[Stiri Auto] GM’s Barra Is ‘Disappointed’ With 2023 EV Production

[REFLX]

General Motors still is no Tesla. Not this year, at least.

CEO Mary Barra Wednesday said she is “disappointed” in GM’s failure to ramp up production of EVs and by the high-profile accidents and incidents in subsidiary Cruise’s San Francisco operations.

Barra announced two independent reviews of Cruise: one focused on its safety and technology, the other specifically investigating an October accident in which a hit-and-run driver of another car pushed a pedestrian under a Cruise robotaxi, which apparently reacted by running back and forth over her. San Francisco law firm Quinn Emanuel is conducting a review of the Cruise crash, while another firm, Exponent, is performing the independent safety and technology review of Cruise.

These failures have driven GM stock to a low of about $28 per share, 15% lower than its 2010 IPO price, down 15% since the beginning of 2023, and well below Wall Street analysts’ “target” value of $42 per share.

“We didn’t execute well this year as it relates to demonstrating our EV capability and the capability of Ultium as it relates to the module manufacturing automation equipment that we had,” Barra said Wednesday, in a call with analysts.

The automaker also announced it would accelerate $10 billion in share repurchase (Wall Street-speak for buying back a chunk of outstanding shares to increase each share’s value) and a 33% increase in dividends to shareholders in 2024.

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