It's been easy to overlook since many investors have the financial crisis and the automaker's bailout burned into their minds -- and that's fair. But General Motors (GM +0.54%) has been pouring investments into its brands and electric vehicles (EVs) and buying back billions of dollars of its stock.
Evidence of GM's investment in its brands can be seen with the recent success of Chevrolet, which became the No. 2 selling EV brand in the U.S. during the second quarter. Here's how two different models are obliterating things and helping drive GM's business higher.
Enter the Equinox
Chevrolet is putting its money where its mouth is with the Equinox EV. July wasn't just the best sales month so far for the EV but also the best sales result for an EV other than a Tesla in the U.S. market.
The model certainly helped drive GM's total EV sales up more than 115% in July compared to the prior year. GM sold over 8,500 Equinox EVs in July, almost half of the roughly 19,000 EVs it sold during the month.
The Chevrolet Equinox EV. Image source: General Motors.
This has been in the works for a while. GM launched the lower-priced LT model in late 2024, and with a starting price of under $35,000, sales of the Equinox began to accelerate. It helped Chevrolet become the fastest-growing EV brand in the U.S. during the first quarter, and now it's expected to crack the top three in EV sales for the full year, trailing only Tesla's Model Y and Model 3.
Overall, Chevrolet had its best first-half sales since 2019, up 9%, having posted record first-half sales for its crossover lineup, led by the Equinox. You can see the difference in the direction of EV sales between GM and Tesla in the graphic below.
Image source: Cox Automotive's Kelley Blue Book Team.
Move over, Lucid
It might be time for Lucid Group to slide over and let a newcomer take the world record for EV range. It all started with an engineer-led challenge and passion project, then turned into a real-world test of a 2025 Chevrolet Silverado EV optimized for efficiency. It should be noted that, despite being optimized, the EV truck's hardware and software were left alone.
NYSE: GM
Key Data Points
The GM engineers drove the Silverado EV on public roads over the course of seven days, attempting to optimize the range. The result was an industry milestone and (if you accept GM's argument) a new world record in EV range. The Silverado traveled 1,059.2 miles on a single charge, beating the previous record of 749 miles held by the Lucid Air Grand Touring.
But while it appears GM obliterated the prior record in terms of miles, it must be noted that Guinness documented and confirmed Lucid's world record for range by measuring efficiency, with the Air Pure achieving 5 miles per kilowatt-hour (kWh) compared to the Silverado EV's 4.9 miles/kWh.
Regardless of your stance in this debate, the feat by GM and the engineers behind the Silverado's impressive run is worth noting because the technology and optimization involved could partly filter down into production.
What it all means
In the grand scheme of things, Chevrolet is but one of the company's brands, and the automaker is far more complex as an investment than simply a surging brand and new records for EV range. But GM has been doing a lot of things correctly lately. It's investing in its brands wisely, and it's time investors start taking note of what could become one of the automotive industry's top investments.
