NLPC has an extensive archive of news articles about the futility and failure of the strategy by General Motors‘ Chair/CEO Mary Barra (pictured above) to convert the company’s entire light-duty product line to electric vehicles by the year 2035. Some of those stories date back early into the Biden administration, when subsidies and tax breaks in the Inflation Reduction Act were supposed to stimulate EV demand, but didn’t. And NLPC last year presented a shareholder proposal at GM’s annual meeting that asked the company to revisit its executive compensation packages and to remove pay incentives that are linked to the company’s electric vehicle production output.
Barra remains undeterred. Staring in the face of the One Big Beautiful Bill’s elimination of most of the IRA’s incentives for EV production and its tax breaks to boost sales, GM’s decade-long leader is sticking to her vision, according to the Detroit News:
General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra said Thursday that electric vehicles are still the Detroit automaker’s “North Star,” even as the company pulls back production to match limited demand.
“From an EV perspective, that is still our North Star,” Barra said at the industry conference Automotive News Congress in downtown Detroit.
Barra’s renewed commitment to electrification comes amid a surge of EV sales as buyers and lessees rush to take advantage of $7,500 federal tax credits, authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, before they expire at the end of the month. After that, analysts predict an immediate drop in sales followed by slower-than-expected growth.
Widespread EV adoption lags in the United States, where battery-powered models make up roughly 8% of market share. On top of tepid driver interest, the U.S. EV industry has been shaken by sweeping changes to greenhouse gas emissions policy under President Donald Trump, who has moved to scrap federal rules limiting tailpipe emissions.
All signs show that to the degree customers purchase EVs, it is mainly because government subsidies mask the true cost of buying and owning them. That has been the case all along, with even the Biden administration’s and IRA’s support failing to overcome drivers’ concerns like range anxiety, recharging times, resale value, and costs.
“Up until a year ago, we were on a journey to be in a regulatory environment where we had to drive EV adoption much faster,” Barra said. “With the (Inflation Reduction Act) going away, we’re still all going to learn where we’re at once that ends and we get through the pull-ahead volume.”
Barra never “had to” drive EV adoption faster. It was her choice, regardless of which party held power in Washington. Toyota didn’t adopt plug-ins at anywhere near the same scale and has done just fine. Despite whatever subsidies there may have been, there was no overcoming the laws of energy, physics, and economics to make EVs a practical everyday transportation option for most consumers.
Elaine Buckberg/PHOTO via Stanford University
Speaking of economics, it turns out that Barra had as a top adviser a former Obama Department of Treasury official named Elaine Buckberg as GM’s chief economist from 2018 to 2023. Rather than serve as an asset that delivers any serious economic analysis undertaken with academic rigor, Buckberg instead appeared to be an advocacy propagandist for the Left’s Green New Deal priorities — and acted as such, with Barra absorbing her “advice” like a sponge. Among Buckberg’s responsibilities at GM, she lists:
- Assessed the impact of global economic developments on the corporation and advised C-suite on competitive and economic policy issues; deep focus on U.S. and China.
- Headed global long-term EV forecasting related to adoption, auto sales, auto segments, and vehicles.
- Led major strategy project, integral to several others, at the intersection of policy and business.
- Represented GM with senior U.S. and foreign government officials, including senior White House officials, Federal Reserve governors, cabinet secretaries / ministers, and members of Congress.
- Frequent speaker on macroeconomics, the auto industry, EVs, and supply chains.
Buckberg now practices her activism at one of those special Harvard University progressive study centers, called the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, where she “leads research and stakeholder engagement to drive better public EV charging outcomes. She also covers industrial policy, supply chains, and geoeconomics and teaches an undergraduate seminar on EVs.”
As you can see, Buckberg has an agenda. She even had an op-ed published by the Charleston (S.C.) Post & Courier (of all places) this week that whines about the lack of dependability, availability and transparency regarding EV public charging networks. She writes:
Not long ago, when my husband and I moved from Detroit to Boston, we drove the 600 miles twice in electric vehicles. A short road trip by American standards turned into a frustrating validation of our range anxiety.
The reason: a lack of data.
While Tim concentrated on the highway, my job as passenger was to cross-reference charger apps. One app would plan a route with supposedly optimized charging stops, but it often didn’t tell me if the chargers were working. So I would try looking up each one on the charging provider’s proprietary website — a time-consuming effort that would be dangerous for anyone driving solo.
This frustrating status quo is holding back EV sales and costing American jobs. Many charging providers do not share live data about their equipment — basic stuff, like whether it’s working or broken.
Yeah, “broken.” Another frequently-heard complaint about the EV scam.
Buckberg is so committed to the leftwing “green” energy agenda that her history of campaign contributions to top Democrats is lengthy, including Obama, Hillary Clinton, Biden, and Kamala Harris. This is who Mary Barra found suitable to advise her and her executive team, as well as GM’s board of directors, in the role of chief economist. It appears she was picked to serve as some sort of self-fulfilling prophetess to make Barra’s EV visions come true, given Buckberg’s status and access to the Biden White House and key figures in the administration, as well as Congress. Voila! Inflation Reduction Act!
Despite the lack of consumer demand and reversal of EV policies in DC, Barra and Buckberg are sticking to their story, according to the Detroit News:
Like Barra, most automaker executives still have faith in an all-electric future, said Elaine Buckberg, a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability who also spoke at the conference.
Buckberg, a former GM chief economist, said companies that take an early lead in nascent industries tend to maintain that advantage for a long time. She said the draw of years of market control down the road will push U.S. automakers to continue to innovate without government pressure.
Buckberg said change will come once there’s widespread access to EVs that can drive 400 miles without needing a charge, fast-charging infrastructure and cheaper models. Under those circumstances, “even skeptics lose their reason for not buying,” she said.
Buckberg can blame that lack of sufficient and transparent charging infrastructure on the Secretary of Transportation in the presidential administration she helped elect. Despite Pete Buttigieg’s promises in 2022 to “build EV chargers across approximately 53,000 miles of highway across the country,” with $5 billion allocated for the program, only 382 chargers were open by last month.
As for Barra, she can’t blame anybody for the failure of GM’s EV “transition” but herself.
