General Motors Company (GM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to General Motors' 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We are delighted to have you participate from your home or office or wherever you may be. I am Mary Barra, Chairman and CEO of General Motors, and I will chair today's meeting. I now call this meeting to order. Before we begin, I'd like to share a safety message. We meet today under extraordinary circumstances, and our meeting format reflects that. Like last year, we had hoped to videocast today's meeting from our GM Studio. So much has changed since we filed our proxy statement. COVID-19 is still a very real threat and our employees' health and well-being is a top priority. We made the decision to forgo the videocast this year because we wanted to keep our employees safe by eliminating the need to gather together in a small studio. We hope you'll understand. Everyone who enters our facilities, without exception, follows an extensive global safety protocol that includes a self-questionnaire, temperature scan, hand sanitizing stations, physical distancing when possible and wearing of a GM-issued facemask. Face masks are one of the -- like the ones we are manufacturing in Warren, Michigan, are an important defense against the virus. When we each wear them correctly, we help protect ourselves and each other. You can read about our Employee Return To Work Safety Guide on gm.com. Later in the meeting, we will be sharing a prerecorded video that includes my thoughts on the systemic and violent racial injustice in the United States and what we are doing about it; the great work that GM employees are doing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and the state of the business highlights. I would now like to introduce my fellow board members who, like you, are participating today in the meeting remotely. Tim Solso, independent lead director and retired Chairman and CEO upcoming; Wes Bush, retired Chairman of the Northrop Grumman Corporation; Linda Gooden, retired Executive Vice President, Lockheed Martin Corporation; Joe Jimenez, retired CEO, Novartis; Jane Mendillo, retired President and CEO, Harvard Management Company; Jami Miscik, CEO and Vice Chairman of the Kissinger Associates; Pat Russo, Chairman, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company; Tom Schoewe, retired Executive Vice President and CFO, Walmart; Carol Stephenson, retired Dean, Ivey School of Business (sic) [ Ivey Business School ], the University of Western Ontario; and Devin Wenig, former President and CEO of eBay. I would like to thank each of them for their dedicated service. Because of their counsel, support and leadership, GM is stronger and more resilient and is positioned to succeed today and in the long term. Also joining us remotely are members of GM's senior leadership team, representatives of our independent auditor, Ernst & Young; and Pete Descovich of Broadridge Financial Solutions, who will serve as the inspector of election. Now I am pleased to turn the meeting over to Rick Hansen, GM's Corporate Secretary, to conduct the official portion of this meeting. Rick?

Thank you, Mary. Before I turn to the legal requirements, let me review the process for the question-and-answer session that will follow our formal business and Mary's business presentation. [Operator Instructions] We will answer a selection of written questions submitted online as well as field live questions from the phone. Some of these questions have been submitted prior to today's meeting. If we don't have time to cover all of the written questions today, we will post answers to questions that are germane to the meeting on our Investor Relations website at investor.gm.com. The meeting agenda lists all items of business to be considered including the election of directors. On behalf of the Board, I now move these items of business and nominate the Board's nominees for election. Mary Barra, who acts as proxy for all shares that have been voted thus far, seconds this motion. Next, I would like to remind you of certain procedural matters related to today's meeting. First, this meeting is being held pursuant to a notice dated April 27, 2020. On or about that date, each shareholder of record as of the close of business on April 17, 2020, was sent either a notice of Internet availability of proxy materials or the proxy materials themselves. An affidavit of mailing these materials has been filed with the company's records. Second, based on information from the inspector of elections, Broadridge Financial Solutions, more than 87% of GM's shares outstanding are at the meeting by proxy. Accordingly, we have the required quorum to proceed with the meeting. Third, the polls are open for voting online during the meeting. All shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting may do so by clicking the Vote Here button at the bottom of your screen. The polls will remain open until we have concluded the official portion of the meeting. Since the items of business and nominations have been moved and seconded and the requirements for holding today's meeting have been met, I declare that the meeting has been duly convened and may be adjourned at any time if necessary. The agenda, along with the rules of conduct, are also available for download by clicking the link on the bottom right corner of your screen. The rules of conduct contain the legend regarding forward-looking statements, and the content of today's meeting will be governed by this language. If we discuss non-GAAP financial measures in today's presentation, a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is provided in our SEC filings, which are available on our website at gm.com. We are committed to holding an annual meeting that allows a respectful exchange of information that's useful to everyone, and we appreciate your cooperation in making this happen. Mary?

Thank you, Rick. As the agenda outlines, we have 9 items of business on the ballot for today's meeting. These items were previously moved by Rick. Following the conclusion of the official portion of the meeting and my thoughts on the state of the business, we will hold a Q&A session. The first item of business is the election of 11 directors. Each year, shareholders elect a Board to serve for the coming year until their successors are elected. Your Board has nominated the 11 director nominees I introduced earlier and who have been identified in our proxy statement. In our proxy statement, you can read a short biography of each of the nominees. The Board unanimously recommends a for vote for all director nominees. The second item of business is an advisory vote on the compensation of our named executive officers identified in our proxy statement. In our proxy statement, you can read more about the compensation of these individuals and our compensation programs. Your Board recommends that shareholders vote for this proposal. The third item of business is an advisory vote on the frequency of future advisory votes on the compensation of our named executive officers. Your Board recommends that shareholders vote to hold future advisory votes on named executive officers' compensation every year. The fourth item of business is a proposal to ratify the Audit Committee's selection of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020. In our proxy statement, you can read more about this proposal including the audit fees and services and the Audit Committee's pre-approval of policies and procedures. Your Board recommends that shareholders vote for this proposal. The fifth item of business is a proposal to approve the General Motors Company 2020 Long-Term Incentive Plan. In our proxy statement, you can read the plan and the company's proposal. Your Board recommends that shareholders vote for this proposal. Item six on our agenda is a shareholder proposal regarding shareholder written consent. I understand that John Chevedden will present the proposal. He will have 3 minutes to do so. Operator, can you please open Mr. Chevedden's line?

Mr. Chevedden, your line is now open.

This is John Chevedden. Can you hear me okay?

Yes, we can.

Proposal 6, adopt a mainstream shareholder rights written consent. Shareholders request that our Board of Directors take the steps necessary to permit written consent by shareholders entitled to cast a minimum number of votes that would be necessary to authorize an action at a meeting at which all shareholders entitled to vote thereon were present and voting. Taking action by a written consent is a means shareholders can use to raise important matters outside the normal annual meeting cycle like the election of a new director. For instance, GM may not have the best lead director. Theodore Solso at age 73 is retired and serves on no other major Board of Directors to sharpen his skills and bring new ideas to GM. Plus there does not seem to be any GM director with automotive marketing experience. The word marketing appears 2 times in the GM proxy statement and said GM has 1 director with 20-year CIA experience. This leads to the question whether there is any adequate marketing oversight of GM management. Directors Wesley Bush and Theodore Solso are linked to Northrop Grumman. Linda Gooden is linked to Lockheed Martin. The past failed combination of GM and Hughes Aircraft showed painfully that there was little synergy between automotive and aerospace. Director Carol Stephenson is a former dean who's been retired for 7 years. Plus GM's higher 25% threshold for shareholders to call a special meeting has bureaucratic pitfalls that trigger minor shareholder errors that could mean that 50% of shares would need to ask for a special meeting in order to be sure of obtaining the minimum threshold of 25% of requests without errors. One can be sure that management will have a sharp eye to spot any errors. Plus 25% of GM's shares do not even vote at annual meetings, so this makes it all the more difficult to obtain 25% of shares to call a special meeting. The right for shareholders to act by written consent is gaining acceptance as a more important right than the right to call a special meeting. The directors at Intel apparently thought they could divert shareholder attention away from written consent by making it less difficult for shareholders to call a special meeting. However, Intel shareholders responded with greater support for written consent in 2019 compared to 2018. Following a 45% vote, which is clearly less than a majority for a written consent shareholder proposal, The Bank of New York Mellon said it adopted written consent in 2019. The timing is right to improve shareholder rights at GM since the price of GM stock has fallen from $36 to $27 in less than 10 years of a mostly robust market. Please vote yes: adopt a mainstream shareholder right written consent.

Thank you, Mr. Chevedden. For the reasons indicated in our proxy statement, your Board recommends that shareholders vote against this proposal. Item 7 on our agenda is a shareholder proposal regarding an amendment to the proxy access provisions contained in our bylaws. I understand that John Lauve will present this proposal. He will have 3 minutes to do so. Operator, can you please open Mr. Lauve's line?

Mr. Lauve, your line is now open.

GM, good morning. This proposal was made by Robert [ Wally]. A vote for this proposal would end GM's blocking of a tactic for this ballot access. The 3% vote requirement is the same as it still is, but it limits the -- or removes the restriction for 20 big boy limit. And in other words, only -- you can only have 20 people get together. This allows you to have more people get together to meet the 3% hurdle to overcome. There are other tactics in place to block the opposition to stockholder action. It's kind of like the fox setting the rules for the chickens. The idea should be shareholders own the company and they should be able to do whatever they want, not have these extra burdens placed on them needlessly. That's not the way to run the company. And of course, we have a great success rate. Our market share is 16%, but don't worry about it. Market share continues to deteriorate. The directors even think that the chairlady Barra should spend time at the outside job working for Disney and GM even pays $200,000 to fly her to the meetings. That's inappropriate. We should be working on increasing market share, improving the consumer report ratings of our vehicles and supporting our dealers who are on the front line. And the problem in the kind of selection that we've made on directors signifies what's taking place. One of the directors was the Walmart CFO when Walmart was down there paying Mexican bribes in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. And another director works for Kissinger, who is in violation of Foreign Agents Registration Act, and they were at Lehman Brothers when they went bankrupt. So this is -- these are great attributes to be conducting General Motors' business. And the other problem is GM of China counts sales of vehicles that they don't even get paid for. That's an unacceptable gimmick that's been created. There's 2 big issues that we're facing. One is the Cruze was eliminated. All the dealers that I talked to said that it hurt their business because it would no longer attract entry level of people into their showrooms. And it was -- could have been avoided with better management. By that, they had too many car options, too many colors, too many variations. They could have streamlined it. All the tools were paid for. They could have run the factory for nothing. Instead, we eliminated that segment of our business. Somehow, we turned it over to the Koreans and the Japanese. That's not the way to be growing the business and being successful. The other problem is that this residual lease situation is really going to explode here with this virus. And the railcar companies are going to be abandoning their cars and dumping them on the market. And they didn't have a very good description of this problem in the history and the evaluation that was made by Ernst & Young...

Mr. Lauve, if I could ask you to wrap up your comments, please?

It's the -- that's the sum of it. And I'm always hopeful that someday, the sun will rise on GM and it will return to greatness. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Lauve. For the reasons indicated in our proxy statement, your Board recommends that shareholders vote against this proposal. Item 8 on the agenda is a shareholder proposal regarding a report on our human rights policy implementation. Bro. George Schmitz of the Congregation of Holy Cross will present the proposal. He will have 3 minutes to do so. Operator, can you please open Bro. Schmitz's line?

Bro. Schmitz, your line is open.

Good morning, Ms. Barra and members of the Board. On behalf of the Congregation of Holy Cross Moreau Province, the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, the School Sisters of Notre Dame Cooperative Investment Fund of the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, New Jersey, I'm here to present Item 8 on human rights. Engagement in a complex supply chain is a matter fraught with risks to GM's brand and reputation and may have material impact on the corporation. We are concerned that GM's Human Rights Policy and its supplier chain Code of Conduct are not being adequately implemented to address supply chain complexities and operational issues. The report requested in our proposal would describe the human rights due diligence processes to embed respect for human rights into operations and the value chain, processes to provide access to remedy for human rights impacts connected to the business and indicators used to assess effectiveness of the policy. We are of the opinion that it's not sufficient for a corporation to indicate that its human rights policy is guided by and informed by international protocols without also stating details of how the policy is operational. Expectations of suppliers should be mandatory and compliance with the supplier code should be monitored. Outcomes are the primary determiners of reduced risk. We believe this report will give shareholders confidence that GM's policies and processes are transparent and produce human rights-based outcomes. A thorough update of GM's human rights policy and supply chain code is imperative in light of what has transpired in the United States and around the world as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd. We are not facing a new normal. We are entering a new reality. Within the past 2 years, GM suffered reputational brand and material risk and loss as a result of an extended labor dispute, and a significant affront to racial justice at its Toledo plant. While remedies were undertaken, the risks related thereto can only continue to be mitigated if they are examined in light of the new reality that is upon us. That reality exposes the disparity in Michigan and throughout the country between the percentage of African-American COVID-19 deaths as compared to the percentage of African-Americans in a geographic area. While many people touted progress in the May jobs report, it was noted that African-Americans continued to endure job losses. Domestically, labor relations and racial justice are 2 areas of risks that require a higher standard of review in our new reality. Internationally, GM is exposed to child and forced labor risks in the procurement of cobalt, mica, pig iron, rubber, leather and electronics. I thank you for this opportunity to speak today. We ask for your support of this resolution as an acknowledgment of a commitment to a new reality rather than to a new normal, and we encourage the Board of Directors to be fully engaged in addressing human rights. Thank you.

Thank you, Bro. Schmitz. I appreciate your concern for GM employees and everyone involved in our supply chain. Later in today's presentation, I will be discussing what we are doing to make General Motors the most inclusive company in the world. GM is also committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct and respect for human rights. We believe our policies and our practices reflect GM's strong focus on human rights, diversity and inclusion. Our Board also holds management accountable for protecting and enhancing our culture. We believe we have a transparent reporting practice, and I invite everyone to review our annual sustainability report which will be published in the coming weeks. Regarding your comments on Toledo, we have zero tolerance for any behavior that does not live up to our values. GM took the situation very seriously and promptly investigated all allegations raised at the facility. The actions of one or a few do not represent the people of Toledo Transmission or General Motors. Again, thank you for your comments. And for the reasons indicated in our proxy statement, your Board recommends that shareholders vote against this proposal. The final item on the agenda is a shareholder proposal regarding report on lobbying communication and activity. Millicent Budhai of New York -- of the New York City Comptroller's Office will present the proposal. She will have 3 minutes to do so. Operator, can you please open Ms. Budhai's line?

Ms. Budhai, your line is open.

Thank you. Good morning. I hereby move proposal 9 on behalf of New York City Comptroller, Scott Stringer and 4 New York City pension funds and a number of co-filers. The 4 New York City funds have over $200 billion in assets and are long-term GM shareholders with 3.3 million shares. Board proposal ask that GM disclose its direct and indirect lobbying activities and the Board's oversight and rationale for making these payments. The filers are part of the Climate 100+ initiative, through which more than 450 investors managing over $40 trillion in assets, is seeking to work with high greenhouse gas-emitting global companies, such as GM, to address the systemic risks and opportunities of climate change, consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. While GM has stated that it is committed to a zero-emissions future, its open-ended commitment lacks any disclosed time lines and/or interim goals. Investors are particularly concerned that GM's lobbying activities and the fact that its fleet is one of the largest producers of GHG emissions, are misaligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement and with the long-term interest of the company and its shareholders. After our last meeting with management, investors expressed concerns with GM's support for the legally vulnerable federal rule governing fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards, its support for revoking state authority and its failure to join the California compromise agreement, all of which expose the company to legal, regulatory and reputational risks. For example, because GM has joined litigation on the Mining State Authority, the State of California is no longer -- will no longer purchase vehicles from GM and consumables show a drop in GM's favorability rating. In our view, GM's current disclosures do not provide investors with the information we need to assess whether its lobbying, both direct and through its trade associations, is aligned with its long-term strategy and with the goals of the Paris Agreement. GM is a member of the Automobile Alliance for Innovation (sic) [ Alliance for Automotive Innovation ] that is defending the administration's final weakened rule on fuel economy standards. We believe this is inconsistent with achieving the Paris Agreement goals, GM's stated commitment to addressing climate change and its long-term interest. Therefore, similar to Shell and other disclosure leaders, we're asking GM to provide comprehensive lobbying disclosures that will enable investors to better understand its public policy and lobbying priorities, the amount of its trade association dues used for lobbying and how these align with the company's long-term strategy and interest and the Board's explicit oversight thereof. Finally, Madame Chair, in a June 2 letter to you, New York City Comptroller Stringer strongly recommended that neither GM nor the Auto Alliance intervene on behalf of the administration in litigation challenging the new federal standards. He also again requested that GM join the California compromise agreement, which will enhance GM's global competitiveness and insulate it from regulatory uncertainty. This will reassure investors that GM is seriously committed to a future of zero emissions that is genuinely aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement and that its lobbying activities are similarly aligned. Today, I reiterate Comptroller Stringer's request and ask that investors support proposal 9. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Budhai. I appreciate your comments. I'd like to thank your colleague, Mike Garland of the New York City Comptroller's Office for coming to Detroit in December to visit our battery lab and the Orion Assembly plant. We are committed to continuing our dialogue with the New York City Comptroller and the rest of the Climate Action 100 group. I understand that Rick and our public policy team are coordinating another discussion with the New York City Comptroller later this summer. In reading this proposal, it is apparent that GM's position, fuel economy, emission standards and climate change may be of concern to some of our shareholders. Let me make 2 brief points. First, our position with respect to climate change has remained consistent. We believe climate change is real and we take the challenges it presents seriously, and we know we have a role in solving the critical issue. Second, we do not support the flatlining or rolling back of fuel economy standards. We believe the best way to reduce emissions and advance electrification is to have 1 national program supported by all stakeholders that requires year-over-year improvements in a conventional fuel economy and nationwide incentives for electric vehicle deployment. That is why GM is committed to an all-electric zero-emissions future and will continue our leading investments in electrification. Again, thank you for your comments. For these reasons and those indicated in our proxy statement, your Board recommends that shareholders vote against this proposal. This concludes the items of business to be considered at today's meeting. Following some of the final procedural matters to be addressed by Rick and the closing of the polls, we will proceed to the business presentation and Q&A session of the meeting. Rick?

Thank you, Mary. If you are a shareholder entitled to vote and have not yet voted or if you want to change your previously cast vote, please do so now by clicking the Vote Here button at the bottom right corner of your screen. In a few minutes, we will adjourn the official portion of the meeting and begin the business presentation and question-and-answer session. Before we do so, I would like to provide an attendance report and a preliminary report of voting. For today's meeting, we had over 180 shareholders and guests logged in to participate in the meeting. And now as to the preliminary report of voting, which is based on a tabulation of proxies received prior to the start of this meeting by the inspector of elections. Following today's meeting, the inspector of elections will tabulate any votes cast during today's meeting and certify and provide final voting results to us. We will report the final voting results when available on our Investor Relations website at investor.gm.com and in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Based upon the preliminary report provided by the inspector of elections, I can report as follows. For the first item of business, the election of directors, all of the company's director nominees have been elected. Directors received an average favorable vote of 98% of the votes cast. For the second item of business, an advisory vote on the compensation of the named executive officers identified in the company's proxy statement, the proposal is approved by 96% of the votes cast. For the third item of business, 97% of the votes cast approve the Board's recommendation to hold future advisory votes on named executive officer compensation every year. For the fourth item of business, the ratification of the Audit Committee's selection of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020, the proposal is approved by 99% of the votes cast. For the fifth item of business, approval of the General Motors Company 2020 Long-Term Incentive Plan, the proposal is approved by 96% of the votes cast. For the sixth item of business, the shareholder proposal regarding shareholder written consent, the proposal is not approved. It received 41% of the votes cast. For the seventh item of business, an amendment of the proxy access provisions in the company's bylaws, the proposal is not approved. It received 21% of the votes cast. For the eighth item of business, a report on human rights policy implementation, the proposal is not approved. It received 31% of the votes cast. For the ninth and final item of business, a report on lobbying communications and activities, the proposal is not approved. It received 33% of the votes cast. This concludes the preliminary voting results. As mentioned, we will provide the final voting results when available on our Investor Relations website and in a filing with the SEC. This now concludes the official portion of the meeting, and I now declare that polls for voting are closed and the official portion of the meeting is adjourned. We will now turn to a short video and business presentation, following which we will then open the meeting for shareholder Q&A. [Presentation]

As you can see, we are proud of our employees who have followed generations of autoworkers who have supported the greater good in challenging times. Now I will turn to the business. In the past year, we confronted several business challenges even before the COVID-19 crisis, including a work stoppage last fall in the United States, a weaker industry and economy in China, and the ongoing pressures in our international operations. As economies continue to reopen across the globe, we are seeing signs of recovery. We entered this crisis better positioned financially because of the many business transformation actions we have taken over the past several years to improve our cost structure and our competitiveness. Because of that discipline, we had the necessary resources to continue investing in our soon-to-launch full-size SUVs and in our crucial EV and AV programs. This includes development work on our Ultium battery system, which I'll touch on in a few minutes. And our key products like our GMC HUMMER EV, Cadillac Lyriq crossover EV and the Cruise Origin AV. These EV and AV programs remain fully on track as we advance our vision of a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. Turning to the actions we took to preserve liquidity. In March, we implemented significant austerity measures and drew down our revolving credit facilities. In the second quarter, we sold bonds and secured a new 364-day revolver. In addition, we suspended our quarterly dividend and share repurchases. These measures were not undertaken lightly, but they were necessary in today's uncertain economic environment. For the next few minutes, I will provide a region-by-region update on our performance. Let's begin with North America, where sales and share of full-size trucks and SUVs have remained resilient throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Our dealers are doing a great job selling deep into their inventories. Our truck plants in the U.S. are operating on 3 shifts to accelerate deliveries to dealers, and production in Mexico is ramping up. In the U.S., dealers have returned to full capacity for sales and service, and we invited them to enroll in our new CLEAN program to give customers greater confidence about returning. Participating dealers agree to follow the Center for Disease Control guidelines and to use the Environmental Protection Agency-approved cleansers in their facilities and in vehicles. Our dealers were significantly impacted by closures and stay-at-home orders in many markets, and we supported them in many ways including with our Shop-Click-Drive e-commerce tool. It enables much of the vehicle purchase transaction online. And when combined with dealers making contactless home deliveries, it's a powerful tool for our customers. Turning to our international operations. The China market is ahead of the curve and recovering from the impact of the pandemic. Our brands have stayed resilient and our sales in China have continued to grow month-by-month since February. In particular, the luxury SUV and MPV segments are showing strong recovery. In our other international markets, we are addressing business challenges region by region to return them to profitability. We continue to focus on improving our South America operation, where plants and dealerships are gradually reopening. As I mentioned earlier, we remain fully committed to an all-electric future and zero-emissions future. We want to make EV ownership as easy, enjoyable and attainable as owning an internal combustion-powered vehicle. And by mid-decade, we expect to sell 1 million EVs per year across our global markets. We are approaching electric vehicles on many fronts, including using our industry-leading platform and the portfolio that we revealed in March during our EV Week. And to accelerate consumer adoption, we are aggressively working to make charging easier and more convenient. Our highly flexible vehicle platform, global scale and manufacturing and technical expertise will enable us to efficiently build EVs for everyone. Our next-generation EVs will be powered by our proprietary Ultium battery system. It delivers outstanding range at a lower cost using significantly less cobalt. We'll build the cells for these batteries at our Ultium Cells LLC facility, our joint venture with LG Chem, that is under construction in Lordstown, Ohio, as we announced late last month. We have made great progress since introducing the Chevrolet Bolt EV, the industry's first affordable long-range EV. In the near future, General Motors will introduce a new global portfolio of EVs, beginning with the ones I mentioned earlier. In China, the world's largest EV market, we are expanding our new energy vehicle lineup this year with all-electric and PHEV entries from Chevrolet, Buick, Baojun and Wuling. At the same time, General Motors is using its EV experience and its consumer insights to help build an entire electric vehicle ecosystem that meets the needs of customers. With partners and third parties that include utilities and charging networks, we are leveraging multiple solutions that enable charging at home, at work and in public. We also remain committed to developing safe autonomous vehicles on our way to a driverless future. In January, Cruise introduced Origin, a purpose-built electric shared autonomous vehicle that GM and Cruise developed jointly with Honda. It is designed to seat 6 and provide a better, more consistent experience than a conventional rideshare vehicle. While the world has changed dramatically under COVID-19, the importance of Cruise's mission to transform transportation for the better is unchanged as is Cruise's importance to our vision. In addition to their safety and environmental benefits, shared electric AVs that replace single-occupant vehicles will help reduce congestions in our cities. Cruise is well-capitalized, which is an especially important advantage in this current business environment. Our unwavering commitment to EVs and AVs has taken on even greater significance in light of the global pandemic. To support a zero-emissions future, in January, we created a new position, Chief Sustainability Officer. We also established several new targets to accelerate our sustainability goals. For example, in partnership with our suppliers, we will increase the percentage of automotive parts with sustainable material content. And we are establishing a sustainable material target of at least 50% by 2030 for all of our vehicles. We are also accelerating our commitment to source 100% of our facilities' electricity from renewables. Now our global target is 2040 and 2030 in the U.S. By 2025, we expect to be 60% on our way toward the global goal. As we scale our EV portfolio and green grid around the world, the future looks brighter than ever. To continue our work, we are building a unified workplace culture that not only fosters the diverse and multiple perspectives we need in our business, but also encourages employees to bring their true self to work. During the past 3 years, nearly 40% of our corporate giving social investments have supported programs serving the Black community. These investments are focused mostly on STEM education, vehicle and road safety and community development. In addition, this month, we designated $10 million to support organizations that promote inclusion and racial justice. By the end of this month, I will begin to chair a new Inclusion Advisory Board of both internal and external leaders with the longer-term aspiration of making General Motors the most inclusive company in the world. I'm also joining other CEOs from Business Roundtable to form a Special Committee for Racial Equality and Justice, so that Corporate America can help deliver change at scale. For now, my personal commitment and that of your Board is to ensure that our leadership and, by extension, the entire GM family, is aware of our responsibility to listen to one another and to bring awareness to injustice. Because awareness leads to dialogue, dialogue leads to understanding and understanding leads to change. Our company has been recognized for its commitment to gender equality and diversity in these top rankings. Bloomberg's Gender-Equality Index; Equileap; Just 100; and 2020 Women On Boards for Gender Diversity on our Board of Directors. In addition, GM was recognized as one of the 2020 World's Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere for exemplifying and advancing corporate citizenship, transparency and the standards of integrity. And for the fifth consecutive year, General Motors is among DiversityInc's Top 50 Companies for Diversity, 1 of only 2 automotive companies that were recognized. In addition to our overall ranking, we ranked among the top companies for veterans, individuals with disabilities and LGBTQ employees. One final thought on culture: as we all contemplate what the world looks like on the other side of this pandemic, I have been impressed by how quickly the GM team has been able to act in this environment. Things that previously took weeks are getting done in a day or 2. And it tells us we are engaging our team, removing bureaucracy and setting them free to do what they can do best and they can accomplish amazing things. And I think that speaks to the culture we are creating at General Motors. So before we go to your questions, I want to share this video about why we think the future looks good. [Presentation]

We will now open up the meeting for questions from shareholders. As mentioned previously, during today's question-and-answer session, we will be taking a mix of written questions submitted through the virtual annual meeting portal and live questions over the phone. [Operator Instructions] Mary, we'll start the Q&A session with a question from the phone line. Operator, can you please open the phone line for our first question?

The first question today comes from Charles DyReyes.

Operator, we'll give Charles an opportunity to come back on the line. For now, let's proceed to our first written question. Mary, our first written question comes from Mr. [ Scott Morrow ]. And he asks, when will you bring back dividend payments?

Thank you for your question, [ Mr. Morrow ]. We want to make sure that we follow the 3 objectives of our capital allocation framework. We're investing in growth opportunities to create significant shareholder value while making sure that our balance sheet is investment grade, and we have the cash at levels that we saw before the crisis. After we achieve those 2 objectives, we'll be in a position to evaluate the best way to manage our third objective of our capital allocation framework, which is to return cash to shareholders. So that's the path we'll follow.

Thank you, Mary. We'll take another written question that we received through the virtual meeting platform. This one is from Mr. [ Dan Hocke ]. [ Mr. Hocke ] asks, why doesn't GM use the Spark EV as a lower-cost alternative to the Bolt for those who can't afford a Bolt? I own a 2019 Bolt and my brother owns a 2017 Bolt.

Thank you for your question, [ Mr. Hocke ]. And first, I'd like to thank you very much for being a Chevrolet Bolt customer, and I appreciate your comment on affordability. The Chevy Spark EV was a subcompact car that used the same platform as the gas-powered Chevy Spark. It had just 82 miles of battery range. We ended production of both models due to the shift in consumer demand for cars to crossovers and SUVs. In March though, we unveiled our highly flexible third-generation global EV platform powered by our proprietary Ultium battery. These batteries will allow the company to compete for nearly every customer in the market today, whether they are looking for affordable transportation, a luxury experience, work trucks or a high-performance machine. Our new Bolt EV will continue to be priced in a way that is attainable for many customers.

Okay. Mary, we'll go back to the phone line. Operator, can you please open the line for our first question?

The question is from David Segal.

We at Franklin Mutual have been receiving an increasing number of questions by our investors regarding environmental, social and governance, also known as ESG Topics. The question that often comes up is why GM, despite the fact that it's a leader in EV and AV, has good corporate governance and a tagline which includes a future of zero crashes and zero emissions, has a low rating of CCC by one of the third-party ESG rating companies. What have you done and can you do to substantively improve your ESG performance over time?

Thank you, David. And we value all rankings and ratings of the company by third parties, and we use this to analyze our gaps between their scoring and evaluation versus our own internal performance tracking. We also engage with investors to understand how these ratings impact the decision-making of investors and other stakeholders. Every engagement we view as an opportunity to improve our practices as we create a future with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. As I mentioned in the business presentation, earlier this year, the company named a Chief Sustainability Officer to lead activities across the business under the umbrella of a new sustainability office. At the same time, we established aggressive new ESG targets to accelerate our sustainability goals. We shared these goals and our progress with investors and third parties, including the ESG rating agencies. While these goals converge, we have an ecosystem with electric vehicles, built in plants powered by renewable energy. And in the case of our workplace chargers, charged by a green grid. By mid-decade, we plan to sell 1 million EVs annually. To continue this work, we're building a unified workplace culture that values diverse perspectives and encourages employees to bring their true selves to work. We are actively engaged in solutions to address systemic racial injustice across the U.S. as I've discussed in detail today. We know we have more to do, but I'm pleased that our ESG work has been recognized by third parties like the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, S&P 500 ESG Index and the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and Goldman Sachs JUST ETF. Just a few hours ago, we learned that we were placed eighth on the list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens.

Mary let's stay with questions from the phone line. Operator, can you please open the line for the next question in the queue?

Yes. This question is from Chris Susanin.

Chris Susanin with Levin Easterly Partners. So Mary, you have this bold mission of zero crash and zero emissions, zero congestion. And GM is firmly committed to its all-EV future. Just from a competitive position standpoint, how would you assess GM's EV capability today and over the next several years versus traditional and emerging peers? And compare and contrast that to your North America position in pickups and full-size SUVs today. And just as a follow-up, do you think your market share and return on capital in an all-EV world would be meaningfully different?

Thank you for the question, Chris. We believe we have a number of advantages, including our global footprint and scale, the versatility of our battery modules and packs and drive units and the flexibility of our all-new modular platform and our plans and strategies to create robust home, workplace and public charging infrastructure for our customers. In terms of market share, we think EVs are an opportunity that would -- we would expect to maintain and/or increase our market share. As we've mentioned in the past, we are underrepresented on the coast where EV adoption is believed to be faster. In terms of the return on capital, as we reduce costs through innovation and increase our scale in EVs, we expect strong return on invested capital, adjusted the metric that we use to be above 20% -- our 20% target.

Mary, another question from the phone line. Operator, could you please open the next caller's line, please?

The question is from Timothy Smith.

Good morning, Madam Chair and Board of Directors, fellow shareholders. I'm Tim Smith, and I work in Boston with a firm called Boston Trust Walden, one of those firms that is committed to environmental, social and governance excellence by the companies that we engage in. I want to start off by thanking you very sincerely for you and General Motors' leadership on the COVID pandemic plus your heartfelt and inspiring words about the need not just to lament the lack of racial justice but to move forward in client solutions. And I think this is the time. And your work and working with others in the Business Roundtable and others can raise the voice of business to have a very impactful role. I wanted to just mention also that I appreciated your respectful response to the issues raised on human rights and the lobbying resolution. GM has faced tremendous past criticism when one of our trade associations, the Automobile Alliance for Innovation (sic) [ Alliance for Automotive Innovation ], lobbied and took climate change positions contrary to GM's own thinking. As a senior company member of this trade association, could you describe a little what GM does there and with other trade associations to make sure that your message is heard and that, that trade association is acting consistent with your goals and values? After all, you pay their salaries, you are a leadership member along with Board and others in the automobile alliance. So any thoughts on your role in trade associations, in particular, trying to hold the automobile alliance accountable would be appreciated. Thank you.

Sure. Thank you. I appreciate your comments. And we are working with the alliance. It's a newly formed alliance. Of course, each company has their own perspectives as well. And that's why we try to clearly convey that GM does believe in an all-electric future. But we also believe the quickest way and the most efficient way to make improvement is to have one national standard so we're not working with multiple standards that we have to meet that could cause additional engineering to be done that is not as efficient as if we had one national standard and then can work to improve that year over year over year, which is our goal. So we regularly voice that to the alliance. And we will, as the alliance evolves, make sure our points are known and evaluate their effectiveness on representing us.

Mary, we have time for 2 more questions. We'll take the first of these again from the phone line and then turn our attention to a written question. Operator, can you open up the phone line of our next questioner, please?

The question is from Charles DyReyes.

Good morning, everybody. This is Charlie DyReyes with Invesco. First off, thank you and the team for your efforts to supply a health care community of the equipment needed to fight the virus and for taking care of your employees during the crisis. And you're doing an admirable job managing GM through a crisis that the world hasn't seen in 100 years. So Mary, since you took over as CEO in 2014, fundamentally, GM has done an incredible job of execution, and a few highlights, if I may. You've greatly improved the cost structure. You've exited underperforming geographies, rationalized unprofitable products, improved the balance sheet and pension, doubled the earnings power of the company, returned enormous capital back to shareholders, you bought Cruise and entered the AV market, and I applied your commitment to transitioning the company to an all-electric world and your new electric vehicle product, frankly, looks incredible and stunning. But yet, since that time, the stock is down 10% from the day you took over. So this is really more of a statement than a question, but I don't know what more you need to do to get a higher valuation. So my -- again, that was the statement. So my question really is, 3 years ago, you bought Cruise AV for $1 billion and less than -- and about a year ago, you raised money at a $19 billion valuation, yet the market is assigning no value to Cruise. The market opportunity for AV and autonomous driving is massive and you're a leader here. Why do you think the market views it as worth 0? And how long can the market continue to hold this nonsensical view?

Well, I appreciate your comments. And I think as it specifically relates to autonomous vehicles, I think that there was a point in time where everybody was very excited, and then that has decreased a little bit. Through that whole period, General Motors has been with Cruise working and steadily making progress on our technology milestones to achieve driving that is safer than a human. And we are on that path. And so I think the way that we will unlock that value is by demonstrating that we have successfully developed that technology. As we've said in the past, we will first deploy in a ring-fenced area and then as the costs come down, the capability will increase. And I think you'll see us doing that in the not-too-distant future that will unlock that value. So thank you for your question.

Mary, we have time for one last question. This question was submitted to us in advance of the meeting on the annual meeting portal and consists of 2 parts that are related. Thank you for establishing the racial justice fund for $10 million. Will the contribution to the NAACP be an annual contribution? And will you publish the guideline for applying funds? Or will all distribution decisions be made internally? And secondly, thank you also for establishing the Inclusion Advisory Board. In the interest of transparency, will you be able to share with shareholders a description of the Board's goals and objectives and the process for evaluating the Board's work and the outcomes of its recommendation?

I appreciate the question. And I guess, the simple answer to the question is yes. But as I step back, I'm very proud of the diversity efforts of General Motors that we've had for years. But we also recognize, as we step back and reflected, that we have much more work to do inside the company and then outside to work in partnership with our dealers, our suppliers and other companies represented in the BRT. So our Inclusion Advisory board is the first step, and we'll have both internal and external leaders. And we will definitely share the goals of that group and the areas that will work across the company and how we set either metrics or objectives to achieve. As it relates to applying for funds, we already have with our corporate giving program, through our website, you can -- people can submit proposals to be considered, and that will also be revealed not only by our corporate giving, but also by the Inclusion Advisory Board. So we recognize there could be great ideas to help move forward that will come from the outside, and we'll be very open to that. So thank you for your questions.

Thank you, Mary. And thanks to all of you who have participated today. That's all the time that we have for questions. Again, if there are written questions that we did not have time to address today, we will post representative -- excuse me, answers to a representative set of those questions on our website shortly after the meeting. Now I'll turn the time back to Mary for some short closing remarks.

Thank you, Rick. As we step back, this moment in time is historic for all of us. Even in the midst of the uncertain business environment, we believe General Motors' future is bright and that we are positioned to create value for all of our shareholders and other stakeholders. General Motors has helped change the world before, and we are determined to do it again with our skills and dedicated employees and with technology, speed, innovation and ingenuity. Thank you again for joining us today, and we will now conclude the meeting.

This conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.