General Motors and the impact of Trump's tariff policy

Quarterly Balance Sheet Trump's Tariffs Cause General Motors' Profits to Plummet

2025-07-28 Source: dpa 1 min Reading Time

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General Motors is feeling the effects of President Donald Trump's tariff policy. The car manufacturer aims to counteract this with, among other things, austerity measures.

Donald Trump's import tariffs cost the US auto giant General Motors $1.1 billion in the past quarter. As a result, profits plummeted by 35 percent year-over-year to $1.9 billion (€1.62 billion). GM continues to anticipate a burden of four to five billion dollars for the entire year due to the tariffs imposed by the US President.

The corporation hopes to offset at least 30 percent of this through production adjustments and cost reductions. Nevertheless, GM stated that customers in North America must expect price increases of 0.5 to 1 percent. In June, GM announced plans to move part of its production from Mexico to the USA.

The VW Passat was produced for the Chinese market at the plant in Nanjing for a long time. (Image: VW)

Burden from Electric Cars

GM exceeded the even lower market expectations with its profit. The business in China, where the company posted a profit for the second consecutive quarter, also contributed. Additionally, GM reduced fixed costs by $800 million. However, a write-down on electric car inventories resulted in a $600 million burden.

GM sold over 970,000 vehicles in the second quarter, nearly 25,000 less than analysts had expected. Revenue declined year-over-year by 1.8 percent to just over $47 billion, but it exceeded expectations.

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