Don't Look Now, but GM's EV Sales Are on Fire

GM's president of global markets says their EV portfolio 'is growing faster than the market,' according to Investopedia, 'because we have an all-electric vehicle for just about everybody, no matter what they like to drive.'

The headline at Barrons? 'Don't Look Now, but GM's EV Sales Are on Fire.'

GM delivered almost 32,000 all-electric vehicles in the third quarter — a record — and up about 58% from a year earlier. The more affordable Chevy Equinox, which starts at about $35,000 before any federal tax credit, helped boost sales. GM delivered almost 10,000 of the new EVs, up from 1,013 in the second quarter, when they first went on sale.

EV penetration of total GM car sales was about almost 5%, up almost two percentage points year over year. EVs accounted for 19.4% of Cadillac sales, up about 11 percentage points year over year. Year to date, GM has delivered just over 70,000 all-electric cars.

GM originally planned to manufacture 200,000 EVs in 2024. That still looks aggressive, but the strong third-quarter showing makes 120,000 possible, which would be up almost 60% year over year — a respectable outcome. More important to investors than EV sales right now might be dealer inventories. GM said there were about 627,000 vehicles on dealer lots at the end of September. That's a little better than what Wolfe Research analyst Emmanuel Rosner expected. It indicates GM dealers have roughly 60 days worth of sales on their lots. That's a safe level. Lower dealer inventories reduce presure to reduce prices. They also reduce the need to cut production because dealer lots are full... GM expects to generate a full-year operating profit of about $14 billion.

Meanwhile, Stellantis 'slashed its financial guidance recently, partly because it needs to dramatically reduce its U.S. inventories,' according to the article. For example, its Jeep dealers ended August with roughly 122 days worth of sales on their lots, while its Dodge dealers 'had almost 150 days of inventory.'

And Investopedia argues that while GM's EV sales growth is 'soaring,' Ford's is showing 'only modest gains.'

[W]hile Ford's overall U.S. sales were 0.7% higher at 504,039, it had just a 12% gain in EVs to 23,509.3 In the second quarter, Ford's EV sales had soared 61% to 23,957. Sales growth was more than three times higher for Ford's hybrid models, with President of Ford Blue and Ford Customer Service Division Andrew Frick arguing that the company has 'listened to customers to offer them vehicles with powertrains to meet their specific needs.'
Ford is hoping to boost EV sales by offering buyers a free home charger and installation.

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