Gmc Version Of El Camino (caballero) on 2040-cars

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GM delaying additional Silverado EV and Sierra EV production to Q4 2025

This looks like more "Gotcha!" news about storms in the EV sector, but the word "additional" is key here. The Detroit News reported today that GM is pushing delaying production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV pickups at the Orion Assembly Plant to late 2025, about a year behind expectations. The Silverado EV Work Truck is already in production at GM's Factory Zero in Detroit, which won't change. Retail versions of the Silverado EV are still planned for production at Factory Zero before the end of this year, and the Sierra EV is expected to enter production at Factory Zero early next year. This new plan simply means GM won't add more production of those electric trucks at Orion.  GM builds the Chevrolet Bolt at Orion right now, assembly of that groundbreaking car to end this year. GM's original idea was to spend $4 billion to convert Orion to EV pickup production in time to get its two giant profit makers rolling down lines in early 2025. The move to late 2025 could mean the plant is out of commission for about two years. The facility's 1,261 employees are being offered spots in other plants, including Factory Zero.  The automaker gave several reasons for the move, a spokesperson telling The Detroit News the company wants "to better manage capital investment while aligning with evolving EV demand," and telling the Detroit Free Press, "We're looking at EV demand and the trendline for EVs is stabilizing. ... It is not rising as fast as originally forecasted." On top of that, engineers "have identified engineering improvements that we will implement to increase the profitability of our products." The spokesperson also made it clear that the delay has nothing to do with the UAW strike, now in its 32nd day.  Factory Zero's working up to a near-term production capacity of about 600,000 units annually, GM saying it wanted to get capacity to 1 million EVs annually by the end of 2025. At the moment, the site builds the Silverado EV Work Truck, the GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV, and the Cruise Origin shuttles — not the Bolt taxis, the autonomous pods. The Detroit News reported GM sold 18 Silverado EV Work Trucks in Q3 this year, GM Authority says GMC Hummer EV production has ramped up to about 3,000 units per month, and Cruise Origin is still waiting on approval from the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration to mass-produce the autonomous shuttles because the shuttles need an exemption for not having steering wheels.

2016 Chevy Volt wins Green Car of the Year

The award ceremony for the 2016 Green Car Of The Year announcement at the LA Auto Show today started with a joke video by juror Jay Leno. Showing of a restored and refurbished 100-year-old Detroit Electric EV, Leno said that while there were a lot of different powertrains in the running this year, he didn't expect any German diesels to win. Yuk yuk. There was no doubt that Leno was right; there were no diesels in the finalist's circle. The winner this year was the new, second-generation Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid with a 53-mile electric range and 106 MPGe. The first-gen car won the title five years ago, making the Volt the first model to be crowned Green Car Of The Yera more than once. The other finalists this year were the Audi A3 E-Tron, the new Toyota Prius, the Hyundai Sonata, and the Honda Civic. One of Green Car Journal's most important factors in deciding the winner is widespread availability, said Green Car Journal editor Ron Cogan as he announced the award. Qualifying vehicles also have to be on sale by January 1st of the award year (in this case, 2016). For the record, AutoblogGreen readers also picked the Volt to win in our poll a few months ago with 42 percent of the vote. Second place was the Prius, with 21 percent. Earlier this year, Green Car Journal had to strip the awards from two diesel vehicles, the 2009 VW Jetta TDI, which won in 2008, and the 2010 Audi A3 TDI, the 2010 winner. We enjoyed our seat time in the new Volt, and you can read our review here. Related Video:

GM claims it's first to sell million 30+ mpg vehicles

As we continue to put together all the data for the year-end edition of By The Numbers, General Motors has announced that it sold more than a million vehicles in the US last year that achieved at least 30 miles per gallon on the highway. More impressively, GM managed this feat using multiple strategies including small vehicle size, turbocharged engines and hybrid or plug-in technologies across four brands (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC) accounting for 13 separate models. This number will grow even more in 2013 thanks to cars like the all-electric Spark, the diesel Cruze, the range-extended Cadillac ELR and the Buick Encore compact CUV.
GM's small car sales were up 39 percent last year helping to attain this million-sales mark for 30-mpg models, and almost 40 percent of all GM sales consisted of cars with fuel-efficient I4 engines. In regards to more advanced means of improving fuel economy, GM says that it plans on having 500,000 vehicles with "some form of electrification" on the road by 2017.
Scroll down for the full list of GM's million 30+ mpg cars as well as an informative press release.