The economy is a bit wobbly, but General Motors CEO Mary Barra isn’t backing off of an audacious prediction: By the middle of this decade, her company will sell more electric vehicles in the US than Tesla, the global sales leader. To fulfil that pledge in as little as 2 1/2 years, she faces some long odds against immense economic forces that are working against auto sales.
Inflation has spiked, interest rates are rising, material costs have soared and a global shortage of computer chips is still braking assembly lines at GM and other companies.