It’s been over four years since General Motors announced a plan to launch more than 20 new electric vehicles and since then very few have actually been sold. At least one GM
GM
C Hummer EV has been delivered to a customer along with a handful of BrightDrop delivery vans and some Chevrolet Bolt EUVs before that production was halted due to battery fires. While GM prepares to launch an expected wave of electric vehicles in the next three years, it’s also been building up capacity to manufacture components and it wants to sell those to any industry interested in going electric.
Over the course of 2021, GM has already announced a number of partnerships to explore the use of its electrification systems in areas such as rail, long-haul trucking and aviation. Now through its Electric Vehicle Growth Operations, GM is formalizing its efforts to sell components and systems to almost anyone that wants to use them.
In a way, this is almost a return to the General Motors of old when a higher proportion of the components in its vehicles were manufactured in-house by the automaker’s parts divisions most of which fell under various Delco brands such as Remy, Moraine, Electronics and others. In the late-1990s, GM rolled up most of those parts divisions and spun them off as an independent supplier that became known as Delphi. Over the past two decades following a protracted bankruptcy reorganization, Delphi sold, spun off or shut down many of those operations and what remains is now known as Aptiv.
The spin-off of Delphi was in part driven by the belief that most of what those divisions were producing were commodity components that could be purchased cheaper elsewhere. As GM and other legacy automakers make the transition from internal combustion to electric the idea that they need to develop and own key intellectual property and be able to produce it at scale has returned. Since technologies such as batteries, motors and electronics are still evolving quickly, none yet fall into the sphere of commodities and GM and others feel those systems need to be core competencies of an automaker just as engines and transmissions were until recently.
An automaker that can successfully develop these components can potentially grab third-party customers and build up economies of scale. GM believes that by 2030 there will be an addressable market of $20 billion for sales of electrification components to third parties.
One of the first markets that GM hopes to tackle is parts for conversion of vintage vehicles to electric propulsion. It has shown several concepts at recent Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) shows of older GM vehicles powered by the motor and battery pack from the Bolt. The Chevy Performance and Aftermarket division will soon launch the Electric Connect and Cruise eCrate Package. Ford sold a similar package using the Mustang Mach-E motor following the 2021 SEMA show and quickly sold out of the first run.
GM is also partnering with Textron Ground Equipment to develop electric versions of the tugs used at airports to move aircraft, baggage tractors and cargo belt-loaders. GM has a long history of providing engines used by companies such as Mercury Marine for watercraft. It is now partnering with Seattle-based Pure Watercraft to integrate its components into electric boats.
If successful, sales of electrification components could be an important part of GM’s effort to double its revenues in the next decade through new lines of business. These include the Hydrotec fuel cell technology, Ultifi software platform, BrightDrop electric commercial vehicles and Ultium Charge 360 network.
