Don’t Hate the Player
January 13, 2026
Alex KiersteinEVs are still the endgame, says Mary Barra. She’s just playing the hand GM’s been dealt.
Automakers push for regulatory consistency in part to avoid expensive changes in product strategies. The recent CAFE rollbacks and the discontinuation of federal EV tax incentives are good examples of things that make planning difficult for automakers. As Reuters reports, Mary Barra agrees. And she still believes that EVs are the “end game” even though the company had to make significant, and expensive, changes to its US market plans.
Barra was speaking at a pre-NAIAS Automotive Press Association event, laying out the strategy and contrasting it with other automakers. There are a few important takeaways. One is that Barra emphasized that there is still some uncertainty in the landscape a few years out, contemplating the possibility that the next administration may swing policy back towards an EV transition.
“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. And that’s sensible, because as this recent shift makes clear, change is expensive. It’ll cost GM $6 billion to cancel some EV programs; Ford took a $19.5 billion writedown for the same reason as it leans even harder into the products encouraged by the current administration.
Barra also emphasized that EVs are the goal because, as they achieve cost parity with gas-powered vehicles and improve in other respects, they are ultimately a superior product for customers, Reuters reports.
Barra seems to be saying the quiet part out loud: nobody knows what 2028’s election will bring for automakers. Not only are the automakers large entities that require massive costs to change focus from one powertrain policy to another, the products themselves have long development cycles. As automakers who moved quickly into EV production found out, a political change can create significant manufacturing and sales pain.
Despite criticism about doddling EV transition plans, some hesitant automakers like Toyota are now well-positioned to succeed in the current political climate. While it’s clear that GM intends to play it safe and attempt to profit off of the current situation, Barra does not want to miss an opportunity to leverage a policy swing in the other direction in a few years. It’s pragmatic.
The only risk to this sort of pragmatism is that the current administration seems eager to punish critics who aren’t fully on board with its plans. Nothing Barra said here seems likely to attract undue attention, at least for now. The stakes are awfully high, but Barra seems savvy enough not to stick her head up—or her neck out—too much.
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