GM to take on Tesla in the EV market with Cadillac brand

Cadillac will be General Motors’ (GM) flagship brand for electric vehicles, the company announced in a press release on Friday. This comes on the heels of the lackluster performance of all-electric Chevy Bolts, sales of which fell by over 20% year-over-year in 2018.

“Cadillac will be GM’s lead electric vehicle brand and will introduce the first model from the company’s all-new battery electric vehicle architecture, GM’s foundation for an advanced family of profitable EVs,” the company stated in the release.

The announcement underscores GM’s resolve to shift its EV base away from Chevrolet. In November, the company said it would plug the production of Chevy’s hybrid model Volt by March 2019, as part of its strategy to cut down manufacturing of low-selling brands.

The change in strategy makes sense, given the fact that the automaker is currently trailing behind its rivals in the electric vehicle segment. GM is yet to have a compelling competitor to Tesla (TSLA) Model S, or for that matter, any other high-end EV manufactured by global peers including BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes or Audi.

Without giving out any specifics, GM said it would bring out around 20 EVs by 2023 from the Cadillac stable. The vehicles would come in various body styles and drive types, including front-wheel, rearwheel and all-wheel configurations.

General Motors shares tumble on Q4 sales decline

However, now that GM has sold the 200,000^th electric vehicle, the company loses its advantage of $7,500 federal tax credit. For any further sales, the tax credit would be slashed to half for the next six months. This would, in turn, jack up the prices of vehicles.

General Motors is the second automaker after Tesla to reach the EV credit threshold in sales.

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