Tesla’s Newest Electric Enemy: Chevy

GM and Tesla are both going after the middle market with the release of their newest electric cars.

GM Battles Tesla in the Electric Car Market

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By David Welch

March 31, 2016 at 10:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the April 4, 2016 issue of businessweek.

Forget about old grudge matches like Chevrolet vs. Ford or Honda vs. Toyota. The fight brewing between General Motors and Tesla Motors is shaping up to be nastier. Both will soon be going after the customer who can spend $30,000 or more on an electric car, as GM launches the Chevy Bolt at the end of this year and Tesla begins selling the Model 3 in 2017. GM showed off the Bolt in January, and Tesla will unveil the Model 3 on March 31.

GM is positioning the Bolt to sell to the masses, which will help the company meet regulatory targets for required zero-emission vehicle sales, and to highlight technology GM developed with its first electric car, the EV1, introduced in 1996. When GM stopped EV1 production in 2002, Toyota became the darling of green-friendly buyers with its Prius hybrid. Tesla, meanwhile, is looking to the Model 3 to prove it can sell battery-powered cars to a mass market and turn a profit.