GM walks again US$6bn EV plans amid Trump coverage reversals

Basic Motors introduced 8 January that it’s going to report a US$6bn cost to unwind its prior electrical car (EV) investments because it reduces deliberate manufacturing resulting from weakened demand and Trump administration coverage adjustments. The writedown encompasses a scaling again of EV manufacturing and the broader impression it will have on the availability chain; certainly many of the hit—roughly US$4.2bn in money prices—is linked to cancelled contracts and settlements with suppliers that had ready for considerably greater volumes.

GM pressured that the cost is not going to have an effect on its current US lineup of roughly a dozen electrified fashions, stating in a regulatory submitting that it plans to proceed to make these fashions out there to prospects. The automaker will report the writedown as a particular merchandise in its fourth quarter earnings, with further however smaller prices anticipated in 2026 as negotiations with suppliers proceed.

GM has been reducing EV-related operations in latest months, halting battery manufacturing at two of its joint-venture vegetation with LG for six months and lowering an EV-only Detroit manufacturing unit to a single-shift operation. The corporate additionally pivoted away from plans for one more Michigan facility that was slated to construct electrical autos, as an alternative committing the location to Cadillac Escalade and full-size pickup manufacturing.

As is the case with different automakers within the US, GM’s EV gross sales plummeted through the fourth quarter. It noticed gross sales slide by 43%; the broader market share for EVs collapsed from round 11% to roughly 6.5%. That is due largely to the Trump administration’s elimination of the federal EV tax credit score, which allotted as much as US$7,500 in tax rebates on the acquisition of recent autos. Business-wide EV gross sales elevated simply 1.2% year-over-year throughout 2025 in line with analysis agency Omdia. Whereas this represents dramatically slower development than in different years, the function of regulatory adjustments have to be factored in. Automotive knowledge supplier Edmunds has forecast that EVs will account for about 6% of general US gross sales in 2026.

Ford additionally introduced in December it might report a hefty writedown of US$19.5bn, unfold throughout a number of quarters, because it cancelled and reined in a number of EV programmes. Among the many cancelled merchandise had been the Ford F150 Lightning—first suspended resulting from a fireplace at aluminium provider Novelis and by no means resumed—in addition to a number of deliberate next-generation truck and van fashions.

In an announcement to ReutersChief Government Jim Farley characterised the shift as painful however obligatory: “When the market actually modified during the last couple of months, that was actually the impetus for us to make the decision.” Ford has not given up solely on EVs, however it’s taking a radically completely different method. Presently it’s growing a platform for next-generation EVs that prioritises affordability; the primary car can be a mid-size pickup priced at round US$30,000.