NEW YORK -- After a big bet on electric vehicles that has failed to pan out, General Motors is becoming one of the last major U.S. automakers to enter the hybrid market, a field that top competitor Toyota Motor has leveraged to close in on the leader in U.S. auto sales.
"We will have hybrids in our portfolio in multiple segments," GM CEO Mary Barra said in an earnings call Tuesday. The company has provided no details about its planned lineup or release timeframe.
Under Barra, who became CEO in 2014, GM sought to spearhead the shift to EVs. It had aimed to produce 1 million EVs last year, anticipating a boost from purchase subsidies implemented by previous U.S. President Joe Biden's administration.
General Motors had prioritized investment in electric vehicles in the U.S. (Photo by Azusa Kawakami)
Toyota's U.S. market share last quarter came to 15.46%, compared with GM's 16.37%, according to Cox Automotive. The gap between the two stood at nearly 2 percentage points a year earlier.
"The large majority of product development dollars have been going into EVs over the last four or five years, and that's led [to] a massive vacuum in product last year, this year, and next year," auto analyst John Murphy said.
Though U.S. policy changes have led GM to move away from its all-in bet on EVs, this could prove to be a miscalculation, as high fuel prices are now reviving U.S. interest in electric models.