The writer, a Los Angeles freelancer and former Detroit News business reporter, writes a blog, Starkman Approved, where this column first appeared.
By Eric Starkman
Combating climate change was President Biden’s signature policy initiative. He called it “a blinking code red for our nation” and a U.S. national security threat. EV adoption was the cornerstone of Biden’s agenda, and he hailed GM CEO Mary Barra as leading the way.
“In the auto industry, Detroit is leading the world in electric vehicles,” Biden crowed during a November 17, 2021 news conference at the opening of GM’s Factory Zero electric vehicle plant in Detroit, where he was photographed in a monster EV Hummer.
“You know how critical it is? Mary, I can remember talking to you way back in January about the need for America to lead in electric vehicles. I can remember your dramatic announcement that by 2035, GM would be 100% electric. You changed the whole story, Mary. You did, Mary. You electrified the entire automotive industry. I’m serious. You led, and it matters.”
Biden was reportedly very close with Barra and one of his top aides was a former GM lobbyist, whose brother also lobbied for the automaker. At the time of Biden’s celebration of Barra, GM had only delivered 26 EVs while Tesla was delivering roughly 300,000 per quarter. Still, Barra was on record as being all in on EVs and was hailed by environmentalists and in the media for her ambitious EV promise.
Barra’s EV pipedreams have proven to be a miserable failure. In addition to never gaining traction profitably selling them, GM has written off more than $7 billion on its wasted EV investments, many of them subsidized by U.S. taxpayers. GM’s electric vehicles are problem-plagued with software issues. Consumer Reports ranks the electric Cadillac Lyriq, which Barra said was the vanguard of GM’s EV transformation, among the least dependable luxury SUVs on the market.
Adding insult to environmental injury, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Barra spearheaded Congressional efforts to overturn the state’s ambitious EV mandates.
Barra’s EV failures have been well publicized, yet GM still claims it is pursuing Barra’s zero emissions “north star” ambitions on its website. It’s yet another example of the disconnect between what Barra says and what GM does. The climate scorecard for Biden’s supposed climate savior shows GM’s efforts to reduce emissions from its vehicle fleet rank among the worst in the automotive industry.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2026 Automotive Trends Report, GM’s fleet averaged just 22.9 miles per gallon in the 2024 model year, placing the company near the bottom of the industry. Stellantis performed a tad worse, at 22.8 mpg, but GM sells significantly more vehicles in the U.S., meaning its vehicles rank No. 1 overall for gas consumption. The industry average was 27.2 mpg; GM trails the broader market by more than four miles per gallon.
The comparison with GM rivals who compete in global markets is even more striking.
Among traditional automakers, Honda averaged 31.0 mpg, Hyundai posted 29.8 mpg, Kia reached 29.2 mpg, and Toyota delivered 29.0 mpg. Even Ford, another Detroit truck-heavy manufacturer, managed 23.4 mpg. While GM improved slightly from 22.4 mpg in 2023 to 22.9 mpg in 2024, the gain barely dents the gap with the rest of the industry, which has steadily improved fuel economy over the past five years.
GM’s dismal record extends beyond tailpipe efficiency. In the latest Lead the Charge Auto Supply Chain Leaderboard, which ranks automakers on the sustainability and transparency of their electric vehicle supply chains, GM fell three places to 10th overall, the largest drop among the 18 companies evaluated. GM was the only automaker in the ranking that failed to publish a 2025 sustainability report, costing the company points across multiple disclosure and transparency metrics.
Let that sink in: Biden’s climate savior was the only automaker who couldn’t be bothered to publish an annual sustainability report after President Trump’s election.
Other automakers are moving in the opposite direction. Since the Leaderboard launched, Tesla, Ford, Volvo, Mercedes, and Volkswagen have improved their supply-chain sustainability practices at roughly twice the rate of their peers, according to the report. While many automakers still rely on generic compliance programs, the industry’s leaders are increasingly adopting more targeted strategies to address the environmental and human-rights risks associated with battery materials.
GM is now ranked as the worst-performing automaker among all major U.S. and European manufacturers in the human rights category of the leaderboard.
GM’s poor fuel economy reflects a business model built around some of the largest and most profitable vehicles on the road. Full-size pickups and large SUVs such as the Chevrolet Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban, GMC Yukon, and Cadillac Escalade generate far higher profit margins than smaller, more efficient vehicles. Wall Street analysts routinely estimate that Detroit automakers can earn $10,000 or more in profit on a well-equipped full-size pickup.
While Barra has assured Wall Street analysts there is strong demand for GM’s trucks and SUVs, consumer appetite could fast wane if America’s attack on Iran continues to drive up the price of gas U.S. consumers pay at the pump.
In six past oil crises, auto sales dropped by more than 10% of average levels. Three of those times, they plunged by 40% or more of average sales, according to the Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group.
Using the Federal Highway Administration’s estimate that Americans drive 13,596 miles per year, a 4.3 mpg fuel-efficiency deficit translates into roughly 118 additional gallons of gasoline burned annually.
At today’s U.S. average gasoline price of $3.63 per gallon, that gap adds about $430 a year to a driver’s fuel bill.
California drivers face a far steeper penalty. With gasoline prices in Los Angeles and San Francisco already exceeding $5.40 per gallon in some areas, the same efficiency gap costs motorists roughly $640 a year, or about $53 every month.
The situation could become much worse. Analysts at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policymaking warn that if instability in the Middle East disrupts global oil supplies, particularly through a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, gasoline prices in California could surge toward $7.50 or even $10 per gallon in some markets.
At $10 a gallon, that same 4.3 mpg efficiency gap would translate into nearly $1,200 in additional fuel costs every year for drivers. A seemingly small difference in fuel economy quietly drains hundreds, and potentially thousands, of dollars from consumers’ wallets.
Soaring oil prices could be a boon for EV sales in California, already the largest electric vehicle market in the country. Unfortunately for Barra, GM’s electric vehicles have gained little traction in the state. In 2025, the Chevrolet Equinox EV was the only GM model to crack California’s top tier of electrified vehicle sales, and it barely did so. Tesla dominates the EV market, while Toyota and Honda hybrids fill much of the rest of the list.
Underscoring GM’s weak EV traction in California, the Honda Prologue ranked as the state’s 10th best-selling electric vehicle in 2025. The Prologue is built by GM in Mexico using the same Ultium architecture that underpins the Chevrolet Blazer EV. Yet the Honda-branded model cracked California’s top ten while GM’s own Blazer failed to place among the state’s 25 top-selling electrified vehicles.
California’s environmentally minded voters may be even less inclined to buy GM’s EVs if they become aware they are supporting a company that still generates most of its profits from gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs, particularly if Barra’s efforts to overturn California’s EV mandates also become widely known.
The most striking weakness in GM’s strategy is its near absence from the hybrid market. While Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai spent two decades refining hybrid systems that improve fuel economy without forcing consumers to fully embrace electric vehicles, GM largely skipped the hybrid phase and instead bet heavily on a rapid transition to fully electric cars.
That gamble increasingly looks misguided. Hybrids are among the fastest growing segments of the U.S. auto market, yet GM offers almost none outside the Corvette E-Ray, a $100,000 performance car with little relevance for mainstream drivers trying to save money at the pump.
GM’s absence from the hybrid market is particularly striking because the company once led the industry in electrified powertrains. The Chevrolet Volt, developed under legendary product chief Bob Lutz and launched in 2010, was widely praised as one of the most innovative vehicles of its generation. The car allowed drivers to commute on electricity while retaining a gasoline engine for longer trips, eliminating range anxiety years before Tesla popularized battery electric cars.
In my West Los Angeles neighborhood, the Volt remains one of the most common GM vehicles I see on the road. Owners I have spoken with swear by its quality and reliability, a reminder that GM once built an electrified vehicle consumers genuinely loved.
Instead of expanding that technology across its lineup, Barra cancelled the Volt in 2019. In hindsight, GM did not merely cancel a niche vehicle. It abandoned a technology that could have positioned the company squarely in one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. auto market.
Barra has since dismissed plug-in hybrids such as the Volt, citing studies suggesting drivers rarely plug them in. The claim largely stems from European fleet data where company car policies often reimburse gasoline but not electricity, giving drivers little incentive to charge their vehicles. Volt owners typically drove the majority of their miles on electricity and often went weeks between visits to the gas pump.
Toyota made a very different decision. It treated the Prius as the starting point of a long-term electrification strategy and steadily expanded hybrid technology across its lineup. Today nearly half of Toyota’s U.S. sales are electrified, most of them hybrids. The company even converted its flagship Camry sedan to a hybrid-only powertrain beginning with the 2025 model year.
Toyota has sold more than five million Prius hybrids worldwide. GM’s Volt remained a niche product, with fewer than 160,000 units sold globally before Barra mothballed the vehicle in 2019.
Growing consumer demand for hybrids increasingly validates Toyota’s approach. Hybrid sales in the United States surged more than 50 percent in 2025, pushing Toyota’s electrified vehicle sales above one million units.
As of this month, nine of the ten vehicles in shortest supply belong to Toyota or Lexus, both operating with an industry-low 28-to-33-day supply. The Toyota Sienna and Highlander are turning in just 20 to 21 days of inventory, often already spoken for before they even leave the factory.
The No. 2 vehicle in shortest supply: the electric Lexus RZ.
By contrast, vehicle sales data from March signals storm clouds gathering over GM dealerships, with truck inventory exceeding 100 days in some regions.
That’s forcing GM to sacrifice its margins and offer sweetheart deals to move vehicles many consumers increasingly struggle to finance or fuel. The average price of a full-size pickup now exceeds $60,000, with many popular trims pushing past $70,000. Average new vehicle payments hover around $730 per month, while payments on high-trim trucks can approach $1,000.
To keep trucks moving off dealer lots, GM is offering aggressive incentives, including zero percent financing for 36 months and $1,750 cash allowances even on the Sierra 1500, whose base trim has a starting MSRP of $38,300. GM also is utilizing Costco’s auto buying program to help clear inventory, a channel more commonly associated with discounted pricing than the high-margin trucks that underpin GM’s profits.
GM’s dependence on high-margin trucks leaves the company further exposed if fuel prices continue to rise or consumer credit tightens because of what credible analysts say is a looming private credit crisis. Much of the auto industry’s recent sales growth has been supported by easy credit and extended loan terms. If private credit markets tighten or delinquency rates continue rising, more consumers could find themselves priced out of the very trucks that underpin GM’s profits and fund the billions in stock buybacks Barra has authorized to prop up GM’s stock price.
Massive recalls and class-action lawsuits alleging that the engines of GM’s trucks are failing prematurely could also impair sales.
What’s undeniable is that the executive Biden hailed as his climate savior now presides over the most gas-thirsty vehicle lineup in America. Factory Zero, where Biden hailed Barra’s emissions reduction initiatives, hasn’t aged well.
GM earlier this year laid off 1,145 workers and has curtailed its EV production. And that EV Hummer Biden raved about? GM in 2025 sold fewer than 8,000 units, while Ford sold 27,307 electric F-150 Lightnings and Tesla sold 20,240 Cybertrucks.
For a vehicle once hailed as a symbol of America’s clean-energy future, the Hummer’s environmental footprint is difficult to ignore.
A climate group ranked the EV Hummer, which weighs more than 9,000 pounds, among the twelve most environmentally harmful vehicles on the market, along with GM’s Cadillac Escalade V, the GMC Sierra, and the Corvette Z06.
President Biden said Mary Barra “electrified the entire automotive industry.”
The numbers tell a very different story. Barra presides over one of the most gasoline-dependent vehicle fleets in America.
For a company that markets itself as a climate leader, the slogan “zero emissions” rings hollow. Any self-respecting environmentalist wouldn’t be caught dead in a GM vehicle.
