The writer is a Los Angeles freelancer and former Detroit News business reporter. He blogs at StarkmanApproved.com.
By Eric Starkman
GM CEO Mary Barra is blessed that her fawning auto media admirers are content serving as stenographers, slurping up whatever manure Barra serves up with nary a critical thought or analysis. The reporting on Barra’s $28 million compensation for 2023 is a case in point.
Here’s a link to a CNBC story published two years ago reporting Barra’s pronouncement that her compensation and that of her lieutenants would be tied to volumes of electric vehicles GM sold in North America, as well as launch timing of the EVs.
“At GM, our compensation has always been driven by the company’s success. And no one should doubt our commitment to lead in EVs or the passion our team has for that mission,” Barra said on GM’s 2022 first quarter earnings call.
At the time, Barra also pledged that GM would become the top-selling automaker of EVs, surpassing Elon Musk’s Tesla by the end of 2025.
When it comes to EVs, Barra is best likened to Javier Báez, the subpar Detroit Tigers shortstop who signed a six-year, $140 million contract before the 2022 season and has performed dreadfully.
Báez at least bats .192. Barra has miserably struck out every time she’s stepped up to EV plate.
By any measure, Barra’s EV transition has been a colossal failure, and I defy anyone to come up with one reasonable metric where she can claim even a modicum of success. Every EV vehicle that GM has launched has been fraught with problems and delays, including the EV Hummer that GM had to issue a stop sale on because water was potentially leaking into the battery and the Mexican-made EV Blazer, which GM had to stop selling after the vehicle was mercilessly trashed by two trade publications because of software issues.
Lags Way Behind
Not only isn’t GM close to selling more EVs than Tesla, the company lags Ford’s and Hyundai’s EV sales.
Cruise driverless car
GM last year was forced to take its Cruise driveress taxis off the road because of safety issues and allegations the company’s management deceived regulators. GM invested billions in Cruise and Barra was berating analysts for underappreciating Cruise’s potential right up to the moment when the company was forced to sideline its vehicles.
Barra chairs Cruise’s board and is ultimately responsible for overseeing the company’s management. Barra also tapped Arden Hoffman, Cruise’s chief people officer, for the same role at GM. A law firm hired to investigate Cruise concluded that the company’s culture contributed to its regulatory and other lapses.
Hoffman was ultimately responsible for that culture.
Hybrids are all the rage these days, and after first resisting them, Barra says GM will now embrace them. GM in 2011 introduced a hybrid called the Chevy Volt, which is still very popular in California, possibly more so than any other GM vehicle in Los Angeles. Every Volt owner I’ve spoken with said they loved their vehicle.
Chevy Volt
Barra killed the Volt in 2019. Notably, the vehicle was conceived prior to Barra taking over GM. My guess is that the brains behind the Volt are no longer with GM, fired or retired by Barra or poached by companies that value innovative talent.
Then there’s GM’s disaster in China, where the company lost $106 million last year. GM once commanded a 15% market share in China and sales in that country fueled GM’s profits. China’s successful transition to EVs happened right under GM’s corporate nose but the company was too clueless to notice and respond.
Gas Guzzlers
In addition to smearing anyone who criticizes Barra as being sexist, Barra’s defenders also note that GM is still mighty profitable selling unispiring gas guzzling trucks and SUVs, which GM has reverted to emphasizing to Wall Street. That’s what I find most galling of all.
President Biden in 2022 issued a dire warning saying that climate change was “literally an existential threat to our nation and to the world” and that he was committed to taking action.
“I’ll say it again loud and clear: As President, I’ll use my executive powers to combat climate – the climate crisis in the absence of congressional actions,” Biden thundered.
Yet the media and environmentalists have given Barra a pass for not only failing to reduce GM’s emissions, but actually increasing them because of her focus on selling gas guzzling vehicles. According to the EPA’s 2023 report, GM’s carbon emissions increased more than any automaker except Honda in the 2017-2022 period.
The Hummer
Adding insult to injury, GM’s EV Hummer was ranked by a climate change alarmist group as one of the most environmentally harmful vehicles, worse than most gas engine vehicles. Making an EV that’s more environmentally harmful than a gas engine vehicle is no mean feat, but Barra pulled it off.
This is why many Americans are cynical about climate change warnings. President Biden declares “code red” for the environment and his good bud Mary Barra ignores his warnings and continues to make vehicles that environmentalists say are harmful – and pays herself $28 million as a reward.
Spare me the argument that Barra is accountable to GM’s board. She is both chair and CEO, which every legitimate corporate governance expert will tell you is cause for alarm. The board chair sets the agenda, and if the CEO of a company holds that position as well, they have undue control.
Barra’s media defenders are using the $40 million Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares received for 2023 to distract from her $28 million payout. Comparing Barra to Tavares is akin to likening Javier Báez to retired Tigers slugger Miguel Carberra.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares
Stellantis’ profits in 2023 were double that of GM’s, and Wall Street values the company at almost the combined worth of GM and Ford. Unlike Barra, Tavares understood that consumers wouldn’t readily embrace EVs and adopted a more cautious approach, which he’s sticking to.
Tavares is still in his early innings with his successful merger integration of Peugeot maker PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. My suspicion is that a critical focus of Tavares these days is reducing Stellantis’ Michigan footprint to near zero, particularly with UAW president Shawn Fain publicly disparaging the company and Tavares’ leadership as “pathetic.”
With due respect to Fain, negotiating a contract that results in thousands of your members losing their jobs qualifies as “pathetic” in many circles.
Dangerous Hummer
I’m going to use this column to again warn about the dangers of Barra’s EV Hummer, which weighs more than 9,000 pounds and two reviewers have warned has inadequate braking power (see here and here for my previous warnings). I urge you to watch the video embedded in this story featuring an electric F-150 Ford Lightning pickup at Diamond Car Wash and Detail in Plymouth where a driver accidentally hit the accelerator and damaged seven vehicles.
The Lightning weighs between 4,391 to 5,863 pounds. Imagine the carnage if an EV Hummer driver mistakenly hit the accelerator at a car wash. The monster vehicle can go from 0-60 in less than four seconds.
In my mind, anyone who drives an EV Hummer is telegraphing to the world they are selfish and care not one iota about the safety of others. Know who proudly drives an EV Hummer?
Reach the writer at eric@starkmanapproved.com. Confidentiality is assured.
