General Motors debuts with a new logo designed to convey the carmaker’s renewed commitment to the manufacture and sale of electric vehicles. The company is also launching a new marketing campaign to highlight the commitment, as it wants to compete with Tesla and other carmakers chasing new EVs in the market.
It’s about a decade ago that GM last modified its logo, but this update represents the strongest change in the company’s 113-year history. The most obvious change is the use of a small ‘gm’ in the logo, having previously used only capital letters. The underline has been shortened to just the ‘m’, in a nod to the recently announced Ultium electric vehicle battery and platform.
The blue square is rounded at the corners, giving the logo more of a smartphone app look. The blue is used as a perimeter rather than filling the entire square, and the negative space in the ‘m’ is meant to evoke the shape of an electrical plug.
“This is only the fifth logo change in 113 years,” Deborah Wahl, head of GM marketing, said in an information session with reporters on Friday. “And probably the most progressive thing we’ve done since 1964.”
A new marketing campaign will hamper the shift from GM to electric vehicles. Turning point author Malcolm Gladwell has been named as a spokesman for the carmaker.
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As an umbrella company for a family of car brands, GM’s logo is not as recognizable as some of its competitors such as Ford or Tesla. For example, the new logo will not appear on any of its new EVs, from the Cadillac Lyriq to the GMC Hummer EV. As such, the new marketing campaign is intended to push out the message of the overall commitment to electrifying the company rather than selling one vehicle.
GM has been trumpeting loudly on its centimeter for electrification for months now, while watching the meteoric rise in Tesla’s share price. Tesla CEO Elon Musk saw on Thursday that his own net worth surpassed Jeff Bezos of Amazon, making him the richest man in the world. And today, for the first time, Tesla’s share value obscured the combined values of GM and Ford.
GM has tried to convince investors of its own commitment to electric vehicles. The company recently pledged to spend $ 27 billion on electric and autonomous vehicles by 2025 – up from the $ 20 billion it announced ahead of the COVID 19 pandemic. GM also said it would launch 30 new electric vehicles around the world, more than two-thirds of which will be available in North America.
GM unveiled two new motor vehicles in 2020: the Cadillac Lyriq SUV, which is expected to be in production by the end of 2022, and the GMC Hummer EV, which is scheduled for late 2021. But the car giant has been criticized for launching vehicles too late in the market brought, car manufacturers are rushing to get their EVs to customers much sooner.
Next up are two new versions of the Chevy Bolt, the carmaker’s mass market electric car that has been on sale since 2017. A refreshing Bolt and a larger Bolt Electric Utility Vehicle were first announced at the carmaker’s “EV Day” earlier this year. and is expected to go into production in the summer of 2021. GM also said it would release a 400-mile electric Chevy pickup truck.