GM's Ultium Platform Struggles: Why the Detroit Giant Can't Catch Tesla | Taha Abbasi

General Motors’ ambitious Ultium EV platform was supposed to be the foundation for dozens of electric vehicles across every GM brand. The reality has been more complicated. Taha Abbasi examines where Ultium has fallen short and what it means for GM’s electrification strategy.

The Ultium Promise

When GM unveiled Ultium in 2020, it was positioned as a game-changer: a modular battery and motor architecture that could underpin everything from a $30,000 Chevrolet to a $300,000 GMC Hummer. The flexibility was supposed to deliver Tesla-like manufacturing efficiency at Detroit scale. Six years later, the platform has delivered some impressive vehicles — but also significant growing pains.

Taha Abbasi notes that GM’s approach was fundamentally different from Tesla’s. “Tesla built its EV platform through iteration — Model S informed Model 3, which informed Model Y. Each generation learned from the last. GM tried to do it all at once with Ultium, and the complexity has been punishing.”

Software Remains the Achilles Heel

The most persistent challenge has been software. GM’s vehicles have experienced issues with infotainment responsiveness, over-the-air update reliability, and integration between vehicle systems. These are exactly the kinds of problems that software-first companies like Tesla have largely solved through years of iteration.

The irony is that GM recognized software’s importance early — the company invested billions in software development and hired thousands of engineers. But as Taha Abbasi has observed across his career as a CTO, “You can’t buy software culture. You can hire the engineers, invest the capital, and still fail if the organizational structure treats software as a support function rather than the core product.”

Production Ramp Challenges

Ultium vehicle production ramps have consistently fallen behind schedule. The Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Equinox EV, and Blazer EV all experienced delays or quality issues at launch. While many of these have been addressed, the cumulative effect has been slower volume growth than GM projected, giving Tesla and BYD more time to extend their leads.

Financial Pressure

GM’s EV division continues to lose money, though losses are narrowing. The company has been more transparent than some competitors about EV financial performance, and management has set targets for EV profitability. But achieving these targets requires volume that Ultium hasn’t yet delivered consistently.

Taha Abbasi sees GM’s situation as emblematic of the broader legacy automaker challenge. “The skills that made you great at building ICE vehicles — supply chain management, dealer relationships, incremental quality improvement — are necessary but not sufficient for EVs. You also need software expertise, battery chemistry knowledge, and charging infrastructure. That’s a lot of new capabilities to develop simultaneously.”

Can GM Recover?

Despite the challenges, GM has assets that pure-play EV startups lack: massive manufacturing capacity, a nationwide dealer network, and deep pockets from profitable ICE vehicle sales. The Chevrolet Equinox EV, priced from around $33,000, represents GM’s best chance at mass-market EV success. If Ultium can deliver the Equinox EV at scale and quality, the platform may yet fulfill its original promise. Taha Abbasi is watching the Equinox EV production ramp as the single most important indicator of Ultium’s viability.

Read more: Ford EV Losses | $55B EV Writedowns

---

About the Author: Taha Abbasi is a technology executive, CTO, and applied frontier tech builder. Read more on Grokpedia | YouTube: The Brown Cowboy | tahaabbasi.com