Listed in 1823, the 18 general models of electric vehicles accelerated into the all-electric era

This article is the NetEase smart studio (public number smartman163) produced. Focus on AI and read the next big era!

[Netease Smart News, October 10] For more than a century, General Motors has sold cars that emit air pollutants, but it is now drifting away from gasoline and diesel. This morning, the American auto giant announced that they are committed to an all-electric, zero-emissions future. GM will launch two new all-electric cars next year, and at least 18 more will be added by 2023.

More and more automakers have already announced that they will step into the era of electricity and promise to gradually stop producing gasoline and diesel-powered cars. This move by General Motors will place it at the forefront of these automakers. In recent months, Volvo, Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover have also announced similar initiatives. However, GM’s statement is particularly noteworthy. Last year, the company sold 10 million cars, including pickup trucks, SUVs, and domestic small cars.

"GM believes that the future will be the era of all-electric vehicles," said Mark Reuss, the company's product manager. "We are leading the way to the future world."

Reuss did not disclose the date when GM stopped producing natural gas and diesel-powered vehicles. It stated that in different markets and regions, this shift will occur at different speeds. The new all-electric car will be a combination of battery-powered cars and fuel-cell cars.

To be sure, GM's shareholders are aware of the sudden change in their electricity supply policy. The Trump administration may be taking action to reduce the US fuel demand, while the rest of the world is firmly pushing for the adoption of electric vehicles. France, Britain, the Netherlands and Norway all stated that they plan to ban the sale of cars fueled with natural gas and diesel fuel in the coming decades. More importantly, the world’s largest auto market, China, and rising star India, are also planning to join it. Without a stable supply of electric vehicles, no car manufacturer can compete on a global scale.

General Motors intends to share as much as possible in the Chinese market. The company previously announced plans to launch 10 electric or hybrid electric vehicles in China by 2020. This summer, GM began selling a two-seat electric car in China for only $5,300. Last year, General Motors sold more cars (3.6 million vehicles) in China than the United States (3 million vehicles).

For American car manufacturers, the key question is how to make money from these cars. A report shows that General Motors will lose $9,000 each time it sells a Chevrolet Bolt. The key to Reuss' strategy of coping is to reduce costs, thanks to falling battery prices, more efficient motors, and increasingly lighter car quality. Larger scales and global supply chains also help. "The next generation of products will start to make profits," he said. "It will eventually be like this."

This is not impossible. Karl Brauer, automotive industry analyst at Kelly Blue Book, said: "If they are really doing preparatory work, they may not only own this technology, but they can also realize substantial supply, which is profitable."

GM's past is not very friendly to electric cars. The auto-initiator it invented killed the first wave of electric cars in the early 20th century. General Motors tried to use batteries to power the EV-1. As a result, the owners of the two-seater car dumped them like rubbish in the waste pile. In the first few years of the 21st century, the Prius, a hybrid car produced by Toyota, was very popular. At that time, General Motors focused its sales on the horse.

In the past decade, the Detroit giant has changed its position in the future. The first is the introduction of the hybrid electric vehicle Chevrolet Water. Then there was GM’s big move, the Chevrolet Bolt, a $30,000, electric vehicle with a cruising range of 200 miles that went on sale before Tesla Model 3. GM is seriously studying semi-automatic and fully automated cars. It was the first to provide vehicle-to-vehicle communications capabilities for cars on American roads. Now, the company also talks about plans to eliminate exhaust pollution, traffic congestion and traffic accidents.

Reuss said: "GM has the ability to allow us all to achieve this goal faster." Now, it only needs to deliver cars - and earn enough money to maintain this future.

(Selected from: Wired Compilation: Netease's Seeing Out Compile Platform: Li Qing)

Pay attention to NetEase smart public number (smartman163), get the latest report of artificial intelligence industry.