Yahoo Autos Hybrid C8 Comes in 2023; Track Z06 and First Buick Electra Arrive in 2024
All four of General Motors’ brands are slated to see a slew of new products, both with internal-combustion and all-electric propulsion systems.
Chairwoman and CEO Mary Barra said that by 2025, GM’s EVs will deliver the same profit margins as its internal combustion-powered models.
GM says it has secured binding commitments for all the battery raw material it needs to deliver its 2025 capacity target.
General Motors President Mark Reuss confirmed an electrified Chevrolet Corvette for next year and a high-performance top-of-the-line C8, apparently the long-awaited track-only Z06, “that will put the world on notice.”
We say “apparently” because Reuss today unveiled a slew of new and updated calendar 2023 and ’24 electric and internal-combustion models at GM’s Investors Day. Wall Street investors and analysts saw photos or illustrations of the new models on an auditorium screen in Manhattan (no photos, please), while journalists watched a webcast in which all such pictures were blanked out.
Reuss also previewed something called the Chevy “Car-D,” further out in years and apparently only for China. He described it as a “low-roof” vehicle with “sedan-like proportions.” Perhaps sedans are on their way back in style, at least in China.
Aside from the hybrid Corvette coming in calendar 2023 and probably the track Z06 in ’24, the most interesting new sheetmetal will be full EVs. Chairwoman and CEO Mary Barra said GM is on its way to producing 1 million EVs in North America by 2025, and these vehicles will by that year deliver the same profit margins to the automaker as its internal combustion-powered models.
Reuss said GM will offer EVs in one-third of vehicle segments by 2025. Here are the new EVs planned for calendar 2023 and ’24:
Buick Electra E5
New flagship launches in China in 2023 and in the US in 2024, which indicates Chinese-only assembly. “No, it’s not a ‘deuce-and-a-quarter,’” Reuss quipped, referring to the 225-inch-long Buick flagship that launched for the 1959 model year.
Buick Electra E4
Presumably a smaller (midsize?) model for China only, also in 2023.
Cadillac Full-Size SUV
Launching in 2024, it’s probably the electric Escalade, in the same way the Chevy Silverado will have an EV twin, with familiar sheetmetal but on the Ultium skateboard platform.
Cadillac Compact Crossover
Breaking into a new EV segment and price-point, Reuss said, with “new technology” and a “new design language,” in 2023. Unclear whether it’s for the Chinese-market only.
GMC Hummer SUV
Shown to the Wall Street audience in a green launch paint color, it arrives in 2023 and “drives different” from the Hummer SUT, Reuss said, because of a different wheelbase size. GM has had to cap Hummer production at 90,000 over two years, Barra said, to fulfill the wait list.
Buick Envista
Another China-only model coming in 2023, it’s a small-ish crossover sized between the Encore GX and the Envision.
Buick GL8 EV
“Executive” minivan that has been a mainstay of the brand in China since the late 1990s goes battery-electric and remains China-only.
Chevrolet Silverado, Blazer, Equinox EVs
They all arrive in 2023, with the Blazer priced “about $45,000.” The GMC Sierra EV comes in 2024.
Investors and analysts were treated to new EV model drives around Manhattan, and a Cadillac Celestiq and Chevy Blazer EV were on display inside the conference auditorium. The Celestiq brings back the brand’s “goddess” emblem for the first time since 1959, Reuss said, though not as a hood ornament.
Reuss said that actor/rock star Lenny Kravitz has designed his Cadillac Celestiq (coming in ’23) with a guitar string in the center of the dash. Another available bespoke option is flowers from the customer’s garden laminated into interior door panels.
Meanwhile, there’s a healthy slate of all-new and updated conventional, internal-combustion-powered models coming in the next two years.
For calendar 2023:
Chevrolet Montana
An all-new version of the compact front-wheel-drive pickup truck assembled in Brazil and sold in South America, Mexico, and some African nations since 2003 comes in 2023. Reuss said nothing about US importation, though it would be a direct competitor for the Ford Maverick—if it comes with a crew cab and if production moves to Mexico to avoid the 25% “Chicken Tax.”
Chevrolet Trax
A new version of the subcompact crossover launches next year. Reuss called it the “finest entry-level Chevrolet” he’s driven, with a design that makes it neither car nor SUV, and profitable even with a base price of about $19,000.
Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon
As previously announced, new versions of the midsize pickups arrive in 2023, with more differentiation than between any Chevy truck and GMC model to date.
Buick LaCrosse
China-only model will be the first production car styled with the Wildcat concept theme.
Cadillac Small Crossover
China only.
Cadillac CT6
GM is restyling for 2023 its last gasoline-powered flagship sedan, now built and sold in China only.
These ICE models are scheduled for calendar 2024:
Chevrolet Equinox
The gas-powered version of GM’s popular midsize crossover gets a redesign that will probably be closer in styling to the all-new Ultium-platform EV version.
GMC Acadia
Redesigned to be a “little bit bigger” than the outgoing Acadia, which indicates it will revert to the same large-midsize wheelbase as the three-row Buick Enclave.
Buick Enclave
Also gets a redesign for 2024, but it’s a short-timer as Buick goes EV-only in a few years. Historically, Buick-GMC dealers have been able to sell Enclave and Acadia to much-different customers (the original Acadia was designed to be a 2010 Pontiac), though for 2017 the GMC went to a smaller midsize platform to further differentiate the two.
Chevrolet Traverse
Redesign of the three-row midsize SUV that shares its platform with the Buick Enclave and the new upsized GMC Acadia.
GMC Terrain
Sharing its platform with the ICE Chevy Equinox, the Terrain will look more “trucky” with a “professional grade” redesign inside and out.
Other highlights from Investors Day:
Five GM assembly plants in the US, Canada, and Mexico will build EVs.
BrightDrop, GM’s tech startup creating EVs, eCarts and software, is on track to reach $1 billion in revenue in 2023, as GM’s CAMI plant in Ontario launches full production of the BrightDrop Zevo 600 delivery van next year, and scaling to a projected 50,000 units annually by 2025.
GM’s battery-cell joint venture Ultium Cells will be operating plants in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan by the end of 2024; a fourth US cell plant is planned.
GM says it has secured binding commitments for all the battery raw material it needs to deliver its 2025 capacity target.
Do you think GM is on pace to challenge Tesla for EV market supremacy? Please comment below.