Despite Ford having a larger electrified vehicle footprint in the U.S., General Motors is leading the way with rhetoric around the electrification of vehicles among the Big Three automakers. Last summer, GM’s CEO Mary Bara confirmed that the company was entertaining the possibility of changing its name. The rhetoric has been met in the boardroom with a new company logo as part of an evolving brand identity.
New GM logo design
General Motors joins BMW, Rolls-Royce, Volkswagen, Stellantis, Kia, and Nissan by presenting a fresh logo for public consumption. The new logo represents just the fifth in GM’s storied history.
According to the company, the logo was designed to represent a digital-first environment. According to a release, it “builds on a strong heritage while bringing a more modern and vibrant look to GM’s familiar blue square”.
General Motors debuted its new logo today. It’s just the fifth logo in company history.Photo courtesy of General Motors
According to Sharon Gauci, GM executive director of Global Industrial Design: “This was a project our team took so personally, not just for ourselves but for the 164,000 employees this logo represents. At every step we wanted to be intentional and deliberate because this logo signifies creative and innovative thinking across the global General Motors family.”
The fresh logo features a variety of blue tones that are meant to represent clean skies and energy. It has rounded edges and a lower case font that GM says gives the logo a “more modern, inclusive feel”. Further, the underlined “m” connects the new logo to the old while the negative space of the letter is a nod to the shape of an electrical plug.
New marketing campaign
The new identity and corresponding campaign is meant to showcase General Motors’ push toward a world with zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion.
“There are moments in history when everything changes. Inflection points. We believe such a point is upon us for the mass adoption of electric vehicles,” said Deborah Wahl, GM global chief marketing officer. “Unlike ever before, we have the solutions, capability, technology and scale to put everyone in an EV. Our new brand identity and campaign are designed to reflect this.”
Shark attack victim Bethany Hamilton is one of GM’s new spokespeoplePhoto courtesy of General Motors
The “Everybody In” campaign features three main talking points:
- How exciting the new generation of buyers are and how that will accelerate electric vehicle (EV) adoption.
- GM’s EV leadership, which includes an investment of $2 billion in EV and autonomous vehicle products through 2025 and the launches of 30 new EVs globally by the end of 2025
- The range, performance, and flexibility of the Ultium platform.
