We are a little befuddled listening to what Mary Barra had to say about GM producing an all-electric truck. Who's Mary Barra? Well, she is the CEO of General Motors and. when asked about doing an electric pickup truck to compete with Tesla’s upcoming pickup, she did not have any answer and just commented, ‘stay tuned.’ Stay tuned to watch GM go down?

The Controversial Statement

This incident happened at the Wolfe Research Global Auto Industry Conference earlier this year. So, this is what Barra answered, “Well, what I would say is we’ve been very clear. We believe in an all EV future. We have invested heavily in fuel cells as well, but beyond that, I don’t have anything specific to say. But I think if you look at where… our very strong statements are believing in all EV future… stay tuned.”

Fuel Cells Are A Lost Cause

So, there to two things to focus on here. Secondly, the company is still investing on fuel cells, whereas the future is battery-electric vehicles. For the uninitiated, a fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the potential energy from water into electricity through an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen fuel with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. These are different from batteries used in conventional EVs as they require a continuous source of fuel and oxygen, usually from air, to sustain the chemical reaction; whereas in a battery, the chemical energy comes from chemicals already present in the battery.

Our Take

This caught us off-guard because earlier this month, the automaker confirmed that it's moving away from hybrids to focus on all-electric vehicles. Now, we understand that mainstream automakers have received a jolt from start-ups like Tesla and Rivian, who are light years ahead of them in terms of technology. However, this does not mean that a company continues to invest in less-efficient fuel cells just because it has gained technical knowledge in the field after years of research and development. The company's truck division, GMC, will also be electrifying its whole range soon. Ms. CEO, when you have so much going on already, why would you make such vague statements on your future plans? Hopefully, sanity will prevail, and General Motors gets to see the light of the day in the rEVolution.

Further reading

Read our full review on the 2019 GMC Sierra.

Read our full review on the 2020 Rivian R1T Pickup.

Read our full review on the 2020 Atlis XT Electric Truck.