Hi, I'm Dan Pramak, and welcome to Axios Recap, presented by Google. Today is Wednesday, December 2nd.

Home mortgage demand is up, job growth is down, and we're focused on the electrification of America's largest car maker.

General Motors this week slammed the brakes on its plan to acquire around a $2 billion

equity stake in Nikola, an electric truck maker that hasn't yet made an electric truck

that people can buy.

It also scrapped plans to jointly develop a pickup with Nikola called the Badger, although

GM does still plan to provide batteries

to Nicola if and when it commercializes its vehicles.

Two big things to know.

First, GM wasn't supposed to put up any cash for that Nicola stock, but it still reflects

poorly on GM's due diligence process.

Two, in the long run for GM's electric ambitions, this probably doesn't matter too much.

The company had originally unveiled a 2003 e-vehicle roadmap that it now says wasn't ambitious

enough, revamping it with a new plan to have around 30 different electric models available

by 2025. Why it matters is that America's largest automaker clearly believes that

electric vehicles aren't just the future for niche enthusiasts or environmentalists. It believes

it's the future for all of us and that our grandkids will view combustion engines as relics.

And if you add GM's thesis to the continued growth of companies like Tesla, it seems this paradigm shift is just around the corner.

So in 15 seconds, we'll go deeper with Ken Morris, who leads electric and autonomous vehicles for GM.

But first, this.

We're joined now by Ken Morris, Vice President for Electric and Autonomous Vehicles at General Motors.

You guys recently overhauled your EV ambitions for the next five years.

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