Hey everyone, Emme Hall here at Road Show at the Detroit Auto Show.
And I'm here with chairman Mary Barra of GM.
Mary, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us, appreciate it.
Now 2015 you guys showed us the Volt concept, 2016 you showed us the production, 2017 they're out on the streets.
And now big news North American Car of the Year.
How excited are you?
Are you going to Disneyland?
[LAUGH] I wish I could cuz I am so excited, but who should go to Disney World is the team because they have just done a phenomenal job.
They took the challenge just a few short years ago to do the car We're in an accelerated timeline, but get over 200 mile range.
They, you know, blew by that number with 238.
So I'm so proud of the team.
And, you know it's a great vehicle.
It's an electric vehicle, but it is a great vehicle.
A technology platform.
So how do you then respond to Ford with their announcement of them bringing 13 ev's to market by 2020.
Including the SUV which should get over 300 miles of range.
Niche.>> Well, I think what's important is the Volt CV follows the second generation of the Volt.
So we have the first Chevrolet Volt.
We've already relaunched the second generation.
There's a lot of learning there and all those learning went into the Volt.
The Volt is our platform that we gonna continue on and have a huge range of vehicles.
So we haven't announced them.yet.
You're gonna see more coming and I think, once you have the vehicles out in the market place, you're driving down costs.
You're approving energy density in the battery.
Which is key to delivering what customers want.
So, I think, in effect that we're doing it right now is pretty significant.
So, Ford has also announced a hybrid Mustang.
Are we gonna see a hybrid Camaro?
I don't have any future product news right now.
But I think-
Darn.
[LAUGH]
What we really focus on is what does that customer want?
And we understand the Camaro customer exceptionally well, and we're really excited about the product.
We're getting good feedback for the product we just rolled out.
So I think we'll be guided by what we know that customer wants.
Well, I have to say, I drove the 1LE out on the track and it was
So much fun.
So much fun.
So thank you for building that.
Absolutely.
Now I know GM had some hybrid trucks on sale in California in 2016.
How well did those sell, and do you anticipate bringing those back to California or indeed to the whole United States Again, we're gonna look at what makes sense.
I mean, right now, with gas prices low and the fact that we keep improving the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, diesels, etc.
So we're looking at a wide array of technologies that we can use to deliver the best performance for the vehicle and the right fuel efficiency.
And we're gonna continue to leverage that, we clearly have the technology in our portfolio.
So, gas prices are down.
That means people are really loving their SUV, and their crossovers.
At the Detroit Auto Show, you guys have shown us the 2018 GMC Terrain, and the Chevy Traverse.
I mean, how important are crossovers and SUVs to the GM lineup?
They're incredibly important, and we're really excited to share, because we think gas prices are going to stay lower for longer.
We think, barring something unforeseen, we're gonna have another really strong market in the United States.
So we're really excited that we have all these great SUVs coming into the marketplace from GMC, from Chevrolet, and last year launched a very important Cadillac XT5.
So we feel we have the products that are gonna be fresh into the marketplace exactly when the customers want them.
Now staying with Cadillac, you guys have also introduced a subscription service in New York.
$1,500 a month, I can get any Caddy I want delivered to my house.
That's pretty amazing.
How do you guys see car sharing and this kind of subscription services effecting GMs bottom line?
Well, you know, we're looking at this subscription service as a way to really let the customer redefine luxury and,
You know, when you're a luxury customer you might want to drive a V series over the weekend but you need the functionality of an Escalade during the week.
We want to give you that flexibility.
So I'm really excited.
This was a program that I pushed very hard for the team.
Because I think redefining luxury, being driven and truly putting the customer in the center so they have what they want when they want it I speak somehow luxury is going to move.
And I think sharing is something else.
We'll continue to learn what do customers wanted depending on their use case.
It might make a lot of sense.
Now Mary, you've got your choice of any vehicle in the GM plate, so what are you daily driving right now?
You know, right now I'm driving a Cadillac XT5.
That's a good choice.
Yeah, but I would also say one of the benefits I get is, I can make trades pretty easily, so I try to get into all of our vehicles and spend a little time in them.
I've driven the Bolt EV, Escalade, I can't wait to drive the Traverse.
Yeah.
Because it is such a
I mean I thought it was beautiful as it came out on stage today and the functionality of that vehicle cause I'm still occasionally hauling a bunch of teenagers.
[LAUGH] I'm really sorry that's, always hauling teenagers around can be a bit of a chore but thank you so much for joining us today.
I appreciate your taking the time to talk to us.
Again, this is Emme Hall with Road Show and we are at the Detroit Auto Show, back to you.
