GM’s the first out with its Q2 financials and overall the picture is good, even though it’s going to have to eat more than $500 million in costs associated with Cruise. It’s ok! The death of the Cruise Origin robotaxi is good news for GM’s potential best product: The Chevy Bolt.
While we’re talking about GM we should probably talk about the company’s financials, which were strong enough in the first two quarters to allow the company to raise its guidance. The reason? Trucks.
So what’s GM going to do for the future? How is it going to keep this going? Let’s take a deeper look into some of its upcoming product, specifically the ICE vehicles that are going away and the ones that are sticking around a little longer.
And, finally, Stellantis recall!
Cruise Origin Survives Tornado, Killed By ‘Regulatory Uncertainty’
There was a lot of internal debate over a story about a tornado almost wiping out a bunch of Cruise Origin driverless taxis in March. GM’s driverless car company, Cruise, co-developed a room-like robotaxi with Honda and started producing them at GM’s Factory Zero in Michigan with the hopes to start testing them sooner rather than later.
And then the terrible pedestrian dragging accident happened in California. GM needed somewhere to store the Origin vehicles and so it started trucking them to the former Grand Blanc tooling facility, which is still owned by GM. From a story perspective, it would have been much easier if the tornado had wiped the taxis out as it’s a simpler story to tell than ‘a tornado came within about half a mile of the parking lot.’
In retrospect, it might have been better for GM as well because rather than taking an insurance payout (if one existed) the company instead is having to write off about $583 million related to Cruise expenses as it halts Origin production.
From CEO Mary Barra’s letter to shareholders:
I also want to recognize the progress Cruise has made over the last several months. Our vision to transform mobility using autonomous technology is unchanged, and every mile traveled, and every simulation, brings us closer because Cruise is an AI-first company.
As you know, Cruise has returned to the road in Houston, Phoenix and Dallas and we recently made several significant leadership appointments, including hiring Marc Whitten as CEO. Marc has decades of experience on the frontlines of technology transformations.
The Cruise team will also simplify their path to scale by focusing their next autonomous vehicle on the next-generation Chevrolet Bolt, instead of the Origin. This addresses the regulatory uncertainty we faced with the Origin because of its unique design. In addition, per-unit costs will be much lower, which will help Cruise optimize its resources.
RIP Origin. I feel like it’s up to The Bishop to figure out what to do with all of those vehicles the company has already built.
This is great news for the Bolt and for Bolt fans. Boltists? Boltites? Bolters? [Ed Note: Impact wrenches? Those technically “drive bolts”… -DT] Back in 2023, GM said it was killing the Bolt as it was transitioning to a new Ultium platform. The company quickly backtracked after realizing how popular the Bolt was and said it would build a new Bolt based on an Ultium architecture.
Using the new Bolt as a basis for the Cruise robotaxi makes a lot of sense. It cuts development costs significantly and gives the Bolt a lot more reason to continue existing.
When will we see the Bolt? That’s a good question. It’s supposed to begin production sometime next year so I suspect it’ll happen later this year. Los Angeles Auto Show? Don’t expect sales until early 2026 at the earliest, however.
GM Now Thinks It’ll Make $13-15 Billion Because Trucks And SUVs
The headline here is that GM upped its guidance based on making about $2.9 billion in net income (EBIT-adjusted $4.4 billion) in Q2. This is the second quarter in a row that GM has increased its estimates, with the EBIT-adjusted income being pushed to $13-$15 billion, up from last quarter’s forecast of $12.5-$14.5 billion.
It should be noted that the income attributed to shareholders has been slightly revised down to a range of $10-$11.4 billion, down from $10.1 billion to $11.5 billion, but what’s $100 million between friends?
GM also gave out more dividends, which I’ve been critical of in the past. My concern has been that GM is boosting its stock price in the short term to placate investors when it should be making big moonshot swings like Ford. Maybe I’m wrong? It’ll be years before we find out, but GM was correct when it bet that it would make enough money from trucks and SUVs to cover for Ultium and Cruise disruptions.
Or, As Barra put it:
Great vehicles and better execution will continue to differentiate us. In SUVs, we’re in the process of launching eight all-new or redesigned compact, mid-size and full-size ICE models in North America, including high volume vehicles like the Chevrolet Equinox and our family of mid-size SUVs, which all have higher margins than the outgoing models.
People do love trucks.
GM Will Keep Building The Express/Savana Until At Least 2028
We have a lot of thoughts about the humble Chevy Express van, which has reliably trudged on year after year as a dependable van for hauling stuff. Good news for fans, according to this future product breakdown from Automotive News the Express and its GMC twin will live a lot longer:
No updates to the gasoline-powered Chevy Express and GMC Savana full-size commercial vans are expected before 2028. Future electric vans could be handled by GM’s BrightDrop electric commercial delivery van brand.
If the world is a more EV-friendly place in 2028 I could see GM finally dropping the Savana/Express for one of the quite excellent Brightdrop vans, but I sorta hope they just keep building it forever.
Ok, that’s what’s happening to the vans, but what about the cars normal people care about? The Camaro is dead, but they’ll eventually build something called Camaro. The Blazer is likely to die next year, though perhaps a hybrid upgrade could save it? The Blazer EV should continue to live.
Malibu? Yeah. Malibu is dead, though maybe the name could come back as an EV sedan? Everything else from GM is likely to get some sort of refresh in the next years as per usual.
Stellantis Recalling Pacifica PHEVs Over Fire Risks
I’m a big fan of the Pacifica Hybrid, and I highly recommend it for people looking to lease a minivan. Buying one, though, is a little sketchier. Stellantis build quality has always felt questionable to me and the Pacifica PHEV has a lot of tech crammed into one van.
Six recalls later and it’s feeling like that feeling was justified. If you look up the Pacifica PHEV on the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration you get the big scary “URGENT: FIRE RISK WHEN PARKED” banner, which not every car gets!
What’s going on? The Pacifica PHEV was already recalled for a fire risk and, it turns out, that fix didn’t fix it.
From NHTSA:
- On February 6, 2022, FCA US LLC (“FCA US”) determined, through the Vehicle Regulations Committee, to conduct a voluntary safety recall Z11 on certain Chrysler Pacifica PHEVs.
- On November 23, 2022, the FCA US Technical Safety and Regulatory Compliance (“TSRC”) organization was notified of a HV battery fire in a Chrysler Pacifica PHEV which received the remedy for Z11. FCA US TSRC is awaiting a second examination of the vehicle and HV battery pack.
- From June 2023, through December 2023, FCA US TSRC was made aware of five additional fires originating from the HV battery in some Chrysler Pacifica PHEVs which received the Z11 remedy. FCA US TSRC attempted to repurchase these vehicles for further analysis to determine if the recall remedy was effective.
- In April 2024, FCA US TSRC received a Chrysler Pacifica PHEV which experienced a post Z11 remedy fire in the HV battery pack and conducted analysis on the vehicle and battery pack. The battery pack was returned to thesupplier for further analysis and confirmed the presence of a torn anode tab in one of the cells in the battery pack. A second factor has not been identified. This discovery confirmed the Z11 remedy is not effective.
Fast forward to this month and Stellantis is recalling a bunch of these vans to update the software in the battery pack control module and to look for any signs of damage.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Dark horse song of summer? It’s Hozier, the “Take me to Church” guy back with a song called “Too Sweet” that is catchy as hell It’s got my kid singing “I think I’ll take my whiskey neat, my coffee black in my bed at three” in the back of our car. Honestly, these lyrics work exceptionally well as a country song. When are we going to get a country cover?
The Big Question
Is the new Bolt going to work? What would it need to be in order to work as a consumer product? What price? What range?
make the new bolt just like the old bolt but triple the charge speed and that shitll be a great little car. and keep it under 30k.
I’d be happy if the Bolt is very similar to the last Bolt, most notably price. If you qualify for the tax credit, it was a great deal.