General Motors CEO Mary Barra still talks about electric vehicles as the company's long-range goal, but GM's latest move says more than yet another polished corporate forecast.
The company has indefinitely delayed work on the next generation of its full-size electric trucks and SUVs, including future versions of the Chevy Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV, GMC Hummer EV, and Cadillac Escalade IQ. No fresh timeline has surfaced. Fred Lambert, writing at Electrek, illustrates a company making a drastic change.
According to a report from Crain’s Detroit Business, GM was planning to update its full-size electric lineup in 2028, including introducing lower-cost variants of several models to expand market share. Those plans have now been delayed indefinitely.
When asked about the decision, GM declined to elaborate, stating only that it has “not disclosed any potential plans or timing for any next-generation battery electric trucks” and that it would not “engage in speculation.”
The news comes on the heels of a brutal stretch for GM’s EV division. The automaker recorded $7.6 billion in EV-related charges during 2025, including a $6 billion writedown tied to scrapping EV production plans and canceling battery supply contracts. GM’s Q4 2025 EV sales plunged 43% to just 25,219 units after the Trump administration killed the $7,500 federal tax credit on September 30.
Funny how "the future" keeps needing another quarter, another subsidy, and another explanation.
The decision suddenly didn't come out of left field; GM's EV sales dropped 43% in the fourth quarter of 2025 after federal consumer tax credits ended, and the company took a $6 billion write-down tied to its EV pullback.
The EV market, as Cox Automotive suggests, is withdrawing and regrouping.
Electric-vehicle share of total U.S. new-vehicle sales peaked at 10.5% in Q3 2025, then fell to 5.8% in Q4, roughly equal to the share in the first half of 2022. Cox Automotive expects EV share in the year ahead to be near 8%, as new product enters the market, infrastructure improves and consumer confidence in EV technology continues to grow. New vehicles, including the affordable 2026 Chevrolet Bolt, the Rivian R2, and a new generation of BMW EVs – as personified in the soon-to-launch BMW iX3 SUV – will help write the next chapter of EV sales in the U.S.
Government policy remains a wildcard in this equation. Recent moves by the current administration suggest less regulatory pressure to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions, leaving growth largely in the hands of automakers and consumers. Still, Cox Automotive believes EV sales will increase in the long run, and the U.S. market will become more electrified in the coming decade, with product innovation and infrastructure improvements supporting gradual sales growth. The automotive market in the U.S. is more than 100 years old. Change takes time.
Across the broader market, EV sales sagged after buyers rushed to beat the end of the incentives and then backed away when the bill landed in their driveway instead of Uncle Sam's.
It's remarkable how consumer enthusiasm cools when the government stops holding the coupon.
Truck buyers don't live in a brochure. They tow, haul, drive long distances, fight bad weather, work early, and come home tired. They don't want a truck that needs a long charging stop, loses range under load, or turns basic work into an energy management seminar.
A full-size pickup has to perform when the trailer's hooked up, the temperature drops, and the schedule doesn't give a rip about battery chemistry.
GM has also shifted resources toward gas-powered trucks and hybrid technology, which sounds less like surrender and more like the company remembering who buys trucks.
At Flint Assembly, GM has added production capacity for gas-powered heavy-duty Silverado and Sierra models while electric truck sales remain modest.
The brand names Silverado, Sierra, Hummer, and Escalade working under the EV umbrella may please policymakers, early adopters, and executives who say "ecosystem" without laughing, but the truck market still rewards function over applause.
Then there's the green math nobody on the left wants to finish on camera. An EV doesn't start clean when a buyer signs the papers. Battery production carries an upfront environmental cost through mining, processing, shipping, and manufacturing.
Lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and copper don't joyfully leap from the earth because somebody wearing a blazer called the supply chain sustainable. They get mined, processed, transported, and built into heavy battery packs before the first mile ever appears on the odometer.
Charging also depends on the actual grid, not the grid people imagine after three cups of policy coffee. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projected natural gas at roughly 40% of U.S. power generation in 2026, renewables around 25%, and nuclear at about 18%, with coal still part of the mix.
Written plainly, plenty of EV charging still draws from sources that don't fit the clean little sermon often attached to the sale.
Infrastructure adds another bill. More electric trucks require more charging stations, more grid capacity, more transmission upgrades, and more patience from drivers who already have work to do. None of those burdens vanish because an automaker runs a warm commercial with mountain roads, clean light, and a truck that never seems to tow anything heavier than a lifecycle.
GM's delay doesn't prove EVs have no place. Smaller EVs can fit plenty of drivers, especially in cities and short-commute households. Hybrids can also cut fuel use without asking buyers to reorganize life around charging.
But full-size trucks occupy a harder world; buyers punish weakness early, and they don't hand out participation trophies for good intentions wrapped in bad range.
Barra and GM now face the same truth every automaker eventually meets: customers outrank mandates. Drivers choose what works, not what sounds noble in a shareholder slide deck.
The market didn't kill the EV party; it just turned on the lights, looked at the tab, and asked why the green revolution showed up in a 9,000-pound tuxedo.
