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How GM plans to phase-out gas powered vehicles by 2035

Geraldine Barnuevo, GM Senior Manager of Sustainability and Environmental Strategies joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss GM's plans to phase-out gas powered vehicles by 2035.

Video transcript

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AKIKO FUJITA: General Motors is undergoing a seismic shift, aiming to phase out all gas powered vehicles by 2035. But the recent recall of its all electric Chevy Volt, as well as some supply chain constraints raising concerns about whether that timeline could be in jeopardy. Let's bring in Geraldine Barnuevo. She is GM's Senior Manager of Environmental Strategies and Sustainability.

Geraldine, it's great to have you on today. Let's look at the numbers here. 2035, the big goal GM has set out. 30 new EVs by then. Some would argue that GM's kind of hit some stumbles out of the gate here with the most recent recall of the Chevy Bolt. This comes as the company's trying to convince Americans to get on board with all EVs. How do you build that trust with your customers to say this is the way of the future and this is the transition that needs to happen?

GERALDINE BARNUEVO: Thank you, Akiko. And good afternoon. Well, GM is taking both inside and outside our fence lines actions to reduce our own emissions and become more resilient. We started our upfront commitment to fight climate change in 2017 when we announced our vision for our zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion work.

And this year, we are advancing our zero emissions vision with a plan to become carbon neutral in our global products and operations by 2040. That plan is aligned with our science-based targets. And these ambitions to limit global reduction by 1.5 degrees.

As you mentioned, we have these goals of putting three EVs in the road by 2025. And many of those EVs use our new proprietary technology, the ultium platform, that will help us to really transform the future of mobility. It's important to mention that the problem that we have with a Volt EV is a manufacturing problem with the battery. The battery, we're working with our supplier, LG Chem, with whom we have partnered in our joint venture to build the ultium battery.

But ultimately, the important thing to be aware is that our new vehicles are going to be using these ultium batteries, which is different to the one being currently used in our Volt EV products.

AKIKO FUJITA: So the message here from GM being that the problems you're having with the Volt aren't necessarily indicative of the other EVs that are about to roll out?

GERALDINE BARNUEVO: That is correct.

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's talk about some of those partnerships that you just mentioned. The partnership with LG Chem, you've got a few battery plants in the works here. How much of this 2035 goal is contingent on GM being able to control the supply chain? Because as we've learned over the last year, one part, one hiccup could lead to a ripple effect in terms of delays and deadlines across the auto sector.

GERALDINE BARNUEVO: Well, the ultium platform, including the battery cells, the modules, and the packs were mostly designed and developed in-house. And it's the only EV technology that truly developed for full-scale electric mobility. Indeed, our ultium platform, we consider that our secret weapon. In the fight for high performance and also reduce costs, both which will increase the EV adoption.

The other differentiator about the utlium platform is that it's very versatile and flexible. So it will help us to quickly ramp up EV production and achieve economies of scale. As you mentioned and I mentioned before, we will build our batteries at the ultium LLC facilities in the US, which will give us control over that manufacturing. We will bring our manufacturing expertise as GM with all the quality to manufacture those batteries.

And we will mass produce ultium battery cells for the electric vehicles in the US and create thousands of new jobs. So we have announced to our second generation ultimate chemistry battery, which will deliver twice the energy with 60% less cost than today's chemistry.

AKIKO FUJITA: The vehicle itself, of course, is just one piece to a larger infrastructure that needs to build out in order for this low carbon transition to take effect. Can you talk a bit more about the conversations GM's having with the companies that are building out the charging stations with the cities that need to ensure that this is all in place so GM can go to the customers and say, look, you don't have to go searching for a charging station, they are available in some areas that just don't have one right now or they will be available.

GERALDINE BARNUEVO: Yeah. Charging infrastructure plays a major role in the mass market adoption of EVs. And for that reason, we are working very close with companies like EV Co. We will expand. We have an agreement to expand to meet charging in the US by 2,700 fast charges in cities and suburbs by the end of 2025.

And I'm happy to inform that we are way on our way to achieve that goal. We will have around 500 fast charging installed live by the end of 2025. So we also introduced the ultium charge 360, which is a holistic charging approach that integrates charging networks, GM, equal mobile apps, and other products to simplify the overall charging experience.

And we have signed agreements with seven major EV charging providers to leverage the charging data within the GM vehicle mobile app. What that is going to mean is that the customer will have access to 60,000 charging blocks throughout the US and Canada.

AKIKO FUJITA: Geraldine Barnuevo, Senior Manager of Environmental Strategies and Sustainability, it's good to have you on the show today. Appreciate the time.