After watching today’s web presentation of the General Motors Electric Vehicle Day, here’s what’s significant to me.

• The company wants to put everyone in an EV
• The company is unambiguous. “Climate change is real”
• GM sees a path using their technology and partnership with LG Chem of reducing the battery cost to less than $100 per kilowatt hour – a milestone cost that makes an EV cheaper than an internal combustion engine car.
• Today’s battery cost is already down to $145 per kWH. I thought it was much higher for every automaker other than Tesla
• There will only be 19 possible EV platform combinations to cover everything from trucks to SUVs to sedans to self-driving vehicles. GM has about 550 combinations today
• 60% of the work at GM’s Tech Engineering Center is on EVs today vs only 20% in the past. This shows a significant commitment to EVs for a company that continues to develop and profit from ICE vehicles
• GM seems to be reversing decades of outsourcing key technology. For EV development the company is now vertically integrating key components like battery cell production with their battery partner, LG Chem. We’ll have to wait to determine if the scope of this vertical integration is on the level of what’s occurring at Tesla.
• A good way to measure EV performance is “dollars per mile.” What does it cost to travel an EV mile.”