I recently listened to Nilay Patel’s Decoder podcast with General Motors CEO Mary Barra (transcript here). What caught my attention wasn’t the optimism about EVs. It was the nuance.
Barra acknowledged what has become increasingly obvious. The industry’s EV growth projections turned out to be overly ambitious. Consumer adoption is uneven. Infrastructure build-out is slower. Cost and pricing remain barriers. And the politics have changed.
Yet GM hasn’t abandoned its EV ambitions. It has refined them. Barra pointed out that GM, through its Ultium Cells, LLC joint venture, is now the largest OEM battery-cell producer in North America, a reminder that the company has deep EV capability even as it rebalances its product mix.
That balance between commitment and caution might just be what works for legacy automakers navigating this phase of industry electrification.
GM as a proxy for a larger trend
GM isn’t the story. It’s the proxy.
It did what analysts said legacy automakers had to do: go all-in on EVs. The company committed over $35 billion toward electric and autonomous-vehicle programs. Now, amid slower-than-expected EV growth, GM is recalibrating.
Some EV programs have been delayed or canceled.
A few dedicated EV factories are being repositioned to include ICE vehicles as well.
The company is even investing in new internal-combustion models.
Contrast that with other legacy auto companies.
Toyota Motor Corporation never went all-in on EVs, betting instead on hybrids and hydrogen - a cautious strategy that looks wise today, but doesn’t teach much about course correction.
The Volkswagen Group , on the other hand, leaned hard into EVs, suffered setbacks and margin pressure, and now finds itself struggling to articulate a middle-ground strategy.
GM, arguably, has found that middle gear, one that balances ambition with pragmatism. These decisions signal realism, not retreat. Unfortunately, many industry watchers want automakers to be either all-in on EVs or firmly planted in the hybrid or ICE camp.
Why the market is rewarding GM
The market seems to like this new GM. Despite EV write-downs and tariff pressures, the company remains highly profitable, reporting $3.4 billion in adjusted operating income last quarter. Last week, GM’s stock closed at its highest price since the post-bankruptcy IPO in 2010.
Investors seem to be rewarding:
Product discipline over EV hype.
Margin protection over market-share land grabs.
Strategic realism over pure optimism.
To me, GM’s “pause” looks more like a plan.
The bigger picture: an inflection point for the industry
The first wave of EV enthusiasm assumed the transition would follow a simple curve with technology leading to scale; scale leading to cost parity; and cost parity leading to mass adoption.
But the real curve looks more like a staircase. Automakers that can pause and understand each step without losing financial footing are the ones most likely to thrive during the climb.
Takeaway for TaaSMaster readers
The story isn’t just about EVs. It’s about transition management. The EV future is still coming. It’s just not coming at the velocity many expected. GM’s recalibration doesn’t feel like a retreat. It appears to be a recognition that the revolution in mobility is not happening on schedule.