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GM's Mary Barra Pressed To Acknowledge Tesla, Avoids And Refuses

RivianXpress

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https://insideevs.com/features/551192/gm-mary-barra-tesla-talk/

GM's Mary Barra Pressed To Acknowledge Tesla, Avoids And Refuses
Sure, the GM CEO doesn't want to give Tesla any credit, but a simple acknowledgement would have been better than nothing.
Steven Loveday
Rivian R1T R1S GM's Mary Barra Pressed To Acknowledge Tesla, Avoids And Refuses 1638243231907

Kudos to CNBC’s Andrew Sorkin for carrying out a real interview here. He asked General Motors CEO Mary Barra the hard questions – primarily about Tesla – though she avoided answering them at all costs.

Sorkin took it a step further by repeatedly pressing Barra to at least so much as acknowledge Tesla's lead, success, etc., but she held strong and refused to offer Tesla even the slightest bit of credit.

To be clear, Barra stuck with the narrative from President Biden that GM is and has been the EV leader, and it won't concede to anyone. We published a few articles related to Barra's comments, as well as Tesla CEO Elon Musk's responses, though there's a whole lot more now that the entire interview has been published on YouTube.

We'll say up front that you really need to watch the entire interview. Honestly, parts of it almost come off like an SNL skit. Sorkin seems almost irritated that he can't get Barra to answer his questions, and she eventually tells him she'd rather talk about GM than Tesla.

That said, let's take a look at a few of the most interesting morsels from Barra's talk about GM's electric future. Sorkin asks Barra about the potential EV credit that may be coming as part of Biden's Build Back Better legislation. More specifically, he talks about the "union-only" bonus.

After Barra gives a response that doesn't really answer his questions, Sorkin notes that Tesla employees make more than GM employees on average. She says she would need the numbers in front of her.

Sorkin goes on to ask Barra if she knows why Tesla wasn't invited to any of the Biden Administration's meetings about EVs. Of course, many of us have a pretty good idea about why Tesla wasn't invited, but Barra says she didn't make the guest list. After much pressing, she refuses to even acknowledge that the whole situation is at least a bit strange. She goes on to say she doesn't really give it any thought.

It makes perfect sense that Barry wouldn't want to dwell on Tesla, the world leader in EVs. This is especially true as GM struggles, has no current EVs on the market, and won't be selling any EVs in high volume any time soon.

However, the fact that she won't at least acknowledge Sorkin's follow-up questions and give credit where credit is due, it's just a bad look. We asked ourselves, how might this interview have played out if Sorkin was asking the same questions to Jim Farley or Herbert Diess?
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ja_kub_sz

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Look to the Cadillac Lyriq for the GM future... Not impressed overall, but again "they're the EV leaders". I hope repeating that mantra works for GM, and good to see that union and corporate lobbying can get the legacy auto manufacturers their "union made" EV credit since being the leaders of the EV game they've exhausted (or soon to exhaust) the standard production volume credit.

I just laugh when Rivian makes a 75k EV and with options a magic 80k EV credit cap comes, but the 113k Hummer EV will now get a union made credit.

Just a shell game... Would've been better if it were called the "Not a Tesla" EV credit, but Rivian then would've qualified (can't have that).

Maybe the Electric Silverado will be remotely interesting 01_05_22?
 
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kurtlikevonnegut

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So I went to Disney World recently (a few weeks ago) and while there we rode the GM advertisement ride that focuses on innovation etc. At the end of the ride they have all kinds of interactive stuff and a bunch of their cars on display with the window sticker and information about them. The showpiece was a red C8 Corvette front and center as you come off the ride. They had trucks, SUVs, and other cars out on the floor.

There were 0 EVs on display. Not a single one.
 

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don't worry I'm sure we will have to bail them out again as well.
 

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Maybe the Electric Silverado will be remotely interesting 01_05_22?
There is going to be so much of GM's future riding on just the Silverado. If they aren't able to make something that's segment-leading at reasonable prices, they will have a hard time competing.
 

Dbeglor

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I just laugh when Rivian makes a 75k EV and with options a magic 80k EV credit cap comes, but the 113k Hummer EV will now get a union made credit.
You sure? Guess it will depend on how the rules are written, by my understanding is the additional credits (union made) are moot if you don't satisfy the base ones (MSRP and income). In other words, they are extra, not a la carte.

So, GM has one vehicle that doesn't qualify and one that they aren't currently producing.

I'm still hopeful Manchin sticks to his guns and gets union credit changed to simply US made. Tesla just came out showing data on how their employees are paid more than union workers, which throws a huge grenade in the whole justification for that section.
 
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RivianXpress

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Denver_Paulie

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So, what does this have to do with Rivian????

I don't think an interview with the CEO of General Motors where they refuse to acknowledge the contribution of Tesla to the EV industry warrants us getting away from people complaining about potential Rivian range while towing, or getting away from the max battery pack versus standard battery pack discussion.

Tesla fans have the smallest d*cks on the internet. Can't we leave one forum free from Tesla whiners???
 

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Autolycus

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I just laugh when Rivian makes a 75k EV and with options a magic 80k EV credit cap comes, but the 113k Hummer EV will now get a union made credit.
That is not correct. Any van, truck, or SUV over $80k will not qualify for ANY of the credits, as the BBB act is currently drafted and as was passed by the House.

Just a shell game... Would've been better if it were called the "Not a Tesla" EV credit, but Rivian then would've qualified (can't have that).
It would also probably be unconstitutional (bill of attainder, equal protection, etc.) if they actually called it that.
 
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RivianXpress

RivianXpress

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The interview touches on RIVN valuation and the $4500 Union tax add on. Not meant to tout Tesla. That happened to be the headline but was more interested in what she said - and not about Tesla.

This is a forum for Rivian vs competition and the Hummer, etc from GM are relevant when the CEO starts spouting crap about them being the EV leader and snubbing Rivian (no $4500 for you!) because they are cozying up to the current administration.
 

jjswan33

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I don't understand all the hate on GM? Yeah they didn't have any EVs at the auto show but also GMC and Cadillac didn't have any presence. Did they want to see the Bolt EUV or whatever, probably didn't want it inside in case it caught on fire.. joking aside this reporter kind of sounds like a dick, why keep pressing? If I was the CEO of any other auto company I wouldn't give Elon credit for jack sh*t, he is kind of a d*ck from what I have seen in regards to competitors.
 

Dbeglor

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I don't understand all the hate on GM? Yeah they didn't have any EVs at the auto show but also GMC and Cadillac didn't have any presence. Did they want to see the Bolt EUV or whatever, probably didn't want it inside in case it caught on fire.. joking aside this reporter kind of sounds like a dick, why keep pressing? If I was the CEO of any other auto company I wouldn't give Elon credit for jack sh*t, he is kind of a d*ck from what I have seen in regards to competitors.
Yeah, there's no way to know if this is just public facing confidence to maintain appearance of strength in spite of the facts (while privately knowing full well it's BS), or if they really do think they are the leader.

If the latter, it's not a good sign of their future. If the former, fair enough everyone has their strategy and I can see how being self-deprecating probably doesn't help you sell cars. While honest, Diess at VW isn't exactly having an easy time taking the other path....

But to be fair, they aren't even #2 realistically. I'd put Ford ahead of them domestically, as well as all the Chinese companies and Volvo. In some respects Rivian, Polestar and Lucid are ahead of them as well.
 

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It is relevant to EV community what a big co. Iike GM says. I love Sandy Munro's comment abt GM and the other big boys: stolen valor. With the bsh*t out of Barra's mouth they deserve to get gutted by the next gen disruptors like Tesla, Rivian, BYD, Xpeng and others!
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