General Motors Co. is accelerating its electric vehicle production.
In a letter to shareholders, GM CEO Mary Barra wrote that 2023 will be a “breakout year” for the company’s electric vehicle business. The auto manufacturer is “accelerating production of the Cadillac LYRIQ, GMC HUMMER EV and BrightDrop Zevo 600.” It will also launch such vehicles as the Chevrolet Silverado EV, Blazer EV, and Equinox EV. All told, GM is on track to produce 400,000 EVs in North America from 2022 through the first half of next year.
“Our EVs are transformational in so many ways. We’re earning new customers. Our investments are creating new jobs,” Barra wrote. “We’re moving closer to a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion, and we believe our R&D, supply chain, manufacturing scale and distribution network will unlock the profitability of EVs.”
GM also announced plans to make a $650 million equity investment in Lithium Americas Corp. to develop Thacker Pass, a lithium mine in Nevada, the largest known source of lithium in the U.S. and the third-largest in the world. GM will receive exclusive access to Phase 1 production.
In addition, the company has commenced production of the GMC Hummer SUV EV. That vehicle is expected to be followed by an electric Chevrolet Silverado work truck by the middle of the year and electric versions of the Chevrolet Blazer and Equinox during the second half of 2023. And on top of all of this, the company posted strong quarterly earnings on Tuesday, beating analyst expectations for Q4.
Investors looking to capitalize on GM’s ramping up of its EV production may want to look into the Xtrackers S&P 500 ESG ETF (NYSE Arca: SNPE) or the Xtrackers S&P ESG Value ETF (SNPV), both of which have holdings in the company. SNPE seeks investment results that correspond generally to the performance of the S&P 500 ESG Index, which is designed to measure the performance of securities meeting sustainability criteria while maintaining similar overall industry group weights as the S&P 500.
Launched in November, SNPV seeks investment results that correspond generally to the performances, before fees and expenses, of the S&P 500 Value ESG Index, a broad-based, market capitalization-weighted index that provides exposure to companies with high ESG performance relative to their sector peers.
“DWS has continued to build out an ESG presence offering a sustainable alternative to popular S&P Dow Jones Index-based products,” said Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi.
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