General Motors reported its second quarter earnings results on Tuesday, beating Wall Street estimates and reaffirming its full year guidance, despite uncertainty around the impact of the US tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts.
The company reported adjusted EPS (earnings per share) of $2.53 (higher than the $2.44 consensus), despite being 17.3% lower than a year ago.
GM’s operating income in the second quarter was $2.1 billion — nearly half of the $3.9 billion disclosed a year ago.
The net income margin was 2.1 percentual points below last year’s, going from 6.1 to 4.0% — a 34.4% drop year over year.
Second quarter revenue was $47.12 billion (above the estimated $46.28 billion), down by 1.8% from a year ago, despite being up from the first quarter.
Adjusted EBIT (earnings before interests and taxes) were at $3.04 billion, a 31.6% drop from the same period last year. However, they were above the Street estimates of $2.89 billion.
General Motors‘ automotive cash flow registered a sharp drop of nearly 40% year over year to $4.65 billion.
In the second quarter of 2024, the automaker had reported a value of $7.7 billion. Compared to the first quarter, the cash flow nearly doubled.
The automotive debt raised by $1.7 billion in the first half of 2025 to $17.2 billion, with liquidity falling from $35.5 billion to $34.7 billion in the first six months of the year.
Regarding sales, GM delivered 746,588 vehicles in the second quarter, increasing both sequentially (10%) and year over year (7.3%). First half deliveries reached 1.4 million vehicles.
“In addition to our strong underlying operating performance, we are positioning the business for a profitable, long-term future,” CEO Mary Barra stated in a letter addressed to shareholders.
According to the chief executive, GM is adapting to “new trade and tax policies, and a rapidly evolving tech landscape.”
Barra said that the Detroit automaker was working to “greatly reduce our tariff exposure.”
General Motors lowered its 2025 financial guidance earlier this year, as it aimed for an adjusted EBIT of between $10—$12.5 billion, down from $13.7—15.7 billion.
By then, the Detroit automaker predicted a tariff impact of $4 billion to $5 billion — which was reaffirmed on Tuesday’s report.
However, GM has said to be “making solid progress to mitigate at least 30% of this impact through manufacturing adjustments, targeted costs initiatives, and consistent pricing.”
In the second quarter, a $1.1 billion net impact reflected “minimal mitigation offsets.”
The company expects that the third quarter will represent a higher mitigation offset “due to timing of indirect tariff costs.”
The company is expecting lower results in the second half of the year, as the third and fourth quarter will be impacted by the tariffs, while the first one was not.
It also cited “seasonally lower” volume and increased spend related to “next-gen full-size pickup launch.”
Last week, GM dropped the plans to produce electric vehicles in its Orion plant, telling its employees it will produce internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in the site instead.
The Detroit based automaker said in June that the Orion plant is one of three facilities — together with Fairfax, in Kansas, and Spring Hill, in Tennessee — that will share a $4 billion investment to expand production of ICE-powered vehicles.
A spokesperson for General Motors confirmed that the company will be producing these models from “early 2027,” to help the automaker “meet continued strong customer demand.”
In the same letter published on Tuesday, Mary Barra said that “despite slower EV industry growth, we believe the long-term future is profitable electric vehicle production, and this continues to be our north star.”
Barra reaffirmed that the company is adjusting to “changing demand” and wrote that “overall, GM is well positioned to succeed in an ICE market that now has a longer runway.”
On Monday, General Motors‘ Board of Directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share on its common stock.
The dividend will be payable on September 18 to shareholders of record as of September 5.
As of the time of writing, GM is trading 3.4% lower at $51.40 on Tuesday’s pre-market session. The stock surged 14.7% over the past twelve months.
