What GM's $7 Billion Investment Means for the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV

GM is planning to convert another plant to start building the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV and 2024 GMC Sierra Denali EV as quickly as possible. GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra says the planned EVs have been so well received that they are accelerating production.

"Today we are taking the next step in our continuous work to establish GM’s EV leadership by making investments in our vertically integrated battery production in the U.S., and our North American EV production capacity,” said Mary Barra, GM Chair and CEO. “We are building on the positive consumer response and reservations for our recent EV launches and debuts, including GMC HUMMER EV, Cadillac LYRIQ, Chevrolet Equinox EV and Chevrolet Silverado EV. Our plan creates the broadest EV portfolio of any automaker and further solidifies our path toward U.S. EV leadership by mid-decade.”

GM’s New EV Pickup Truck Production

GM will start work immediately to transform its Orion Assembly Plant into a second facility to crank out the EV pickups. GM is spending $4 billion on the conversion. The plant will continue building the Bolt EV during the conversion. Factory ZERO in Detroit is already building the 2022 GMC HUMMER EV and will also produce the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV.

GM plans to keep the 1,000 employees working at Orion and add more than 2,350 others. According to a statement from GM, the investment “will support an increase in total full-size electric truck production capacity to 600,000 trucks when both Factory ZERO and Orion facilities are fully ramped. GM has been the leader in U.S. full-size truck deliveries over the past two years.”

If GM is planning to produce more than 600,000 EV trucks annually by the end of 2024, that means it is expecting that well over half of its pickup sales will be EVs by then. To put the figures in perspective, let’s look at 2021 GM pickup sales.

GM’s 2021 Pickup Truck Sales

In 2021, Chevy sold 529,765 Chevrolet Silverados. However, when you add in the Silverado’s sibling the GMC Sierra, the sales numbers increase significantly. According to GM “Combined sales of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra LD and HD were 768,689. The company’s share of the retail market in 2021 was approximately 39 percent.” However, the semiconductor chip shortage was considered a huge issue that really held sales down.

Steve Carlisle, GM executive vice president and president, GM North America said when the sales numbers were released, “All year we focused on delivering as many of our high demand, capacity-constrained products as possible and the strategy worked. Our dealers and our engineering, supply chain, manufacturing and brand teams moved mountains to satisfy as many customers as possible in 2021, despite record low inventories caused by semiconductor supply chain issues during the third and fourth quarters.”

“In 2022, we plan to take advantage of the strong economy and anticipated improved semiconductor supplies to grow our sales and share. We will also further strengthen our industry leadership in trucks and begin our drive to EV leadership in North America with the rollouts of the GMC HUMMER EV, Cadillac LYRIQ and the reveals of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV,” Carlisle said. Even if GM can boost its truck sales numbers to 1 million units, 600,000 EVs would be well over half the trucks sold.

GM’s Plans for its Electric Future

By the end of 2025, GM to have more than 1 million units of electric vehicle capacity in North America. GM confirmed today, it will spend $7 billion upgrading four facilities for vehicle and battery production. GM projects it will convert 50 percent of its North American assembly capacity to EV production by 2030. Spring Hill Assembly in Spring Hill, Tennessee; CAMI in Ingersoll, Ontario and Ramos Arizpe Assembly in Mexico, are the other GM plants that will produce vehicles on the Ultium battery platform.

As GM moves forward, it will be fascinating to see when it will start transforming its other high-profit vehicles into EVs. The Chevrolet Tahoes, and GMC Yukons are hugely popular and profitable for the automaker. When Chevy and GMC can electrify the family haulers, they will truly be transforming the future of transportation.

GM Photos

Follow Mary Conway at @maryconwaymedia and send her car news tips for future stories.