WXYZ — On Thursday, General Motors shared its efforts to accelerate electric vehicle adoption and educate the public on EV technology.
The company gave a behind-the-scenes tour of a specially built studio at a secret location.
From the luxury Cadillac Lyriq to the Hummer to the Chevrolet Bolt, the space may look like a showroom floor for GM's electric vehicles. However, it is actually GM's EV Live studio.
An EV Live specialist interacts over the internet with anyone curious about EV technology. A specialist does a show-and-tell of the Ultium battery, which powers their vehicles, various charging stations and of several vehicles.
Hoss Hassani, GM’s vice president of Charging and Energy, said the live tour is a conversation driven by customers. The average session lasts 12 minutes.
“So, this studio, which is in our secret location, was entirely built, purpose built to educate people on those questions," he explained.
Hassani said they’ve heard just about every concern when it comes to electric vehicles. Among them, he said the most common include vehicle range or how far it can drive before it needs a charge.
“What we found is 300 miles is really that trigger point or threshold or start to consider an EV," he said.
Hassani said that will become less of a concern as more and more charging stations are built. So, charging accessibility is another popular concern at this point in time.
“We announced a $750 million investment in charging infrastructure over the next couple of years," he said. “...recognizing also that over 85% of charging is done at home.”
For those wondering about a battery’s life over time, Hossani explained, “We’re engineering our batteries to last the life of the vehicle and in some cases maybe outlast the vehicle itself.”
Another concern is costs.
When it comes to the idea of EV concerns hindering adoption, Hossani said, "We saw 6% of all new vehicle sales in the U.S. last year (were) electric vehicles, and what we know is if we were to reach everyone who’s buying a car and overcome some of the misconceptions that they have, we would have seen a much higher penetration of EVs just last year with the vehicles that are on the road today.”
Hossani said the EV Live sessions are free. One-on-one sessions are available on demand if a specialist is available, or they can be scheduled. Group sessions are also an option, and a person can join an already existing group session if they'd like.
Anyone would like to participate in any of those can head to evlive.gm.com.
