GM races to build a formula for profitable electric cars

Detroit

GENERAL Motors (GM) chief executive Mary Barra has made a bold promise to investors that the Detroit carmaker will make money selling electric cars by 2021.

What Ms Barra has not explained in detail is how GM intends to do what, so far, no major carmaker has done.

The answer is a big bet on combining proprietary battery technology, a low-cost, flexible vehicle design and high-volume production mainly in China, according to six current and former GM and supplier executives and six industry specialists interviewed by Reuters.

If GM can meet Ms Barra's ambitious profitability target, then it will house two different businesses by the mid-2020s: A traditional focus in North America on pickup lorri…