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General Motors Corporation (GM)

Known for Buick, Cadillac, GMC and Chevrolet

General Motors Corporation (GM) is a publicly listed auto manufacturer headquartered in Detroit, United States. In 2019 it had US$137.3 billion in revenue and sales of 7.6 million vehicles. General Motors’s largest sales regions are North America and China, with its sales in China driven through a 50:50 joint venture with SAIC Motors. The company also has substantial sales in Brazil and Mexico, as well as small sales in Japan and South Korea.

Summary

General Motors (GM) has a performance score of 8.9 out of 20 against a well below 2-degree pathway. This is lower than GM’s 2019 performance score of 9.8, when it was assessed against the less ambitious 2-degree pathway.

Since the previous assessment, GM has increased the credibility of its transition plan by committing to scale up sales of electric vehicles (EVs). GM has set a target to sell one million EVs in North America and China by 2025. This is a tenfold increase on its electric and plug-in hybrid sales in 2019, but still short of its well below 2-degree pathway.

To meet its goal, GM will invest US$20 billion in EV and autonomous vehicles by 2025. Approximately 60 percent of GM’s research and development (R&D) work now focuses on EVs and it is upgrading two assembly plants to focus on EV production. In a joint venture with LG Chem, GM is developing new battery cell technology aiming to reduce cell costs below US$100 per kWh and increase some electric vehicles’ range to over 400 miles. The company has a programme to increase sales of the 2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV through a discount to Uber drivers. It is also engaging with its suppliers through the CDP supply chain programme; its suppliers report reductions of over 67 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Assessment Note: General Motors received a full ACT assessment in 2019.

Performance module name	Performance module score	Rank (0-30)
Targets	0.7 /3	#16
Material Investment	0.0 /0.4	#12
Intangible Investment	2.4 /2.4	#1
Sold product performance	3.1 /7	#19
Management	1.2 /2.2	#6
Supplier	0.6 /1.2	#4
Client	0.6 /0.8	#3
Policy Engagement	0.2 /1.2	#17
Business Model	0.2 /1.8	#19

GM’s performance in other assessment areas has not improved. It continues to lack a vehicle in-use emissions, target, which is crucial as the decrease in GM’s average vehicle in-use emissions – from 186 grams CO2e per kilometre in 2014 to 161 grams CO2e per kilometre in 2019 – was not rapid enough to align with its well below 2-degree pathway. This is related to GM’s limited low-carbon vehicle sales, which accounted for 1.36 percent of total sales in 2019, compared to the 5.9 percent required by its pathway.

The company also continues to oppose regulation to limit greenhouse gas emissions. GM supported the Trump administration’s decision to reduce the ambition of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standard in the US and has opposed California’s decision to maintain the more stringent standard introduced under the Obama administration. It seems GM is not yet fully committed to a low-carbon future.

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2019
2021

More about the company

Headquarters: USA
Ownership structure: Publicly listed
Revenue (2019): US$137.3 billion
Number of vehicles sold (2019): 7,652,582
Website: https://www.gm.com/