacked vertically or horizontally inside the battery pack. These batteries will offer power ranging from 50 to 200 kWh, which could allow for a driving range up to “400 miles or more.” Motors designed in-house will support front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, and performance all-wheel drive applications.
Steve Fecht for Genreal MotorsGM altered the chemistry of its battery cells, in a move that’s distinct from most EV batteries in production today. The majority of batteries are made with NCM — nickel, cobalt, and magnesium. The Ultium batteries will add aluminum — so NCMA — and reduce the cobalt content by 70 percent. GM has also reduced by about 80 percent the amount of wiring from the EV architecture currently used in its Chevy Bolt vehicles. The hope is that this will drive battery cell costs below the $100/kWh level and allow GM to get more bang for its buck as it scales up its EV production capabilities.
AN ESTIMATED 400 MILES OF RANGEUltium-powered EVs are designed for Level 2 and DC fast charging, GM says. Most will have 400-volt battery packs and up to 200kW fast-charging capability while the company’s truck platform will have 800-volt battery packs and 350 kW fast-charging capability. GM says it wants to address the two main pain points of EV ownership: cost and charging time.

The event was intended to persuade those on Wall Street who have been jittery about GM’s ability to catch up to Tesla. Elon Musk’s company has soared in valuation, even as the auto industry at large has suffered from rising coronavirus fears. On Tuesday, Tesla’s market cap hovered around $144 billion, more than three times GM’s $45 billion.

The automaker has said it plans to release 20 electric nameplates by 2023 and will publicly unveil three of those vehicles in the months to come: the Cadillac “Lyriq” EV crossover in April and two electric versions of GMC’s Hummer in May. This will be followed “soon after” by the Cruise Origin, a shared, electric, self-driving vehicle developed by Cruise (a majority owned subsidiary of GM) and Honda.

All four GM brands – Chevy, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick – will be launching new EVs. The Cadillac Lyriq will be the first vehicle built on the company’s new BEV3 architecture. Next will be the Hummer EV in both pickup and SUV formats. Also to come are a refreshed Chevy Bolt EV and EUV with a longer wheelbase, a compact Chevy crossover, two Buick SUVs, and a Cadillac sedan called “Celistiq.” All of this is part of GM’s broader plan to spend $20 billion in capital and engineering costs by 2025.
INVESTORS HAVE BEEN JITTERY ABOUT GM’S ABILITY TO CATCH UP TO TESLAIn January, the company said it would spend $2.2 billion to retrofit its Detroit-Hamtramck plant for the production of autonomous and electric vehicles. Workers there recently got a look at some of the vehicles they will be tasked with building, including the Cruise Origin and two versions of GMC’s Hummer, which is being resurrected as an electric pickup. Detroit-Hamtramck will be GM’s first “fully-dedicated” electric vehicle assembly plant.

Last December, the automaker said it was setting up a joint venture with South Korea’s LG Chem to mass-produce batteries for electric cars, with the two companies planning to invest a total of $2.3 billion to build a new facility in Lordstown, Ohio. This facility will supply battery cells for the electric vehicles manufactured at Detroit-Hamtramck.

Of course, all of this needs to be viewed in the larger context of the fight over auto emissions. Though GM has said its goal is “zero emissions,” the company has sided with the Trump administration to do the exact opposite. Along with Fiat Chrysler and Toyota, GM is supportive of the White House’s effort to eliminate California’s stricter emissions rules, arguing that the federal government, and not individual states, should set the requirements. Honda, Ford, Volkswagen, and BMW have sided with California in the battle.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-...2006-earnings/Apple yesterday announced preliminary financial results for its fiscal 2006 fourth quarter ended September 30, 2006. They also noted that the preliminary results may be subject to "significant adjustment" as a result of a likely restatement of historical results.

The company posted revenue of $4.84 billion and net quarterly profit of $546 million, compare to revenue of $3.68 billion and net profit of $430 million in the year-ago quarter. CFO Peter

In mid-2010 a fresh-out-of-bankruptcy General Motors did something completely unexpected: it launched a new brand. The move was very much noteworthy, since it came at a time when the Detroit-based automaker had already killed off two prior brands – Saturn and Pontiac, while being in the process of selling Saab, which ended up being sold off to Spyker, and Hummer, which ended up being shuttered, only to be revived a decade later as a sub-brand of GMC. Called Alpheon, the new GM brand was totally unexpected, even for the most forward-thinking GM enthusiast. GM Authority has spent the last few months researching the initiative and speaking to those involved with the creation and strategy of the Alpheon brand. Here’s its story.
GM/Daewoo Alpheon

The Alpheon was launched in May 2010 at the Busan International Motor Show with one vehicle: a large sedan that aimed at Korea’s higher-end midsize sedan segment. Indeed, the Alpheon was a Korea-only endeavor, though it was a rebadged second-generation Buick LaCrosse. Produced at the GM Bupyeong plant in South Korea, the Alpheon was powered by the naturally-aspirated GM 3.0L V6 LF1 engine and six-speed automatic transmission. Incidentally, GM was beginning to phase out from the North American-market at the time. Nevertheless, Alpheon as a vehicle was to be a “standalone luxury product” in the GM Korea portfolio, with its own brand, emblem and image factors. An eAssist mild-hybrid version followed roughly a year later.



At that time, General Motors was undergoing a rather unique transition period in Korea, under three separate companies. First, it was operating (while slowly winding down) the Daewoo brand, which it had purchased in 2001 to form GM Daewoo Auto & Technology (GM DAT). At the time, GM held a 66.7 percent stake in the venture, progressively increasing it to 82.9 percent by 2010; the remaining portion was divided between SAIC – GM’s joint venture partner in China – at 9.9 percent, plus Daewoo Motor Creditors Committee at 7.2 percent. Second, was the Chevrolet brand, being operated under a national sales company. Third was the Cadillac brand, operating under a third legal entity in the form of a national sales company, though one that had a rather unstable on-again, off-again nature.

Perhaps most fascinating is the reasoning that GM offered the Buick LaCrosse in Korea under the Alpheon brand.

“It was truly a Buick, so we couldn’t call it a Chevrolet. But there was no Buick in Korea, and we had no plans for it, either,” one GM official who is no longer with GM told GM Authority in an interview. “On the other hand, we had plans to drop Daewoo as a brand so we came up with Alpheon as a standalone [brand] specific to the Korean market.”



Alpheon name was a play on the words “Alpha” and “on” – meant to represent the flagship status of the vehicle. Brand details were created in about three months by the GM national sales company, led by then-president and CEO, Mike Arcamone. That included the logo, badging, and various other branding directives and elements.

“We desperately needed a large sedan in Korea but were kind of stuck. The next-gen Impala was still years away… the LaCrosse was the next best thing,” the executive said.

Technically speaking, the Alpheon slotted under the Daewoo brand, but it also didn’t, as it had a separate brand and logo. Even so, it was sold at Daewoo dealers throughout Korea.



“They wanted to do [the Alpheon] under the national sales company that existed at the time, so they couldn’t call it a Buick without bringing the [Buick] brand to Korea, but they also didn’t want to call it a Chevrolet,” says Dale Sullivan, who served as Vice President of Sales, Service and Marketing at GM Korea from 2016 to 2019 – roughly five years after the Alpheon project was conceived. “It was a separate thing, closer to Daewoo but also separate,” he concluded.

Alpheon – including the vehicle, brand and project – was discontinued in 2015. A year later, General Motors introduced the Chevrolet Impala, a vehicle that was perfectly in line with the Chevrolet brand in Korea.
The 2015 Chevrolet Impala replaced the Alpheon in South Korea

“It wasn’t successful and it was not ‘not successful’,” a third ex-GM executive involved with the project, who didn’t want to be named, told GM Authority. “Production had many issues [because] assembly in Korea was tied to sourcing key parts from the U.S., and the LaCrosse was eating up most of them. For what counts, we sold every single unit that we made, and would have sold more without the production blocks,” the executive added.

Interestingly, it would appear that Alpheon was being considered to play a broader, more global role in the General Motors vehicle portfolio.

In March, Lauren McDonald was on hand for GM’s EV Day, during which much of the discussion was about the new Ultium batteries GM and LG Chem will be manufacturing at a new battery factory just down the road from the former Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant. That factory is projected to have an annual capacity of 30 gigawatt-hours of battery cells. While GM made a bunch of grandiose claims about its campaign to bring electric cars to market that day, few actual details about the Ultium battery emerged during the presentation.


Since then, every car company on the planet has been hinting that it will soon have batteries that can last for a million miles or more. This week, GM joined the chorus. Tim Grewe, head of GM’s global electrification and battery systems, says the new factory will be manufacturing large format pouch cells that use nickel cobalt manganese aluminum (NCMA) chemistry developed by his company. He says adding aluminum to the mix makes it possible to reduce the amount of cobalt used and contributes to longer battery life.

Grewe adds that GM is already pushing ahead with zero-cobalt and zero-nickel cells and experimenting with electrolyte and zeolite additives that will extend their service life even more. “We do have million-mile battery life, especially in shared mobility usage, in our sights and are getting great results when it comes to that,” he says.

“Separator technology, different current-collector technology, over-lithiated cathodes, dry electrode processing, and anode mixes with oxides are all among the other methods the company is considering to improve fast charging while reducing costs. Lithium metal cell technology is also ongoing with an expectation it will be production ready by 2025. We’ve actually had a very good spring on this technology,” Grewe says of the lithium metal research. “We now see a very viable path with almost twice the energy density of today…that will easily enable 500-600 mile vehicles in the future.”

Pouch cells can be installed either vertically or horizontally in battery packs, giving the company more flexibility in designing future electric cars with higher or lower roof lines. [Are we possibly talking about an electric Corvette here?] Batteries can contain between 6 and 24 pouch cell modules yielding packs of between 50 kWh and 200 kWh. A pouch cell has about the same energy capacity as 20 cylindrical Tesla cells, Grewe says.

Each module will have its own wireless battery management system. “That wireless connection is one of our foundational flexibilities we have,” versus a traditional battery management system, Grewe tells Green Car Reports. He foresees battery cell costs dipping below $100 per kWh and $120 per kWh at the pack level in the near term and expects “true breakthrough innovations” at the R&D stage will happen sooner than anticipated. Such a breakthrough could include cells with a volumetric energy density of 1 kwh per liter, which could lead to cars with up to 600 miles of range. “We have the confidence that we are nowhere near the bottom of the battery cost curve,” he says.

Regular CleanTechnica readers will quibble with the company’s promises and predictions, primarily because GM has over promised and under delivered on its EV products for years. Is it finally on board with the EV revolution? It certainly has access to enough talented engineers to be a credible competitor to Tesla and other EV manufacturers but will it follow through or will it continue dazzling us with claims about electric cars that might be while it pushes as many Silverados and Sierras as possible out the door? “We’ll see,” said the Zen master.

General Motors confirmed one of the 20 electric cars it plans to release by 2023 will be a full-size Chevrolet pickup. It quietly announced the model in the 179-page 2019 sustainability report it published this month.

Chevrolet pledged its yet-unnamed pickup will offer over 400 miles of driving range on a charge, but it chose not to disclose additional details about the truck. It could be marketed as a greener alternative to the Silverado, or it could arrive as a standalone model. Similarly, we don't know precisely when it will make its global debut.

General Motors has other pickups and SUVs in the pipeline, and we're betting they will all share at least some components under the sheetmetal. GMC's much-hyped Hummer will be offered as a pickup and as an SUV. And, in the same report, Cadillac sketched out plans for a full-size, three-row luxury SUV that builds on the Escalade's DNA. All of these models will have roughly the same footprint, so some structural components will be likely shared in the same way that the Sierra, the Silverado, and the Escalade are built on the same basic architecture.

Moving beyond trucks, Chevrolet also confirmed it will release a midsize electric crossover and the smaller, Bolt-based model it announced several months ago. GMC will initially settle for the two variants of the Hummer as its only electric options, while Cadillac's Escalade-like model will be joined by the Lyriq, what it described as a "globally-sized three-row SUV," an XT4-sized model, and the Celestiq. As we've previously reported, the latter is an ultra-luxurious flagship model that will be assembled by hand in extremely limited numbers. Cadillac predicts it will manufacture 1.2 vehicles daily. Insiders have hinted the sedan may carry a base price of over $200,000, a figure which would make it the most expensive regular-production car manufactured in the United States.

Finally, Buick will release two electric models. One is described as an SUV with more conventional crossover proportions, while the other is a crossover with "more expressive proportions."

Most of the aforementioned electric vehicles will be powered by the Ultium battery technology General Motors is busily developing. All told, the company is allocating about $20 billion of its capital and engineering resources to bringing the 20-plus electric cars it promised to the market in a timely manner. This massive push partially explains why the guillotine is falling on some of its less popular models, like the Impala and the Sonic.

The success of this costly shift towards battery-powered cars will depend largely on whether demand for electric technology increases in the United States. In 2019, the only electric car in the General Motors portfolio was the Bolt, which logged 16,418 sales. It was outsold by the Chevrolet Corvette, the GMC Savana, the now-retired Chevrolet Impala, the tiny Chevrolet Spark, and even the Chevrolet Cruze, which was axed in March 2019.

General Motors showed off its Ultium electric drive units this week, ones that will go into the next generation of EVs including the electric Hummer models and the Cadillac Lyriq crossover, among others. The automaker's development of the drive units and batteries has been the subject of much buzz over the summer, as GM slowly revealed plans for its next generation of electric vehicles amid growing stock market enthusiasm for EV technology.

Following new details about its battery plans, the automaker revealed images of five drive units that will power upcoming front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles. Ultium Drive, as GM calls it, will pair electric motors with single-speed transmissions and Ultium batteries. The power electronics will be integrated into the assemblies of the drive units, reducing the mass of the power electronics by almost 50 percent compared to the automaker's previous-gen EV drive units. The drive units themselves will be powered by one or more of the three electric motors, one of which will be a primary front-wheel drive motor that could be set up for front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive, in addition to an all-wheel drive assist motor.

"General Motors’ next-generation EVs are expected to be powered by a family of five interchangeable drive units and three motors, known collectively as 'Ultium Drive,'" the automaker said. "Ultium Drive will help the company transition its current portfolio to a fully electric lineup, providing significant advantages over GM’s previous EVs in performance, scale, speed to market and manufacturing efficiencies."
GM also unveiled several different electric motors that will power the next generation of EVs. GMThe automaker took the wraps off the Cadillac Lyriq EV concept a few weeks ago, previewing the first battery-electric crossover from the brand that will go into production in late 2022 with the Ultium drivetrain and battery technology. GM indicated that the Lyriq will have a range of over 300 miles, and will feature DC-fast charging rates above 150 Kilowatts. The crossover will be offered with rear-wheel drive in base spec, but will, of course, offer all-wheel drive as an option.

The battery of the Lyriq, meanwhile, is expected to land at the 100 kWh mark, and will feature nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum composition. But a year before the Lyriq enters production, we'll see Ultium drive units and batteries in the Hummer EV, scheduled to enter production next year along with a large number of other electric truck competitors.

"GM has built transmissions for many notable automakers," said Ken Morris, GM vice president, Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Programs. "Making motors, transmissions, driveline components and systems are among GM’s best-known competencies, and our manufacturing expertise is proving not only transferable but advantageous as we make the transition to EVs."

Maybe we'll win, saved by zero. General Motors on Friday announced that its sprawling Detroit-Hamtramck facility, which is being retooled to build electric vehicles, has been renamed Factory Zero — as in zero emissions, along with the promise of an autonomous future in which there are zero crashes and zero congestion.

The company is spending $2.2 billion to retool the plant into a futuristic facility that is flexible enough to build a variety of cars and trucks across the GM portfolio of brands. GM says that's the most it has ever spent on a production facility, and when the plant's cranking out EVs at scale it will have created 2,200 manufacturing jobs.
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Factory Zero's first projects will be the all-electric GMC Hummer pickup and the self-driving electric Cruise Origin, both build on GM's new Ultium battery platform, with other EVs to follow. Factory Zero should start cranking out Hummer pickups by fall 2021. A Hummer SUV will come along later.

Check back with Autoblog when the Hummer is revealed next Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Sustainability will be another key feature. During construction, excess concrete from pours in the plant has been used to pave roads, and stormwater runoff is being recycled to charge the factory suppression system and circulate in cooling towers. The 365-acre site also has 16.5 acres of wildlife habitat — GM says monarch butterflies hang out there, along with foxes and wild turkeys.



GM says it's committed to powering all its southeast Michigan plants with sustainable energy by 2023, the rest of its U.S. facilities by 2030, and overseas plants by 2040. To that end, Factory Zero has a 30-kilowatt solar carport, and a 516-kilowatt ground-mounted solar farm, from DTE.

“Factory ZERO is the next battleground in the EV race and will be GM’s flagship assembly plant in our journey to an all-electric future,” said Gerald Johnson, GM executive vice president of Global Manufacturing. “The electric trucks and SUVs that will be built here will help transform GM and the automotive industry.”

Bugatti makes the world's fastest car, but Cadillac claims it has developed the world's fastest suspension. Its fourth-generation Magnetic Ride Control technology receives hardware and software tweaks to deliver a more comfortable ride and sharper handling. It's offered on some variants of the CT4, CT5 and the Escalade.

Introduced in 2002 on the Seville STS, this self-adjusting suspension is not as complicated as it might sound. It relies primarily on electromagnets that emit a magnetic field, and a magnetorheological fluid whose viscosity changes depending on the strength of the magnetic force. Sensors scan the road up to 1,000 times per second and send the information they gather to the electromagnets, which then alter their magnetic field as needed to modify the fluid's viscosity. The fluid is in the shocks, so making it thicker returns a firmer ride, and vice versa.

In simpler terms, Magnetic Ride Control leverages chemistry and physics to make the ride sporty, comfortable, or somewhere in between -- all in the blink of an eye. By reacting to the changing magnetic field, the fluid-filled shocks filter out road imperfections and maximize tire contact with the road to deliver more precise handling.

Cadillac began developing the fourth-generation system by improving the hardware. The in-wheel accelerometers are more accurate than before, the inertial measurement unit is more precise, and the damper fluid formula was changed for quicker response times and a smoother ride. Engineers then turned their attention to the system's software. They notably gave the sensors the ability to process a wider selection of input and output signals, which translates to a wider spread between comfort and sport. And, they made the response time up to 45-percent quicker.

All told, the fourth-generation Magnetic Ride Control technology performs better under heavy braking and hard cornering, it delivers more consistent performance, and it reads the road more accurately. Cadillac proudly notes these are the most comprehensive updates it has made to the system in nearly two decades.

Magnetic Ride Control comes standard on the 2021 CT4-V and the 2021 CT5-V, and it's bundled into the CT5's V Performance package, which also includes a mechanical limited-slip differential. It's also standard on the Sport and Platinum variants of the 2021 Escalade, and it's part of the Premium Luxury trim's Performance package.

Looking ahead, the technology will likely be offered on other models, including the high-performance, Blackwing-badged variants of the CT4 and the CT5. We wouldn't be surprised to find it on future Chevrolet sports cars, too.

The first GM Defense Infantry Squad Vehicle was just delivered to the U.S. Army. With that delivery, we gain our first chance at seeing the final production truck. On the surface, it largely looks like the same truck that GM originally previewed for us.

Most shocking of all is the time it took GM to develop this truck. It took GM only 120 days from contract award to delivery of the first finished ISV. That’s blindingly quick when it comes to vehicle development. Of course, developing a truck for a squad of soldiers is very different than developing it for families to drive to the grocery store.

“One hundred and twenty days from contract award to delivery is a significant milestone, and I am very proud of the team for this accomplishment,” said David Albritton, president of GM Defense. “We’re leveraging General Motors’ engineering prowess and immense manufacturing capabilities to bring transformative solutions to the military vehicle market. Our initial success with the ISV shows our commitment to our customer and highlights our unique right to win in the military mobility market.”



You can find a much deeper dive into the details of this truck in our original story here. In short, it’s based on the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 that uses 90% commercial parts, some of which are from Chevrolet Performance. It’s designed to be light enough to hang under a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter and small enough to be loaded inside a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. A number of changes were made from concept to production as GM worked with the military to make it a reality.

“The value we bring to our Army customer is our willingness to listen and adapt,” said Mark Dickens, GM Defense chief engineer. “During Soldier testing, the feedback we received was paramount in delivering a vehicle that met Soldiers’ needs, while maximizing safety and performance and taking their comfort into consideration. The production ISV we’re delivering today is an evolution from our original prototype design, and it’s certainly a vehicle that is a source of pride for the team.”

GM will ultimately deliver 649 of these ISVs to the U.S. Army.

General Motors brought some good news in the form of heady claims yesterday at the virtual Barclays Global Automotive Conference. GM said it’s upping its investments in EVs and said they'll be more profitable and more powerful as the second-generation Ultium project comes into play. GM is also hiring for its EV teams and plans to break ground on a new plant soon and is accelerating its timeline for all of this.

“Climate change is real, and we want to be part of the solution by putting everyone in an electric vehicle,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “We are transitioning to an all-electric portfolio from a position of strength and we’re focused on growth. We can accelerate our EV plans because we are rapidly building a competitive advantage in batteries, software, vehicle integration, manufacturing and customer experience.”
GM says that by 2025 it will have 30 EVs around the world, two-thirds available in the U.S. The GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq programs were both accelerated with the Lyriq coming to market in the first quarter, 2022, nine-months earlier than originally expected. All told, 12 programs have been sped up including the Hummer and Lyriq, three other Cadillacs, four Chevys and three other GMC projects including an EV pickup truck.

The bigger news, or maybe more important, is that GM says its second-generation Ultium vehicles are projected to deliver twice the energy density at half the cost of today’s chemistry. Already the Ultium pack costs almost 40 percent less than the battery pack in the Bolt. Much of this work is happening at GM’s Tech Center in Warren, Michigan, but next year the company breaks ground on a new Battery Innovation Lab and Manufacturing Technology Center to help develop the chemistry. To wit, it’s hiring 3,000 electrical system, infotainment and software and controls engineers, plus developers for Java, Android, iOS and other platforms.
GM is also upping its range estimate on the Ultium platform after intermittent engineering advances and now expects it will be capable of 450 miles on a charge as opposed to 400. We’re guessing that won’t be for the full-zoot Hummer with a trailer, but it’s still impressive. With bathroom and food stops that’s about an 8-hour road trip.

The big question is parity. When will EVs be equal to ICE vehicles in price and/or range? Most importantly price, because as we’ve said before, the average American drives less than 30 miles per day. Even with a 300-mile range, that’s 10 days' driving without charging. With GM’s (and others) advancements, we’re now looking at a matter of years instead of decades.

GM has said that its Cadillac brand could go all-electric by the end of the decade, and it is facing some pushbacks from its dealerships.

The automaker has now given them a generous ultimatum.


With the announcement of the acceleration of its electrification plans last week, GM said that Cadillac could become an all-electric brand by 2030 — though management didn’t commit fully to the goal and said it would still depend on the market.

For legacy automakers who depend on networks of third-party dealers to distribute their vehicles, it is important to convince dealers that electric vehicles are the way to go, since they are the ones that will have to sell their vehicles on their lots.

Previous studies have found that electric car adoption has been slowed down by car dealers who are “dismissive and deceptive” when it comes to electric vehicles.

Now GM is facing some pushbacks over the electrification of the Cadillac brand.

Automotive News reports:
Some dealers, on the other hand, aren’t ready to make that shift — or to spend at least $200,000 on the chargers, tooling and training that GM is requiring. They have until Nov. 30 to decide whether they’d rather just get out instead.
Mahmoud Samara, vice president of Cadillac North America,commented on the issue:
We wanted to move fast and make sure dealers are ready for the acceleration. This is purely an option for those dealers who feel the EV journey is not suitable for them.
But GM believes that they already had too many Cadillac dealers for the size of the brand and therefore, they turned this problem into a solution.

Now they are offering dealers who don’t want to make the investment to sell electric vehicles to opt out of selling Cadillacs by the end of the month and receive up to $500,000 in settlements.

There are 880 Cadillac dealers eligible for the deal in the US.

Electrek’s Take

We have long been saying that legacy automakers need to find ways to get dealers on board with electrification if they want to survive.

It seems like GM has found an interesting solution here.

Since they already needed to downsize the number of dealers due to the size of the brand, they give dealers an ultimatum: Make the investment to go electric or take a buyout.
Forcing dealers to invest in preparing for electric vehicles is crucial since it will force them to want to recoup that investment by actually selling electric vehicles and not just focusing on what they have most on their lots, which is generally gas-powered vehicles.

Let’s see if it pays off.