General Motors is still battling major supply chain issues and manufacturing challenges as it continues its ramp-up of electric vehicles. Officials are now on record that they expect a much more productive second half of 2023 despite the slow start and the pause of production for the BrightDrop EV van.
GM’s big EV products, the Hummer EV, the Cadillac Lyriq, and the BrightDrop Van are all in demand. Supply, however, is far under-served at the moment. Cadillac built less than 3,000 Lyriq SUVs so far this year, GMC built 49 Hummer EVs, and the production facility that makes the BrightDrop van is closed due to a battery shortage.
GM President of North America Rory Harvey says that the brand is coming “up to speed on battery capacity and building momentum and I anticipate a lot more EVs being built in the second half of this year than the first half of this year.” He blamed battery module availability as the big issue in terms of production figures.
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An unnamed source speaking to the Detroit Free Press says that things are a bit more murky on the ground. “We’ve had supply issues — anything in the supply chain — could be the drive units, anything … you get one part and suddenly it’s a different one that’s needed,” the person said.
To her credit, Mary Barra admitted last month that EV manufacturing is a new challenge for the ICE legacy automaker. “We’re ramping and we have some growing pains because it’s not only once you make the battery cells, then you gotta put it in modules and then you gotta make the pack for the cars,” Barra said at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
“It’s all new manufacturing, we’re working with different suppliers and I have people in suppliers trying to get it up and running,” she continued.
In the meantime, Harvey says that GM is working hard to keep customers informed about wait times as it ramps up production. He also noted that production for the Lyriq actually started some nine months ahead of initial estimates so things might be going better than they seem to be on paper.
