GM Wants to Teach You About EVs Because Dealers Can’t
GM will offer buyers live advice on electric-vehicle ownership on its newest web offering.
General Motors is pushing hard into electric vehicles this year, along with practically every other automaker on the planet. GM's efforts are broad, from the $27,000 Chevy Bolt (the cheapest new EV for sale) all the way up to the ultra-luxe $300,000 vision of a modern gilded age in the Cadillac Celestiq. Now, it's trying to help buyers across the market get comfortable with the idea of owning an EV, by launching a new online portal for customers—and dealers—to ask real-life EV specialists about owning an electric vehicle.
The site, EV Live, offers information about EVs to assuage consumer fears about electric cars, with entire sections dedicated to range and charging availability. The biggest offering for consumers, however, is free one-on-one time with actual EV specialists who can answer questions about EVs. The move is mirrored by a similar site launched in 2019, Cadillac Live, that offers Cadillac buyers a similar experience with brand representatives. The EV-focused offering is broader, however, because representatives will have information about all of GM's electric offerings, rather than just a single brand.
Last year, research firm Ipsos pointed to dealers' lack of EV knowledge and details including range, service, and ownership as a potential hurdle to interested EV shoppers. The EV Live line could help to remedy that for customers and, according to GM spokesperson Natalee Runyan, provide training to dealers about GM's products.
The site comes at a crucial time for GM, which has recently invested over $750 million in charging infrastructure in the form of 2,000 brand-new charging stations across the country. This is a component of an over $27 billion dollar investment to attempt to take the electric-vehicle sales crown from Tesla by 2025. GM intends to have 30 all-electric cars for sale by 2025, and it is aiming to spend half of its capital investment on EVs and autonomous car by that time. GM doubled its EV sales from 2020 to 2021 and sold over 500,000 electric cars, but that still represented just approximately 12% of the company's overall sales for the year. Consumer adoption of the company's newest Ultium-underpinned offerings will be crucial in the near future for GM's strategy, which CEO Mary Barra has said relies partly on higher sales of EVs to coastal Americans.
For buyers who do want to talk to EV specialists, GM states appointments will be available seven days a week, with voice and text options.
