GM Teases Part of Its EV Plans at CES

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

The Consumer Electronics Show, typically held in Las Vegas in January, is virtual this year. Because of the coronavirus, as I am sure you’d expect.

Tuesday’s keynote speech came from General Motors and following up on the launch of a new logo last week – one meant to work in concert with the company’s electric-vehicle plans – the General did indeed show, or at least tease, some of those EV plans.

Michael Simcoe, GM’s Vice President of Global Design, stood in front of several planned EVs as he spoke. Two aren’t news. That would the Cadillac Lyriq and Hummer EV truck – we’ve known about each for some time. More interesting were two planned Buick EV SUVs, an electric pickup for Chevrolet, the Cadillac Celestiq EV sedan, and an EV of unknown provenance.

GM had little to say about any of this, but from what we can see of the Buicks, they look different when compared with the brand’s current styling direction. Meanwhile, the Chevy pickup has an illuminated light bar that spans the width of the grille and a light-up bow-tie emblem.

As for the Celestiq, expect AWD, a glass roof, adjustable window tint, and four-wheel steering.

There’s more TK (that’s journalist code for “to come”), we’re sure. For now, feast your eyes on some cars hidden in the shadows over at Roadshow.

[Image: GM]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Mcs Mcs on Jan 12, 2021

    "More interesting were two planned Buick EV SUVs, " They've been around for a while. Nothing new. https://www.buick.com.cn/velite7/ https://gmauthority.com/blog/2020/06/brand-new-buick-velite-7-ev-crossover-unveiled-in-china/

    • Mcs Mcs on Jan 12, 2021

      The Buicks mentioned at CES might be different than the Velite 7. I can't confirm one way or the other.

  • Peeryog Peeryog on Jan 12, 2021

    Wow, that new gradient logo is like from the internet circa 2005. I can't believe this really is the new face of GM.

    • BobinPgh BobinPgh on Jan 13, 2021

      Especially since it looks like the face of Goodwill, the old clothes people.

  • Oldschool Oldschool on Jan 13, 2021

    That Logo looks horrendously lame. Well it does kinda look like GM is slowly becoming China Motors after all with this new weak ass logo that looks like it’s “Made In China”. They went from a bold, rather serious generic GM logo that’s been around since the 60’s which is fine, to this pansy, woke, little, kindergarten childish font? Did some 6 year draw this up for GM or what? It’s been emasculated for sure. It doesn’t command any presence or let’s the world know that GM means business, rather the new logo represents a company bowing down to their Chinese overloads which is going a little too far with this whole EV thing. We still don’t know how local power grids will be able to hold up after hundreds of thousands if not millions of people with EV’s start plugging in to recharge their vehicles on a daily basis, not including EV power stations. Out here in CA our power grid infrastructure is terrible and I can’t imagine this state being able to handle the increase of electrical demand once EV slowly start becoming mainstream over time. This state can’t even handle daily usage when it’s over 100 degrees outside and everyone is using extra power from their A/C units, what makes anyone think we can handle thousands of EV’s on a daily basis? I don’t; talk about rolling blackouts by the millions, just watch. Plus the downside is higher utilities prices in the coming years because of increase of EV’s, which eventually will make it more expensive to own an EV as rates will skyrocket. While gasoline will stay reasonably affordable in comparison especially in other states other than CA. I hope GM redoes this logo ASAP! it hurts the eyes...

  • RHD RHD on Jan 13, 2021

    The logo is getting smaller and weaker, just like GM's (I mean, gm's) share of vehicle sales. Behind this change is, somehow, Mary Barra's demasculinization of the company. The old logo will be kept in her purse, which will be held by her husband while she's at the mall, shopping at Torrid.

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