General Motors' Future EV Plans Come into Focus

General Motors’ future EV plans may be coming into focus with a new mid-market platform …

While Ford, VW, Toyota, and others have been fairly transparent about what they are planning for the next-generation EVs, GM has been playing things fairly close to the vest. Several months ago, unconfirmed rumors surfaced that the company's next-generation full-size EV trucks--currently built on a dedicated skateboard platform at the vastly underutilized Factory Zero in Detroit – might be delayed or canceled.

At the low end of the market, GM and Honda were collaborating on a new affordable EV platform, but that plan was scrapped three years ago, leaving GM with the recently revived (but aging) Chevy Bolt. But the Bolt is here for a limited time only until new gasoline-powered SUVs go into that plant, and while GM President Mark Reuss has hinted at a family of affordable EVs last fall, no one’s heard anything since.

Now, sources tell GM Authority that work is underway on a new architecture, BEV-N ("N" for new?) that would replace the current BEV3 architecture that's been around since 2022. It currently underpins the Equinox and Blazer EVs, as well as Cadillac's Optiq, Lyriq, and Vistiq, and the China-market Buick Electra E4 and E5. The word is that the next-gen Equinox EV would be first out of the gate, which makes sense as the high-volume entry on the platform (and one facing an increasingly competent competitive set), in late 2028 or early 2029, with other models to follow.

GM has said precious little about the future EVs, aside from new lithium manganese-rich (LMR) batteries that are about the same cost as lithium iron phosphate (LFP), but with significantly higher power density. These batteries are likely candidates for the non-luxury entries on this platform.

GM has also announced a new zonal architecture debuting in 2028 on the Cadillac Escalade IQ, bringing with it all the expected cost and complexity reduction, efficiency improvements, and enabling higher levels of automated driving. That seems like a logical piece of tech to appear on BEV-N as well.

The one open question is 800V technology. Almost every other luxury brand will have this--and the resulting fast-charging DC capability – on multiple models by 2028, but only Cadillac's Escalade IQ is so equipped. That means Cadillac’s $75K+ Vistiq charges at about 2/3 the rate of a Hyundai Ioniq 5, not to mention most of its luxury-branded competitors.

Although EV demand has cooled off, GM says they are committed to a competitive EV portfolio. The new battery tech and zonal architecture are good first steps, so let's see if we hear any more in the coming months...

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