EVs Are ‘The End Game,’ GM CEO Mary Barra Says A Day Before Trump

• General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the company remains committed to an “an EV future.”
• GM had a record year for EV sales in 2025, tapering off in the fourth quarter due to the end of the tax credits. 
• The automaker may bring back hybrids in the future.

General Motors had to make several difficult decisions last year. After the Trump administration axed the $7,500 federal tax credit and heavily revised fuel-economy rules to end the push for a mostly-electric market by the 2030s, the automaker scaled back its battery-powered ambitions.

The Orion Assembly Plant in Michigan, which was earmarked for EV-only production, will now produce gasoline trucks. GM also sold its stake in the Ultium Cells battery plant to LG Energy Solution, due to potentially less demand for EV batteries amid slowing sales.

Despite the tough calls, GM CEO Mary Barra sounded pretty upbeat about the future of EVs while speaking at the Automotive Press Association conference in Detroit on Monday.

“It will take longer without the incentives, but I still think we’ll get there over time,” Barra told Reuters reporter and APA President Kalea Hall, referring to the cooling period for EV sales after the end of the $7,500 federal tax credit last September. 

“Once someone buys an EV, they’re 80% more likely to buy another EV,” Barra said. “Our destination is to get to the all-EV future we’ve been talking about,” she added.

Barra’s optimistic remarks came just a day before President Donald Trump’s visit to Michigan to speak at the Detroit Economic Club and visit Ford’s Dearborn Assembly plant, where the F-150 pickups are made. Whether the president will address EVs in his talk was not immediately clear, but the Trump administration’s regulatory reset has been costly for the American auto industry.

Just last week, GM disclosed in an SEC filing that pumping the brakes on EVs resulted in $6 billion in associated charges in the final quarter of the year due to things like contract cancellation fees for suppliers.

Ford also faced a similar outcome, although on a much larger scale, booking over $19 billion in charges for dialling down its EV ambitions, which included ending production of the F-150 Lightning.

And Stellantis said last week that it was canceling its plug-in hybrids in North America, with the Jeep Wrangler 4xe, Grand Cherokee 4xe, and Chrysler Pacifica Plug-In Hybrid all getting discontinued. That’s despite the Jeeps being the top-selling PHEVs of 2025, as per research firm Recurrent.

“I’m a little surprised at some [automakers] that are really pulling away very quickly, because we don’t know what will be in ‘29, ‘30, ‘32,” Barra said, referring to a potential recovery in EV sales in the years to come.

Apart from the Corvette E-Ray, GM does not sell any hybrids or PHEVs in the U.S. currently. But that could change in the future, Automotive News reported. “We have plans to do those, and we’ll have hybrids where we think we need to,” Barra said.

“But again, we’re mainly investing and continuing to work on EVs because we think that’s the end game,” she said.

Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com