General Electric will buy 25,000 electric vehicles, almost half of them from General Motors, by 2015 in the biggest such order ever.
The purchase will account for at least half of GE’s 30,000-car fleet and will include vehicles customers can lease from its GE Capital unit, the company said in a statement Thursday. GM’s portion of the order is for 12,000 vehicles, including the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Chief executive Jeffrey Immelt is positioning Fairfield, Conn.-based GE to benefit from more energy-efficient technologies by producing batteries, car-charging stations and smart-grid systems. GE said it’s in a “strong position” to help 65,000 leasing customers convert to electric vehicles and sees the electric-car market adding as much as $500 million in sales in the next three years.
“Wide-scale adoption of electric vehicles will also drive clean-energy innovation, strengthen energy security and deliver economic value,” Immelt said in the statement.
GE’s power-plant equipment generates one-third of the world’s electricity, and the need for vehicle-charging stations may spur demand for more power from its utility customers.
The deal will help both GE and GM, said Jim Hall, principal of automotive consulting firm 2953 Analytics in Birmingham, Mich.
“Fleet sales will always help; it might also get other companies interested,” Hall said.
