Mary Barra has led General Motors for 12 years. Few chief executives in the industry have faced as many sharp turns. A global pandemic. Supply chain breakdowns. A surge in Chinese competition. And now, a stark slowdown in American demand for electric vehicles.

Yet the GM chair and CEO holds firm. EVs remain the endgame. “We still think EVs are the endgame,” she told Fortune in a recent interview. The road to get there? Longer than once expected. Slower. Bumpy.

That realism defines her stance today. Barra no longer offers firm timelines for industry-wide shifts. “I’m done making predictions,” she said. The admission carries weight. It comes after years of bold forecasts that the market failed to match.

Recent numbers underscore the challenge. GM reported 670,974 U.S. vehicle sales in the third quarter of 2026. That marked a 5.5 percent drop from the same period a year earlier, according to Yahoo Finance. EV deliveries fell even harder. Roughly 25,500 electric vehicles found buyers. A 62 percent plunge. The Chevrolet Equinox EV suffered most. Sales collapsed 92.4 percent to 1,905 units. The Blazer EV dropped 84.4 percent. Even the Hummer EV slid 72.9 percent.

Blame last year’s rush. Buyers hurried to claim federal tax credits before they expired at the end of September 2025. That inflated 2025 figures. Without the incentive, 2026 looks grim by comparison. But the trend runs deeper. Consumer habits have not shifted as fast as regulators and executives once assumed. Range anxiety lingers. Charging infrastructure lags in many regions. And high prices deter mass adoption.

Barra refuses to abandon the strategy. She points to a broad portfolio instead. GM offers more than a dozen EVs. It also sells plenty of profitable trucks and SUVs with internal combustion engines. “Wherever the customer is, we have a vehicle,” she explained to Fortune. The approach echoes Alfred P. Sloan’s historic philosophy. Give buyers choices across price points and needs.

Trucks carried the quarter. Light-duty pickup sales rose 9.3 percent. The Chevrolet Silverado led the way with a 13.3 percent gain. These high-margin vehicles fund future bets on batteries, software and charging. Barra sees them as bridge and foundation. ICE and EVs can thrive together under the GM tent, she has said in multiple appearances.

China adds another layer of pressure. Domestic EV makers there have accelerated. GM restructured operations and returned its China business to profit. The partnership with SAIC continues. Barra views the market as a proving ground for faster development cycles, advanced infotainment and battery tech. Fair trade policies matter, she argues. So does a strong U.S. manufacturing base.

Policy swings in Washington compound uncertainty. Earlier targets envisioned 40 to 50 percent EV sales by 2030 under stricter rules. Those expectations have eased. Barra adjusts without panic. “We were headed to be 50% EVs from a regulatory perspective by 2030. But with the changes… we are on a different path,” she told analysts, as reported by WardsAuto.

Autonomy offers the brighter horizon. Here too, expectations have moderated. Once bullish on rapid progress, Barra now stresses measured steps. The costly pivot away from Cruise robotaxis taught hard lessons. GM invested billions after acquiring the unit in 2016. Incidents, regulatory blocks and public trust issues followed. The company wound down the dedicated robotaxi effort. It saved roughly $1 billion annually.

Focus shifted to personal vehicles. “That’s where we’re focused because I think that’s where our strength is,” Barra said, per Fortune. Personal autonomy builds on 118 years of experience selling cars to individuals. Not fleets. Not taxis.

Super Cruise forms the base. The hands-free advanced driver assistance system already lets drivers remove hands from the wheel and feet from the pedals on mapped roads. Customers have accumulated hundreds of millions of miles. GM claims no crashes attributed to the system. The company has mapped 600,000 miles of compatible highways in North America.

In 2028, GM plans a significant leap. Eyes-off-the-road capability arrives on the Cadillac Escalade IQ. “What we plan to do in 2028 is you’ll be able to not have to keep your eyes on the road,” Barra stated in the Fortune interview. “And that will be the start of then getting to full autonomy.” The system draws on Cruise’s validation frameworks and more than five million fully driverless miles of data.

A new centralized computing platform debuts with it. The architecture unifies propulsion, steering, infotainment and safety on one high-speed core. Benefits include ten times more over-the-air update capacity, 1,000 times more bandwidth and up to 35 times greater AI performance. GM Forward event details shared by Highways News highlighted these gains. The platform works across EVs and gasoline models. It sets the stage for continuous improvement long after sale.

Conversational AI joins the mix. A Google Gemini-powered assistant will appear in vehicles starting next year. Drivers can ask for directions, restaurant suggestions or owner’s manual details. The feature extends to both electric and gas models.

Trust remains the gate. GM knows this better than most. Past safety crises shaped the company. Barra acknowledges that eyes-off driving will unsettle some buyers. Safety data from Super Cruise helps. So does incremental rollout. Highway-first. Then expansion. Simulation, real-world testing and regulatory work all factor in.

Software subscriptions add revenue. Super Cruise and OnStar updates could generate nearly $2 billion annually within five years. That recurring stream improves margins. It changes the business model. Barra sees autonomy boosting both customer experience and profitability.

Critics question the pace. Tesla pushes faster on full self-driving. Waymo and others expand robotaxi operations. GM’s deliberate style draws contrast. Barra accepts it. Scale matters. Manufacturing expertise matters. Customer acceptance matters most.

Recent X discussions reflect the debate. Some users praise Barra’s honesty in dropping firm predictions. Others fault GM for slow EV adaptation or past overpromises. One post noted her comment as “the more honest position” compared with rival messaging.

Investment continues. Over $250 million goes to skilled trades training. AI appears in design studios and assembly plants to speed development and improve quality. Battery costs fall through new designs. These efforts support the long view.

Barra has steered GM through crisis before. The ignition switch scandal marked her early tenure. She responded with cultural change and renewed focus on safety. Today’s test feels different. It mixes technology ambition with market realism. Policy flux with consumer inertia.

The destination holds. EVs. Software-defined vehicles. Greater autonomy. How GM travels there has evolved. Flexibility rules. Trucks and hybrids buy time. Data from millions of Super Cruise miles builds confidence. A unified computing backbone prepares for rapid iteration.

Industry watchers wait to see execution. The 2028 Escalade IQ launch will test consumer appetite for eyes-off driving. Sales recovery in affordable EVs will signal whether the broader transition regains momentum. Barra’s leadership rests on balancing patience with persistence. On offering choices today while investing in the cars of tomorrow.

She has no illusions about speed. The transition will take decades, not a fixed near-term sprint. But the north star stays fixed. GM intends to lead when the market finally catches up.