GM’s $5 Billion Tariff Hole Is Still Dangerously Deep
Despite Trump’s concessions, the levies mean the automaker will have a lot less this year to invest in things like autonomy and electrification.
Tough times.
Photographer: Emily Elconin/Bloomberg
General Motors Co. confirmed on Thursday that half a hole is still a hole. The company issued updated guidance for 2025, which had been delayed from Tuesday in order to accommodate another iteration of President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs thinking, which evolves faster than your average flu virus and feels about as good. Chief Executive Mary Barra kicked off the call by noting that GM is “grateful to President Trump for his support of the auto industry.” Listening remotely, I couldn’t quite detect the grinding of her teeth but that didn’t matter — the new guidance revealed the truth.
During the intervening 48 hours, Trump visited Detroit as part of a Day 100 victory tour to shore up his sagging polling. He announced some relief measures for US auto manufacturers from his own tariffs. The two main concessions involved preventing the stacking of auto-related country tariffs on top of general ones, especially those placed on imported steel and aluminum, and offering a rebate on tariffs placed on auto parts linked to vehicle prices. The latter lasts for two years and tapers down over that time. Assuming an average sticker price of $50,000, the rebate in the first year is worth about $1,900 per vehicle, reducing the impact from auto parts tariffs by about 50%, CreditSights estimates.