GM’s Embarrassing Deal With Nikola
The carmaker’s $2 billion deal with an unproven upstart reveals just how little confidence it has to beat Tesla
In December 2016, a half year before Tesla released its mainstream-priced Model 3, GM delivered its first all-electric Bolts to customers. The arrival of the two vehicles marked a crucial moment in the industry, when it would finally be possible to know whether the mass market was prepared to buy electric vehicles in large numbers.
The Tesla was swankier, but in almost every other way the cars were comparable: Like the Model 3, the Bolt went more than 200 miles on a single charge and was priced at around $35,000 before government rebates. Technology experts gave the Bolt rave reviews, including Motor Trend, which declared it the 2017 Car of the Year. By the end of 2017, GM was looking very good indeed — it had sold about 24,000 Bolts, 13 times the 1,764 Model 3s sold by Tesla.
But in 2018, the first full year in which both vehicles were available, the competition flipped: Tesla sold almost 146,000 Model 3s, while GM delivered just 18,000 Bolts. It was not only a complete drubbing by Tesla, but a 23% drop from the Bolt’s 2017 sales, which, with the benefit of a year, looked like a low bar. Since then,Tesla has sold more than a half-million Model 3s…
