General Motors announced it will produce hybrid vehicles. The company that spent the last decade killing sedans and pumping out Tahoes the size of studio apartments now believes in fuel efficiency. They called themselves "not tone deaf." That's the corporate equivalent of your ex texting "I've changed" at 2 AM.
Hybrids are selling. People want them. GM noticed this approximately seven years after Toyota did. Revolutionary.
The auto industry operates on a simple principle: ignore what customers want until a competitor makes money doing it, then act like you invented the concept. GM watched Ford sell Mavericks. Watched Honda move CR-Vs. Did nothing. Now hybrid sales are climbing and suddenly GM has an epiphany that sounds suspiciously like a quarterly earnings call went badly.
Retail traders will buy GM stock on this news. They'll call it a pivot. They'll say the company is "listening to the market." They'll ignore that GM is simply late to a party that started during the Obama administration. These are the same people who bought Nikola because the truck rolled downhill real smooth.
GM's pitch is essentially "we hear you." That's not a strategy. That's what you say when you've been caught not listening. The company spent years betting Americans would buy trucks forever because gas was cheap and credit was cheaper. Then gas stopped being cheap. Turns out when it costs ninety bucks to fill a Silverado, people reconsider their choices.
The hybrid announcement contains zero specifics. No models. No timeline. No production numbers. Just vibes. GM will make hybrids the same way I'll start going to the gym: eventually, maybe, if circumstances align and I feel like it.
But sure, give them credit for discovering what everyone else knew in 2019.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
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