Earth Day Focus on GM’s Electric Vehicle Product Story
Photo by Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz), CC BY-SA 4.0
The race is on to reach net-zero carbon emissions benchmarks by 2030 or 2050. In recognition of Earth Day, BPMA is clicking the pause button on tech products to spend a moment recognizing the role product managers in General Motors’ electric vehicle division have played in positioning the automobile maker to become a respectable player in this vital market.
To outside observers, it might appear that GM has approached EV innovation in fits and starts. However, studying the leadership path to CEO shows that it has originated out of the electric vehicle division for several decades.
Prior to her appointment as CEO, Maria Barra was once executive vice president of global product development, the division responsible for the electric vehicles. Mark Reuss then held that role and continued to oversee product development after he was named company president. Last November, Doug Parks became GM’s new EVP for global product development. He will bring his experience as chief engineer for GM’s electric vehicles, including the Chevy Volt, to the role.
GM is one of the automakers that has created and sold EVs for over three decades, but with limited success. Its dogged pursuit to build commercially viable automobiles that run on batteries or on fuel cells has demonstrated the many challenges of parting with fossil-fuel-powered combustible engines. While these efforts have been met with hopeful cheers from environmentalists and environmentally conscious customers, they have also encountered derision from fossil-fuel proponents and climate-change deniers.
Yet, GM has made consistent progress in innovation and economies of scale. The recent adoption of virtual reality enabled the carmaker to develop the 2022 GMC Hummer EV (yes, really, a hybrid Hummer) during the pandemic while its engineers and designers have been working remotely. Dropping traditional design processes like scale models and clay busts shrunk the prototype period to 18 months, which allows testing and validation to happen sooner. In all, the improvements are expected to cut time to market from 5-7 years to less than three.
The timing of these product development improvements reflects the urgency of the moment—as the pressure mounts to meet the net-zero benchmarks—and makes GM’s ambitious goal to sell at least 20 all-electric models by 2023 seem plausible.
The technical and market forces that made developing and manufacturing earlier electric vehicles—from the EV1 to the Chevy Volt—expensive may finally be dissipating, enabling GM to achieve an all-electric future. The governments of many of its key global markets are planning to institute bans on sales of gas and diesel vehicles, which will drive up consumer demand for EVs.
Under Barra, Reuss, and Parks, GM is adapting to this anticipated shift in customers’ need for climate-friendly vehicles and thinking about a range of offerings that will be attractive to customers beyond its traditional Chevy Bolt clientele.
Kim Caisse has worked in content strategy and implementation, and recently transitioned to a workforce development role. As a volunteer with the BPMA blog team, Kim is collaborating to create informative, engaging content for the Product Management community.