In recent months President Joe Biden has heaped a lot of praise on General Motors (GM) CEO Mary Barra.
In November Biden called Barra a leader and credited her for “electrifying the entire auto industry,” despite the fact that Tesla is number one in global EV sales.
Even with all the compliments, it wasn’t enough to save GM from losing a title it has held for 91 years.
In 2021, Toyota outsold GM to become the leading automaker in the US.
On Tuesday Toyota announced annual sales of 2.332 million vehicles, compared to GMs 2.218 million cars.
GMs overall sales were down 13% compared to the previous year, and down a staggering 43% in Q4.
Part of the reason for the disappointing final quarter was due to the Bolt EV, amassing just 25 sales between October and December.
The Bolt EV has been mired in a costly $2 billion recall that has resulted in the production line being shut down since late August.
Last week the automaker said the shutdown would extend until at least the end of February.
The recall is over defects in the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV’s battery modules. LG Electronics provided GM with the defective battery cells that resulted in a number of high profile vehicle fires.
The company is replacing the battery packs in all 140,000+ Bolt EV and Bolt EUVs, and will be providing window clings to cars that have been repaired to help ease the fears they might catch fire.
