Not long after taking the oath of office, President Donald J. Trump made it known he wasn't wasting time releasing his agenda and policies.
After his speech following the Inaugural parade, he signed over 200 executive orders, actions, and proclamations, including some done onstage at the Capital One Arena in front of cheering supporters.
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Some of the moves impact the auto industry, including what he has called Biden's "electric vehicle mandate" as part of a larger portfolio of immediate energy policy actions. Later the same day, he told reporters that he intended to push forward on previously teased 25% tariffs on goods originating from the United States' most immediate neighbors, justifying it by citing cross-border issues like illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
"We’re thinking in terms of 25% on Mexico and Canada because they’re allowing [...] vast numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in [across the U.S. border]," Trump said in front of reporters in the Oval Office on the evening of January 20. "I think we’ll do it February 1st."
General Motors posts Q4 net loss
On the morning of January 28, Detroit Big Three automaker General Motors (GM) reported Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings, where they posted major losses.
The automaker behind Chevrolet and Cadillac said it lost $2.96 billion during Q4 2024 due to a $4 billion loss related to their Chinese joint venture with the state-owned SAIC. Excluding one-time charges, earnings per share totaled $1.92
GM's net income fell 41% to $6 billion for the year, while revenue increased 9.1% to $187.4 billion
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In a letter to its shareholders, GM CEO Mary Barra touted its "strong performance" in providing customers with a vehicular cornucopia of four-wheel products powered by gas and electric engines.
“A year ago, I said that we were optimistic about 2024 given the choice we would offer customers, including industry-leading full-size pickups, new and redesigned SUVs and an expanding portfolio of EVs,” Barra said. “I also said that we would focus on execution and profitability, and our performance has been consistently strong.”
Analysts grilled Barra, other GM execs on Trump policy response
Despite being known as one of Detroit's darlings, General Motors is one of many automakers that shows considerable vulnerability to Trump's proposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian-made goods.
Many of GM's most popular models, including pickup trucks in the American market, are made across the border in Canada and Mexico to supplement U.S. production. However, in remarks to investors and analysts during its earnings call on January 28, GM CEO Mary Barra noted that she believes that the president's intentions are not to harm companies like GM and that the company can adjust to anything thrown at it.
"With respect to possible tariffs, we are working across our supply chain, logistics network, and assembly plants so that we are prepared to mitigate near-term impacts," Barra said. "Many of these actions are no cost or low cost."
In response to a question regarding tariff concerns raised by UBS Analyst Joseph Spak, Barra noted that the automaker has "been studying multiple scenarios" regarding tariffs, noting that they "have the capacity in the United States" to move production if necessary.
However, the CEO assures that work is being done behind the scenes for a best-case scenario.
"We also sell trucks globally and so we can look at where the international markets are being sourced from. So there's plays that we can do on that perspective to minimize the impact if there are tariffs either on Canada or Mexico," Barra said. "We're encouraged that President Sheinbaum of Mexico has indicated that they are working and having conversations to take the steps necessary that the Trump administration is looking for specifically around immigration and some other things to avoid the tariffs, but we're doing the planning and have several levers that we can pull."
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Analysts also cited GM's EV strategy as another Trump-related issue. The automaker said that it increased sales and market share of its EVs in 2024, selling 189,000 EVs last year—slightly below its goal of 200,000 units.
GM plans to sell about 300,000 EVs in 2025 by offering new vehicles, including models from its flagship Cadillac luxury brand. During the earnings call, Barra noted that the automaker is focused on producing products that people want to buy and assured that it won't " spend a large amount of capital without clarity."
Though the CEO rested on GM's "broad and deep" portfolio of gas and electric offerings, which it can adjust on the fly, she assured Barclays analyst Dan Levy that it is making appropriate market adjustments in response to Trump killing "the EV mandate;" citing its delayed restart of the EV-converted Orion, Michigan Assembly plant, as well as its divestment and sale of its stake in the Ultium battery plant to partner LG Energy Solutions as examples.
"[...] we're going to continue to make decisions like that to be appropriate with our capital. As we look at how EVs are going to grow, we never expected it would be a straight line. We're also going to deploy capital appropriately to our ICE portfolio."
"I think we have the strongest portfolio General Motors has had in decades. Maybe I'm a little biased there, but I think we're seeing that with the response in the market as well. So we're going to continue to be very efficient as we deploy capital to both ICE and EV, again, guided by the consumer demand."
General Motors trades on the New York Stock Exchange as GM.
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