Second-quarter car sales at General Motors Inc. (NYSE: GM) were impressive. Unit sales rose 19% to 691,978. As has been the case with other legacy car companies, it bragged about its electric vehicle (EV) sales, which were tiny at 16,552 for the period. GM would have been better off burying the EV number because it is an embarrassment, particularly compared to market leader Tesla, which delivered 466,000 vehicles in the second quarter. Tesla’s sales were not all in the United States, but the American number was in six figures. GM has a very long way to go.
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GM’s highlighting of EV sales is similar to Ford’s. Ford may have some good products and can produce hundreds of thousands of EVs later this year. Yet, there is little evidence of an extraordinary surge in demand. (These are every major automaker’s plans to go electric.)

In most cases, the public still views GM and Ford as makers of gasoline-powered vehicles, as they have been for decades. It will be difficult to reinvent their reputations in the public’s eyes, despite the billions of dollars each has spent be to an EV leader.

As GM and Ford push into the EV market, another question is whether they can make money. Ford has had to raise the price of its F-150 Lightning because underlying costs have soared. In the meantime, Tesla has cut prices in what appears to be an effort to gain more market share than it already has.

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Investors still need to sign on to GM’s EV plans. Its stock is down 33% in the past two years. The market is flat over the same period.

Even if Tesla were not the giant of the EV industry, GM would have to contend with the fact that every major car company in the world plans to sell a fleet of EVs in America. The competition will be brutal, and positive margins will be hard to come by.

GM should keep its EV figures to itself.

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