Mary Barra Says General Motors Is Moving To Electric Vehicles 'As Quickly As Possible'

General Motors Co GM announced a sizable increase to its commitment to electric vehicles Wednesday.

What Happened: GM is once again raising its commitment to electric vehicles with a new plan to spend $35 billion through 2025. The figure comes after the company raised its commitment from $20 billion to $25 billion in November.

“General Motors is moving to electric vehicles as quickly as possible,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a CNBC interview.

Barra highlighted the demand from customers and strength of its fleet program as the reasons for boosting the target: “We’re seeing exceptionally strong reactions to electric vehicles.”

GM also announced it will open two additional battery manufacturing plants by the end of 2025.

“We recognized that we need additional battery cell capacity," Barra said.

Related Link: GM Raises 5 Year EV Investment Target To $35B, Following In Ford's Footsteps

Why It’s Important: GM is one of the largest automobile manufacturers and, like Ford Motor Company F, is committing over $30 billion to the growth of electric vehicles. The moves could be done to try and catch up to U.S. market leader Tesla Inc TSLA.

“GM is targeting annual global EV sales of more than 1 million by 2025 and we are increasing our investment to scale faster because we see momentum building in the United States for electrification,” Barra said in a press release.

GM also raised its EBIT guidance for the first half of the fiscal year to a range of $8.5 billion to $9.5 billion.

Barra said the company is moving some production from the third quarter into the second quarter and remains confident in its supply chain.

GM Price Action: Shares of General Motors are up 1.2% to $61.58 at publication time.

GM CEO Mary Barra. Benzinga file photo by Dustin Blitchok.