Asked whether the No. 1 U.S. automaker would team up to share the cost of EVs, Barra said on a conference call with analysts that GM already works with Japan's Honda Motor Co Ltd on battery cell technology and other EV parts but was open to more partnerships.

"We are open to working with other (automakers) on leveraging it even further, but we're already doing that with Honda, and it definitely provides savings from an engineering perspective, and has scaled benefits as well," Barra said.

GM's smaller U.S. rival Ford Motor Co last month agreed to use an EV platform developed by Germany's Volkswagen AG as a way to mitigate those development costs.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Nick Zieminski)