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Has there been anything more polarizing in the automotive space over the past 25 years than electric cars? Wanna ruin a dinner party? Take a hard line on either side of the EV conversation, and you’ll create quite a stir. Most of the industry has committed to full EV offerings within the next decade, but not everyone gets plugged into this shift. Within nanoseconds of a Google search you’ll find people spitting venom at the electrified future calling EVs dirtier than internal combustion engines (ICE), worse for the environment, and a grid-crashing nightmare. On the other side are the EV angels who see this as the ticket to future happiness, the best way to save the whales, and a way to stick it to the global oil companies. General Motors has an idea on how to bring both those sides to some clarity.
GM Is Trying To Sell EV, Not EVs…Yet
With EV sales making up 5-6% of all new car sales in the US for 2022, there are more silent sedans (and SUVs) rolling around than ever. But the general public still seems to be skeptical. GM sees the EV world as only one part of their ecosystem. They will still offer gas-powered vehicles in some of their brands. But they know EV sales are vital to their overall success. Instead of focusing on big budget ad campaigns or paid social ads alone, however, General Motors has taken a very different approach to educating and connecting with customers. They are FaceTiming with them. Sort of.
EV Live is a free virtual EV educational experience. You sign up online, get connected with an expert, and start asking questions. “We aren’t selling EVs,” says Hoss Hossani VP of Charging, “we are selling EV.” Meaning, they have to get people on board with the lifestyle of owning and driving electric vehicles before they can try to sell them one. “We aren’t using chatbots or AI,” Hassani added, “we are using actual live specialists. You can connect with them and have a conversation.”
GM invited us to get a behind the scenes look at this out-of-the-box approach at educating consumers about the EV lifestyle, and we were curious. Plus, they said we could have a 782 hp 2023 Cadillac Escalade V in Radiant Red Tincoat for the day. Eminem playlist loaded, we hopped a flight and made our way to Detroit.
Located in a giant unmarked warehouse (actual address is secret) on the outskirts of Detroit, GM has created beautiful, well-lit studios. It’s akin to what you might see at an auto show. Large LEDs hang from the ceiling, huge screens act as walls, and there are various vehicles such as a Cadillac Lyriq, Chevy Bolt, Hummer EV, and Brightdrop truck inside. Staffing these studios are EV Specialists armed with a smartphone on a gimbal and their brains full of training by GM’s SMEs (subject-matter experts).
It’s Like FaceTiming Your Friend At Best Buy
It works like this: anyone curious about EVs gets on their phone/tablet/laptop to either schedule a one-on-one session, or join a group tour all from the comfort of their home (or wherever they are). Once connected, they can ask whatever they want. GM has identified five areas that continue to come up as hurdles for EV adoption. They focus their training on: Range, Charging, Battery, Cost, and Models. Once signed on, let’s say you have questions about the difference between 120-volt and Level II charging. You ask your guide, and they will walk with the phone over to the charging area, pointing out the different chargers and answering whatever you ask. It’s like if you FaceTime’d your friend at Best Buy to get their opinion on what TV you should buy. One big difference, however, is GM isn’t trying to sell you a car…yet.
Derek Sequeira, Director of EV Ecosystem, pointed out to me there are no GM signs in the studio. Derek reiterated what Hassani said earlier, “We are selling the electric vehicle lifestyle instead of the cars themselves.” He added, “We can’t do it alone. We need everyone pulling their weight to inform and educate people. We need other OEMs, and even utility companies too.”
After the studio tour, we had a quick bite to eat, a coffee and sat down with Hassani for a chat. We asked him about how the infamous/ground-breaking EV1, Volt, and Bolt have informed GM’s newest push into EV. “We always learn from our past, and Ultium is our third iteration down this road.” He added, “Because of our lengthy experience in the electric vehicle space, we were able to bring the Hummer EV to market in only 21 months. That would normally take six to seven years for an ICE.”
Range Anxiety And Charging Questions Lead The Questions
Clearly one of the biggest hurdles to EV ownership, other than price, is the charging piece. Hasani knows this, so he had some fairly interesting stats. “Nearly 90% of the population,” he said, “lives within 10 miles of a GM dealership. So we are deploying 40,000 chargers through the dealer network to have on site. But we also encourage them to install them around their communities. They could have their dealership branding on them and work with a business to place them somewhere convenient for people to charge.”
When we switched to talking about range, he cited, “80-85% of vehicle charging happens at people’s homes. We found the sweet spot for range being about 300 miles, that’s where people tend to feel confident. He pointed out that despite the Bolt leaving the lineup, Chevy is introducing a lot of EV offerings this year such as the 2024 Equinox, and Trailblazer. “We are coming out with a lot of models in this range. Our 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV, for example, can go 450 miles on a full charge.”
We asked Hassani if GM was considering the hydrogen fuel cell at all. “What we realized,” Hasani noted, “was putting two propulsion systems in one vehicle doesn’t make sense for us. And when it comes to infrastructure, at least with an EV you can charge at home, but not with fuel cell.”
What About The Haters?
Of course, having a virtual studio with people calling in for one-on-one help with their new Cadillac Lyriq, or learning the basics of how to charge up at home is great. But what about the naysayers. What about the TikTok-ers, YouTubers, and mainstream media that decry the “EV lies?” Hasani said, “There is a lot of ‘what about…’ and so we have to meet this head on. We actually have people on Reddit jumping into chats to combat false information or lies about the industry. People will say, ‘EVs cause more pollution overall.’ And that might be true if you made the car, and then it just sat there. But the second you start driving it, you are starting to offset those negative impacts.”
Final Buzz
There are thousands of unknowns in this (relatively) new mass production EV space. And that brings important big questions without clear answers. But if our past has taught us anything about American ingenuity, it’s that it rises to meet the challenge (especially if solving a problem can make people money.) When a car has run it’s lifecycle, maybe those batteries that can only hold an 80% charge will all combine into a large block that powers buildings in an outage. Or maybe it stores energy for the utility company to pull from when the grid draw becomes high.
Hasani agreed and said, “You can’t wait to have all the answers from the start, or you’ll never begin. You’ll never innovate.”
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