Sept. 16, 2025 | GM CEO Mary Barra Interview Part 2

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Welcome to Daily Drive for Tuesday, September 16th, 2025.

I'm Kallen Walker in Las Vegas.

Today on the show, a fifth of all auto suppliers

topple into financial distress.

GM shuts down its Chevy Colorado plant for three weeks

due to a part shortage and Ford plans to cut 1,000 jobs

at its German EV plant.

Plus, in the second and final part of our exclusive interview

with General Motors CEO, Mary Barra,

she talks about growing manufacturing challenges

and how hybrids fit into future product plans.

We're gonna be positioned to compete well,

but also be good stewards of our owner's capital

and how we deploy R&D dollars.

Let's run through all the news you need to know

to keep up in the auto industry.

At least 20% of automotive suppliers

are in financial distress.

On top of that, parts maker executives

are more pessimistic about business conditions

than they have been in years.

That's according to two recent studies.

An analysis of the automotive supply chain

by financial analytics firm, Rapid Ratings,

found that about one in five automotive suppliers

were already in financial distress

before the impact of tariffs began to be felt.

It also found that tariffs, as they stand,

could lead to a 23% increase

in the number of distressed suppliers.

Meanwhile, a recent survey by MEMA

found that the average business sentiment

of supplier executives is at its lowest level since 2009.

During the height of the Great Recession,

that's with the exception of one quarter in 2020.

General Motors will idle its mid-sized pickup plan

in Missouri for three weeks starting this month.

The automaker says that's because

of a parts availability issue.

Employees at GM's Wentzville Assembly Plant

will be on temporary layoff

from September 29th through October 19th.

That's according to UAW Local 2250,

which represents workers at the plant near St. Louis.

A person with knowledge of GM's plants

told Automotive News that about 3,800 employees

will be affected

with some stamping and body shop functions continuing.

And Ford says it will cut up to 1,000 jobs

in electric car production at its factory

in Cologne, Germany due to weak demand.

In a statement, Ford said, quote,

in Europe, demand for electric cars

remains well below industry forecast.

It says the factory will switch

to a single shift from January, 2026.

Ford said it would offer voluntary layoff packages

to affected workers.

And those are today's headlines.

You can find more details on all those stories

at AutoNews.com.

In recent days, we've been talking a lot on the show

about automakers slowing EV production and cutting staff.

Last week at Automotive News Congress,

Director of Technology and Innovation Coverage,

Hannah Lutz, spoke with experts

about the state of electrification and what comes next.

In this clip, we'll hear from Elizabeth Krier,

CEO of the Center for Automotive Research

and Jeff Morrison, Senior Vice President

of Global Purchasing and Supply Chain at General Motors.

Here's a piece of their conversation.

So we all know that EV transition has slowed

with reduced federal incentives and shifting policies.

How is the industry responding both for the near term

and then also competitively for the long-term outlook?

Elizabeth, why don't you start us off?

Yeah, I'd like to kind of start with the grounding

of policy and the impact on the market.

So if we think about two years ago or even one year ago,

policy was aligned with the EV transition, right?

Consumer incentives, investment in charging

and manufacturing, there was a willingness

to accept independent state zero mandates

and even penalties if automakers don't meet prescribed

fuel economy criteria and emissions criteria.

Now, fast forward, everything is being recalibrated

and the market is responding.

From a consumer standpoint, EV sales are actually up

this year and particularly this quarter.

There's somewhat of a buy now

before October one mentality.

So we're really gonna have to watch what happens in Q4.

But the reality is that the barriers to adoption,

affordability and infrastructure are still very real.

And without public funding,

those challenges become harder to overcome

and could slow down.

And we know through history, right?

Incentives were never meant to be there full time.

We saw that in Germany, 55% reduction

when the incentive went away.

We saw it earlier this year in Canada.

And so now we're seeing automakers.

We're seeing them pull back on delaying

some of their EV launches,

pulling back on some of the capacity investment.

And meanwhile, China and to a lesser degree,

the European Union, they're outpacing

the US and EV adoption.

And the risk goes beyond just the pace

of EV adoption in the US.

But these countries are also bringing to market

low-cost EVs at a much faster pace.

So the risk to the US is losing the competitive edge

in the next generation of automotive technology.

So, Jeff, how is GM and your suppliers

that you work with really preparing for this change?

So I think the focus is really,

it's long-term planning for sure,

but we wanna have the short-term flexibility

to really meet the market where it's at.

So from a supply chain standpoint,

we wanna make sure with our partners,

we can support ICE versus EV at whatever mix that is

for our great vehicles that we have in both,

at the same time ensuring that we meet the customer

where they're at at that point in time.

We're really proud of the work that we've done

from an EV supply chain standpoint

to really build out the ability to do batteries

all the way back to critical minerals and processing

here in the US.

And I think that that work continues

and that will continue to evolve.

And then from an ICE standpoint,

we wanna be able to work with our suppliers

to really have that flexibility

and try to industrialize them in a way that

we can help mitigate some of that uncertainty

risk between the ICE and EV labs.

Jeff Morrison is Senior Vice President

of Global Purchasing and Supply Chain at General Motors.

Elizabeth Krier is CEO of the Center

for Automotive Research.

They spoke with our own Hannah Lutz

at Automotive News Congress,

along with Elaine Buckberg,

Senior Fellow at Harvard University's

Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability.

You can hear more from that conversation

on this week's episode of SHIFT,

a podcast about mobility,

available now wherever you get your podcast.

Coming up, the second and final portion

of our exclusive interview with General Motors'

CEO, Mary Bara.

That's next on Daily Drive.

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Welcome back to Daily Drive.

I'm Kellan Walker.

On yesterday's show,

we brought you the first part

of Automotive News's exclusive interview

with General Motors CEO, Mary Bara.

She sat down with her own Lindsey Van Hully

and Nick Bunkley after last week's

Automotive News Congress,

where she gave a keynote interview

on stage earlier in the day.

In the second and final part of the conversation,

Bara talks about how shifting policies in Washington

are affecting GM's manufacturing strategies

and product plans.

Now on stage downstairs, you talked about,

you mentioned like a couple of decision points

over the last few years that you kind of would

go and see how things are going

and then just decide what the market's telling you.

Can you talk a little bit more

about what that might mean?

I'm not gonna get into what the specific models are,

but as we were planning a new program,

how many different versions of the vehicle did we do?

We had those choices that we could make,

but we didn't have to make them the minute

we started the program.

And so we literally told the team,

hey, tell us when you need this decision from us

to keep it on track.

And they came in and we had a lot more information

a year, 15 months, 18 months later,

to say, okay, with this information,

this is the decision.

And I think that kind of shows the agility

that we've developed at General Motors of,

it's not just here's the plan,

go execute and don't pay attention

to anything else that's happening around you,

but let's continue to be able to address.

There was a point in time in my career

where we'd work on the portfolio plan going forward

and we would do it, it was an annual process.

Trust me, it's not an annual process anymore.

But again, I'm proud of how we can sense and respond

and make those decisions as we go forward.

And I guess on the other side of,

if you're able to produce and sell ice,

Silverado's and Tahoe's and Escalade's

and the things that generate the profits

that have supported a lot of the company over the years.

And is that also a positive for the company?

I think that's a huge positive to continue

to serve the market from a heavy duty,

light duty trucks for both Chevrolet and GMC,

the Silverado and the Sierra,

as well as our full size utilities

with the Tahoe and Suburban and Escalade and the Yukon.

And also we have a strong franchise

from a crossover perspective.

When you think about the Chevy Traverse

and the Buick Enclave and the GMC Acadia.

So we are well positioned and even in our small cars

when you look at the Chevrolet Trax,

Trailblazer and the Buick Enclave and Invistia.

So I think we're really well positioned

with our internal combustion engine platform.

And it is a huge opportunity for us

to be able to sell more of those

as the regulatory environment changes.

So again, we'll make the adjustments we need to

to respond to the market as we continue on our journey.

We believe growing EV sales, albeit at a different rate.

And maybe give you a chance to have the EVs

be a little more profitable by the time that that people.

Exactly, we're not stopping our work

on continuing to improve profitability.

So it's a great point.

You know, you talked a minute ago

about waiting to get to that point

where you have to make a decision

and how that is happening much faster.

How much more complicated

has product planning gotten right now?

Is there a lot more frequent pivots,

a lot more changes in a plan that made sense 18 months ago

that maybe doesn't fit where the demand is going now?

Well, I think, you know, if you go back

when you say 18 months ago, that was, you know,

we were on a path where we were working

to a 2030 goal with fairly stringent emission standards.

In fact, even with the previous administration,

I was, you know, making sure they understood

my view was they were getting ahead of the customer

with where the regulatory environment's going.

I think that's a dangerous point in a situation like this.

And so obviously there's been some reassessment

of not only what we build, but where we build it

in this past period of time.

But again, I think we're more able to look

at what's happening in the marketplace.

We're learning a lot from our EV customers,

looking at all that information.

And again, we've become much more agile

and flexible at being able to respond

and make whether it's not 180 degree decisions,

but it's a 10% tweak here, a 20% tweak there.

Obviously are looking at a longer runway

for internal combustion engines.

You've said that EVs remain the North Star.

Hybrids have been on the table,

and I wonder sort of how they fit into the plan

going forward as part of that broader powertrain mix.

Well, we've said, we haven't announced specifics,

but we said we will launch some hybrids,

but I think we have to stay focused on the fact

that it wasn't even 10 years ago,

there were a lot of hybrids in the market

and the sales went up and the sales went down.

What we have also seen from plug-in hybrids,

there's a lot of data, people buy a plug-in hybrid

and they never plug it in.

And so I think there's still a lot to learn

from a hybrid perspective.

And you also have to step back and understand

then that vehicle has two propulsion systems on it.

So that inherently makes it more expensive.

So we're gonna do the right hybrids

that we think are important for our portfolio,

but I also think we have a very strong EV portfolio

and a very strong internal combustion.

And in some cases, our regular internal combustion engine

gives you better fuel economy

and overall driving experience.

So we're gonna continue to,

I think we're gonna be positioned to compete well,

but also be good stewards of our owner's capital

and how we deploy R&D dollars.

How do you look at that demand curve for hybrids?

And you talked in the past about how it went up

and then went down.

We're still seeing a lot of demand for them right now.

Do you see that carrying on for a few more years?

Do you think that your hybrids would arrive on time for that?

Is that something that you think you'll be able to launch

into that curve?

I think we'll have them at the right time.

And I think there's still a lot to learn.

So it's obviously one of the areas we're watching closely.

But we've had hybrids in the past,

we understand the technology.

So we're very capable of doing this.

You mentioned engines.

And I wanna ask about the V8 situation that's happening now.

And I wanna ask it, I think through,

just looking across the industry,

GM is not the only automaker that has had recalls

and trying to work through warranty issues

and problems with the big engines.

And I'm wondering when you think about maybe a higher level,

is there, do you see anything that links those?

Is there something, whether it's,

COVID and engineers working from home

or maybe a shift to EVs,

where the focus hadn't been on engines entirely?

Is there something that you think links that

or there might be some contributing factor

across the industry when it comes to the issues

that are coming up?

And I don't have the information to pinpoint it

on one specific thing.

I think what we're doing now, because everything,

the engines are very complex,

transmissions are complex, the vehicles complex,

is we're working hand in hand with our suppliers to drive

to make sure they're leveraging

and using the same type of process control

that we use, sharing, lessons learned, et cetera.

So we're really working with their supply base

and then working across the company as a top priority

to make sure, because one of the things we've seen

with quality issues is once you have one,

just the cost of repairing is much higher.

We're working on all aspects of it,

but I can't pinpoint and say it's because of this

or because of that.

I think there's a lot of complexity in our business.

I just can tell you what we're doing at GM

and we're looking at all facets of it.

We've had a couple very specific issues

that ended up being large from the population

because in some cases we didn't have the right ability

to say, okay, when exactly was the change made?

So we've got it, we're always gonna do the right thing

for our consumer.

But I would say as I look across our quality systems,

I have a lot of faith in them.

We've had some, I'll say a couple special clause

type issues that we're doing the right thing

for the customer.

And I know that you're investing,

you mentioned this earlier

in developing that next generation of the V8.

And when you look at how that work is happening

and really from the quality perspective,

kind of how you're working now ahead of that launch

to get the launch correct, the quality correct

to deliver the engine that you want

for customers right off the bat.

Well, that's exactly what we're doing.

We always, anytime we learn something

from something that we have in the field,

we make sure we not only make sure

in the next version of it's gonna be fixed,

but we do what we call a read across

and we do that across the globe.

And also our engineers to get into and say, okay,

this happened, what could be something

that might be related to that?

So I'm really proud of that process

because it's one thing to have a problem,

it's another thing to have it the second time.

So that's the work the team does by standard process.

So Emily, when you look at gasoline engines

versus EV powertrains for a long number of years recently,

the shift obviously has been to spend more resources

across the industry in electric powertrains

and not as much in gasoline engines.

Are you at GM or in general in the industry,

are you seeing that change more

where people are going back more toward combustion engines

or was that always happening?

Well, I can't speak to what everyone else is doing.

I think we had regular engine programs,

we have great engines in our vehicles.

And so it was really a focus of how do we continue to improve

from a performance perspective, from a emissions perspective.

And we had very specific programs that we had planned to do

because even in the previous regulatory world,

we still planned on having these vehicles

into the 2035 timeframe.

And there's a lot of time between now and then there was

and there still is for us to,

so I've stopped the world of predicting

what's going to happen.

But so we were making the right investments already

knowing that we were gonna have another decade

and potentially that might be longer,

but I think we had already made those plans

and we feel good about where we're at

from investing in an internal combustion engine

technology perspective.

You know, to close, you've talked on stage

about this being a complicated time,

but also an exciting time in the industry.

You know, there's the shift to electrification,

a lot of the work that GM is doing around software

and autonomy.

You know, when you take a step back

and you think about all of the different areas

you're investing in and the things you're working on,

what do you see as the biggest growth areas for GM?

You know, when you look at where you want

the company to be, what are you focused on now

that you think are the biggest areas really

where that's gonna happen?

Well, I would say a couple of things.

One, first of all, it's all on a car.

So it all starts with having beautifully designed vehicles

with the right technology, right safety,

the right attributes and feature functionality.

But with that, I'm very excited about what software can do.

I think the vehicle, we're at the early days

of the vehicle is a software platform

and how do we continue to add things to it

that make the customer's life easier?

We can do things unique with having the information

and what's happening in the vehicle.

So there's so many things I'm excited.

I'm not gonna share our future product roadmap,

but I'm excited about many of those things

and then ultimately with autonomy.

You know, very proud of SuperCruise.

It's award-winning driver assistance technology.

We've integrated, as we set out to do last fall

when we made the announcement

that we were not gonna continue

in the robo taxi business,

but having integrated plan with our cruise team

and the GM team.

So I'm excited about autonomy

and how we're gonna continue to add features

on our way to full autonomy.

So I think those are a couple of things

I'm really excited about.

But again, it all starts when someone buys a car.

And if I could just ask also on those topics

for a big portion of our audience,

the dealers, how do you think of the franchise network

fitting into your talking about all the software

and autonomy and things that on the surface

don't necessarily seem to involve

that transaction that's happened

for so many years at the dealership like it used to.

How does that, how do you work with that?

I think a lot of, I mean, SuperCruise as a technology,

it's a technology on a vehicle

and ABS was a technology that went across the industry

and across all vehicles.

I mean, I think as I reinforced it's

nothing happens to you sell a car

and there are very strategic partner

in selling vehicles, servicing customers,

making sure they have a phenomenal experience.

I'm proud of our dealers across the board

that we continue to outperform

from a sales service and satisfaction perspective.

So I think our dealers are gonna continue

to be an incredibly important key partners

in the future of gel motors.

Mary Bar, thank you very much for joining us today.

Thank you very much, appreciate it.

That's Daily Drive for today.

I'm Kellan Walker.

Thanks to Automotive News executive producer Jake Neer

as well as our own John Irwin,

Lindsey Van Hully and Hannah Lutz

for their reporting for today's podcast.

You can get the latest news on electrification,

supply chain and everything happening

in the auto industry at AutoNews.com.

Come back tomorrow for a conversation

with Hyundai Motor Group executive chair, Yusun Chung.

Our government and US government,

they are working closely

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and I hope we can make it together a better system.

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