GM CEO Mary Barra says electric Chevy Silverado will be 'unmatched'

December 14, 2021: General Motors CEO Mary Barra said Thursday that the upcoming electric Chevrolet Silverado would be “unmatched” despite several rivals entering the market ahead of it.

“I think when you see the timing that the Silverado will be overlapping, and what that vehicle offers, I think is unmatched,” Barra said during an Automotive Press Association meeting in Detroit on Thursday.

GM is scheduled to unveil the Chevrolet Silverado E at the CES technology conference this coming month in Las Vegas.

Barra said the electric Silverado will “educate people on what you can do with an electric truck when you are in an electric truck platform.” The comment was a dig at Ford that based the Lightning on the current-generation F-150.

General Motors is planning to produce an all-electric Chevrolet Silverado pickup at its new flagship assembly plant for EVs under construction in Detroit. The automaker released this teaser image of the vehicle’s name with an “E” highlighted blue.

The Silverado E is expected to be a direct competitor than the Hummer with the electric F-150 Lightning, which Ford closed customer reservations for after reaching 200,000 units. The first models of the Hummer are priced at $113,000, higher than the electric F-150, starting at about $40,000.

Despite Ford’s order book and its American rival on the speed to outsell GM this year in EVs, Barra said she is believing GM is the leader in EV technologies and self-driving features among significant automakers, also known as OEMs.

“For an OEM of scale, we’re first. Full stop,” she said. “For start-ups that are only focused on one area, luxury segments, etc., those are competitors that we treat very seriously, but when General Motors puts its scale, its highest in the U.S across our brands, we have a lot of assets that we’re going to bring to the party.”

Regarding a semiconductor chip shortage continuing to impact the automotive industry, Barra said that she’s “cautiously optimistic” about the situation that has caused rolling shutdowns of factories this year. She said the company expected the next half of the coming year to be better than the first six months in terms of supply.

“What do you think about things such as omicron? I mean, we got hit pretty hard in September with Delta in Malaysia. So, the new variants are concerning to me, but we’re still cautiously optimistic,” she said.