General Motors CEO and chairman Mary Barra announced on Wednesday that the company has no plans to invest in Bitcoin. Following Tesla’s announced $1.5 billion investment in the digital currency, many have been wondering who will be the next major company to go that route.
Though GM won’t be investing in the way that Tesla has. Barra did keep the door open on potentially accepting Bitcoin as a way to pay for its services and vehicles. We don’t have any plans to invest in bitcoin, so full-stop there”. Barra said during General Motor’s fourth quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
“This is something we’ll monitor and we’ll evaluate. If there’s strong customer demand for it in the future, there’s nothing that precludes us from doing that.”
GM Has One Issue with Potential Acceptance Of Bitcoin
One issue that GM has in regards to potentially accepting Bitcoin as payment, that Tesla doesn’t have, is its franchised dealer network. The company doesn’t sell its vehicles directly to consumers so if GM were to accept Bitcoin as a payment, it would have to work out some kind of process to make it cohesive across all of its dealers and their shared systems.
Cryptocurrency payment has already been implemented in other car dealerships as billionaire Tillman Fertitta revealed recently. The owner of Post Oak Motor Cars has been accepting Bitcoin as a payment since 2018 and said they have sold 17 cars (Bentleys and Rolls-Royces) with Bitcoin.
Tesla’s recent Bitcoin investment has lead to continued questions to numerous major companies. Tesla expects increased flexibility on cash returns and extra liquidity when the company does finally start accepting Bitcoin payments.
But GM is focused solely on themselves, planning to accelerate its all-electric and autonomous vehicle development. “We are investing in the business,” Barra said. “We see tremendous growth opportunities and we’re also accelerating EVs; $7 billion alone of the $9-$10 billion is focused on EV/AV. So we see tremendous opportunity there.”
