#GeneralMotors

This annual list prepared by Forbes magazine, called The World's 100 Most Powerful Women, has placed a CEO from the automotive sphere squarely near the top of their rankings – right behind VP Kamala Harris but well ahead of newsmakers like Oprah Winfrey.

With the United States having successfully passed the Inflation Reduction Act over the summer, the financial floodgates have been opened for battery suppliers. Despite often being framed as a massive infrastructure package that would also help tamp down U.S. inflation, the bill also included numerous items from the Biden administration’s climate agenda setting aside billions for industries vowing to go green. This includes the joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution – which will receive $2.5 billion in loans to build three new lithium-ion battery factories.

Electric vehicles offer longer-range estimates and faster charging times than ever, but none of that matters if there’s nowhere to charge in the first place. General Motors hopes to improve the charging situation – at least at its dealers – in the next few years, with tens of thousands of Level 2 chargers.

Some have questioned why General Motors keeps Buick around since it seems like it’s not the most popular brand on America’s roads. What that view fails to consider, however, is that Buick is one of GM’s strongest brands in China, and earlier this month, the company’s president confirmed a new crossover would be coming for the country.

We know the switch to electric vehicles is changing our relationship with cars – charging, range, et al – but it seems the EV Era may also alter other aspects of the industry for legacy automakers. Suits at The General are suggesting a switch to regional fulfillment centers for inventory will save the company about $2,000 per vehicle.

And, as you’d expect, the plan involves shifting GM’s interaction with its dealers.

General Motors has an important investors meeting coming up this week and the keystone item will be explaining how profitable its planned shift toward electric vehicles will eventually be. Details of GM's presentation have leaked and, if the claims are true, leadership should be spending a substantial portion of November 17th explaining exactly how EVs will become money-makers for the business by 2025.

On Monday, the United Auto Workers (UAW) announced that it is seeking to represent workers employed by the Ohio-based joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy. The union said that it had filed a petition on behalf of 900 people building Ultium battery cells, saying that a majority of the plant’s workforce had already signed cards indicating that they wanted UAW representation.

We return to Abandoned History’s coverage of the twists and turns of the Daewoo story, at a time when the company’s predecessor, Shinjin, was no more. After an early Seventies joint venture with General Motors saw the company renamed to General Motors Korea, Shinjin bowed out of the deal after just five years. In 1976 Shinjin’s ownership in the business was sold to a state-owned Korean bank, and General Motors Korea was renamed to Saehan Motor Company. But that didn’t mean GM was out of the picture - far from it.

Honda has dabbled in EVs, but its first mass-market model doesn’t go on sale in the U.S. until 2024. The Prologue will be the inaugural Honda EV for our market, and today, the automaker shared details and images of the new SUV.

After a few successful years building a trio of Toyota models (Corona, Publica, and Crown), Shinjin was forced to look elsewhere for a business partner. Toyota wanted to sell cars in China, and China forbade any company that sold products on its shores from having operations in South Korea. As expected, the government stepped in and assisted in a new deal between Toyota, Shinjin, and General Motors. 

The deal was finalized in 1972 and saw Toyota sell its stake in Shinjin directly to GM. The 50-50 GM-Shinjin venture saw the latter immediately renamed to General Motors Korea. GMK was immediately the new face of GM product distribution in South Korea. Let’s embark upon a series of particular business arrangements involving Shinjin that didn’t last very long.

Just a year after a massive recall that impacted tens of thousands of Chevrolet Bolt EVs, General Motors is expanding production of the electric hatchback and other models. The Bolt and Bolt EUV saw record-high sales through the third quarter, but the rising tide of GM’s production boost will lift several other models, too.

If recent global events have taught us anything about the auto industry, it’s that unpredictability is the new norm. Gone are the days when one could confidently muse about the fortunes of one brand over another, replaced by erratic parts shortages and inconsistent volume of supply.

Still, some are weathering the storm better than others.

The 2023 Chevrolet Tahoe RST Performance Edition was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show on Wednesday with an array of mechanical enhancements borrowed from the Tahoe PPV – or Police Pursuit Vehicle.

We return to our Abandoned History coverage of Daewoo Motors in the early part of the Sixties. Korea was a newly independent nation still in the process of building its economy after many decades of Japanese occupation. The new Korean government seemingly relied on two tenets in its earliest years: Centralized control and openness to bribes. 

Both those factors were at play when the government handed the production of all passenger cars to a single company, Saenara Motors. Via a huge loan and technical assistance from Nissan, Saenara built Korea’s first car, the Saenara (Datsun) Bluebird via knock-down kits assembled in South Korea. But once the government noticed there was too much capital flowing out of the country, they banned Saenara from buying more kits from Japan. The scraps of bankrupt Saenara were picked up by another company, Shinjin.

With a majority of automakers snubbing the upcoming auto show in Detroit, there’s not likely to be much to talk about in terms of new product beyond the next-generation Ford Mustang. But there are interesting things happening elsewhere on the planet if we’re using interesting as a polite euphemism for strange. 

General Motors’ joint operation in China, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., is releasing a poverty-tier convertible that makes the long-dead Chrysler Sebring look positively decadent by comparison. Based on the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV – a boxy microcar that only measures 114.8 inches in length – the Cabrio will be a limited production convertible requiring Chinese customers to participate in a lottery.