At its GM Forward event in New York, General Motors said it would not exit the electric-vehicle business despite volatility in the US market and would develop products tailored to American demand. GM plans to use AI and virtualization to shorten its vehicle-development cycle, which it says takes four to five years, develop software-defined vehicles with stronger computing architectures, and introduce a fourth-generation platform for multiple vehicle types. The platform is intended for the mainstream market and would use lower-cost lithium-rich manganese batteries. GM expects these batteries to reduce manufacturing and purchase costs, while new models are said to require 20% less battery capacity and weigh less than the previous generation. These performance and cost projections were presented by GM and were not independently validated in the supplied reports. GM said new vehicles would arrive in the near future but gave no specific launch date.