GM Now Has What Tesla's Lost — An Upbeat Outlook
Buoyant guidance for earnings and US vehicle demand, combined with flexibility on EVs, is lifting sentiment for the legacy automaker.
Keeping it simple with the Chevrolet Blazer EV
Photographer: Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images
Two months ago, General Motors Co. applied a $10 billion defibrillator to its stock price. Having bought itself some time, the company has used it wisely: On Tuesday, it delivered good results and, more importantly, an upbeat prognosis for 2024. And mostly by making a virtue of everything that ailed it last fall.
GM’s earnings for the fourth quarter belied multiple setbacks. It suffered the longest of the strikes that won the United Auto Workers a historic settlement in October. Its Cruise self-driving unit hit a wall after an accident in San Francisco that spiraled into a self-inflicted rupture with regulators that halted operations in California. And its electric vehicle rollout suffered delays, made worse by confused messaging on the last earnings call. In short, GM’s efforts to reinvent itself for an electrified and autonomous future faltered even as the oldest of headwinds, higher wage costs and an adversarial union, reasserted themselves.