Gen­eral Motors expects to have as many as 500,000 “elec­tri­fied” vehi­cles on the road by 2017, says the maker’s global prod­uct czar, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent Mary Barra.

Find out how GM plans to get there.

The automaker is steadily ramp­ing up sales of var­i­ous bat­tery based vehi­cles, though demand has risen at a slower-than-expected pace for its Chevro­let Volt plug-in hybrid. Mean­while, GM is expected to for­mally unveil its first pure battery-electric vehi­cle, or BEV, in more than a dozen years at the upcom­ing LA Auto Show.

The Chevy Spark EV will make its pub­lic debut at the LA Auto Show later this month.

Gen­eral Motors will put its next plug-in hybrid, the Cadil­lac ELR, into pro­duc­tion in 2013.

At the cur­rent pace, the exec­u­tive said, GM is sell­ing “over 50,000″ elec­tri­fied vehi­cles annually.

“Plug-based solu­tions will play a sig­nif­i­cant role in our tech­nol­ogy port­fo­lio going for­ward” said Barra dur­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion of GM’s battery-electric strat­egy. While some of the new prod­ucts under devel­op­ment will help GM meet gov­ern­ment man­dates, she stressed,”“we’re not build­ing (them) to check a reg­u­la­tory box.”