GM wants to use Costco to sell more EVs

GM has a secret weapon it believes will help it sell more EVs – Costco, which apparently does sell everything.

Background: The discount retailer with samples that draw people from miles around has also shown its ability to move cars.

Costco Auto has facilitated 500,000+ vehicle sales annually over the past five years on average, a figure equal to 3+% of all vehicles sold in the US each year. It’s also more than the annual sales of large publicly traded dealer groups like Lithia Motors and AutoNation.

How GM fits in: Costco Auto isn’t a traditional dealer – instead, it acts as a facilitator for franchised dealers and automakers, offering special prices to Costco members on top of other rebates and incentives.

• GM is increasingly using Costco Auto to move EVs, as it works to expand from niche to mass-market segments with vehicles like the Chevrolet Equinox.
• GM North America President Marissa West said in a recent CNBC interview that she sees EVs as a “huge opportunity” to expand the automaker’s reach with Costco’s 50+ million US members.

📸 Big picture: While some automakers like Ford and Volkswagen are scaling back their EV ambitions, others like Hyundai and GM are aggressively introducing affordable EV models to build economies of scale, Bloomberg reports. Electric vehicles accounted for ~8% of the automotive industry’s 15.5 million vehicles sold in the US last year.