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Inside GM’s Plans to Convert Its Factories for EVs
The Wall Street Journal ^ | Feb. 20, 2021 | Mike Colias

Posted on 02/20/2021 3:49:17 PM PST by MinorityRepublican

General Motors Co. GM 0.79% is betting its future on electric cars. By mid-decade it plans to spend $27 billion on manufacturing 30 electric models and developing driverless cars. By 2035, it expects to have phased out gasoline-engine options completely and to be selling only electric vehicles, a technology that currently generates about 2% of sales and no profit for the company.

Planning for this transformation at the factory level is the responsibility of Gerald Johnson, a GM lifer who took over global manufacturing operations in 2019, and who is spearheading a $2.2 billion gut rehab of a factory in Detroit, recently renamed Factory Zero, to serve as GM’s electric-vehicle hub. Two more conversions of North American factories for production of electric vehicles, or EVs, are in the works.

Mr. Johnson, 58 years old, calls it the most far-reaching strategic shift he has seen in his career at GM, which he began 40 years ago as an intern.

“There has always been incremental change,” he says. “This is transformative.”

GM factories around the world employ more than 100,000 workers. Some plants exist solely to assemble gas-powered engines and transmissions that won’t be needed if the company successfully reaches its 2035 target, portending big changes for both workers and GM’s factory footprint.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: automotive; electric; gm
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To: alloysteel

When its cold, the BMWi3 that I have, it pumps warm air around the battery. So I keep it plugged in and let it warm for 10 minutes before I drive. I do it through a phone app as I have my coffee.

The future is here.


41 posted on 02/20/2021 4:34:44 PM PST by PA-RIVER ( )
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To: MinorityRepublican

All I saw was a giant framed check signed with “US TREASURY” written on it.


42 posted on 02/20/2021 4:34:51 PM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Where are they going to get all of the rare earth minerals for the batteries?


43 posted on 02/20/2021 4:36:13 PM PST by Shady (Rest in Peace, Rush, and thank you... )
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To: MinorityRepublican

Who the hell is going to buy a car in 2025 that will be worthless in 2035.


44 posted on 02/20/2021 4:39:38 PM PST by moehoward (.)
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To: alloysteel

45 posted on 02/20/2021 4:42:34 PM PST by RomanSoldier19 (Game over, man! Game over! ; : rem ad triarios redisse is)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Can they explain WHY they are doing this?

There are NO substantive reasons. The only reason is to appease the lunatic greens.


46 posted on 02/20/2021 4:46:40 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Life is short, and work long, opportunity fleeting, experiments dangerous, and judgment hard)
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To: MinorityRepublican

If the Democrats keep their Dictatorship GM will be all set


47 posted on 02/20/2021 4:47:08 PM PST by butlerweave
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To: MinorityRepublican

Government Motors is stuck on stupid.


48 posted on 02/20/2021 4:48:36 PM PST by wjcsux (RIP Rush Limbaugh 12 Jan 1951- 17 Feb 2021. We really miss you. )
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To: alloysteel

Except that water turns to ice during the winter, even in Texas apparently. You’ll have clogged exhaust pipes.


49 posted on 02/20/2021 4:50:47 PM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults. )
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To: MinorityRepublican

How will they power the manufacturing plants? Windmills?


50 posted on 02/20/2021 4:52:09 PM PST by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: BipolarBob

>>How do these EVs operate in below zero weather? <<

Good question. I have no idea, but I do know batteries don’t like cold weather.


51 posted on 02/20/2021 4:52:12 PM PST by Tejas Rob
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To: Captain Jack Aubrey

You can’t make this crap up on your own!


52 posted on 02/20/2021 4:54:06 PM PST by wjcsux (RIP Rush Limbaugh 12 Jan 1951- 17 Feb 2021. We really miss you. )
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Electric cars can be tracked, for athe reasons they may want to track you. The electric pumps can be made to decide if they will charge your battery or not, depending on your social score.

The limited travel of about 2 hours a charge limits your road trips.


53 posted on 02/20/2021 4:54:12 PM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults. )
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To: alloysteel
has anybody yet worked out the cost/benefit ration of this expected conversion to all-electric vehicles? Please consider the necessary infrastructure that must be put into place.

They never tell the truth about wind and solar power because they omit the backup systems needed to make them reliable and "dispatchable." The windmills and solar panel systems themselves are cheap compared to the cost of the batteries needed to back them up. A battery system to ride through cold snaps, clouds, zero wind, and night time would cost MANY TIMES what the windmills and solar panels cost.

They use crooked accounting all the time to snooker the public into believing "green" is affordable power. Of course, the whole "green energy" scam is predicated on Global Warming (or "crisis" or "catastrophe" or whatever scare term is used today) which just doesn't exist. If people didn't believe in the Global Warming boogeyman they wouldn't believe in the "Green Energy" fantasy.

54 posted on 02/20/2021 4:54:47 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Life is short, and work long, opportunity fleeting, experiments dangerous, and judgment hard)
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To: RomanSoldier19

I plugged my UPS (uninterupable power supply) into itself once. It really did not like that at all.


55 posted on 02/20/2021 4:55:29 PM PST by dmcnash (Back off! I'm a Scientist.)
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To: Libloather

I think that they are planning on using pixie dust and unicorn farts to power everything.


56 posted on 02/20/2021 4:56:19 PM PST by wjcsux (RIP Rush Limbaugh 12 Jan 1951- 17 Feb 2021. We really miss you. )
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To: Jonty30

Following your thought, there’s no reason they cannot require you to pay for your gasoline electronically and perpetrate all sorts of evil that way. “Sorry Dave, your social score needs some work. I can only sell you five gallons today.”

Or “Sorry Dave, you are driving way beyond your allotted miles. I can only sell you five gallons today.”

They can mandate transponders on all cars. Just like telescreens were mandated in “1984” and couldn’t be turned off.


57 posted on 02/20/2021 4:57:33 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Life is short, and work long, opportunity fleeting, experiments dangerous, and judgment hard)
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To: MinorityRepublican
do they plan on building dozens of new power plants and thousands of charging stations too???
58 posted on 02/20/2021 4:58:59 PM PST by Chode (Ashli Babbitt - #SayHerNAME)
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To: RomanSoldier19; All

Now you want to know Why and where they got the cash for clunkers effort from, this was a fully planned out Corporate strategy to make you buy new, first came the hybrids, then the full EV, then the opps, best put a petroleum run Generator in a truck to keep it running.

The existing Power grid configuration of the USA has ZERO chance in the next 20 years of being able to sustain the drain on that system by the replacement of Every vehicle to an EV.

Now you know why they say EV is fantastic but not good in freezing weather — try betting frozen batteries to work (oh wait, if you use a heater they sell as extra you can keep them warm from Power grid)

Now you know why all the EV’s in Texas with Gas powered Generators used the Generators to power their house (those just with batteries and no grid power sat where they last were charged, or needed recharge.)

Now you know why they do not do a “Carbon Footprint that is transparent” if they did you will find that Every EV in its birth to death life cycle is a HUGE TOXIC and energy inefficient DISASTER.

Per pound of Nuclear waste v’s the Box of batteries in the EV that has to be replaced each 5 years (don’t believe the “NEW” 50 year BS) Nuclear Wins for energy generation of Power grids, then Gas Turbines..

Per Pound of gas, etc, hydrocarbon fuel etc etc is Way less damaging to the environment of the planet than the Battery pack of that soon to be worthless EV.

The list is long — gaagle it.

Blessings


59 posted on 02/20/2021 5:00:52 PM PST by wombatsrule
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To: Chode
do they plan on building dozens of new power plants and thousands of charging stations too???

Not right away.

60 posted on 02/20/2021 5:01:43 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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