General Motors held its first-quarter 2025 financial call today. The event, delayed from April 30 to allow the Trump administration to announce more tariff changes, revealed GM will be out billions of dollars unless something changes.
GM CEO Mary Barra expects a "tariff exposure of $4 billion to $5 billion" resulting from the Trump Administration's latest updates. On the call, GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said $2 billion comes from imports from South Korea. Imports from Mexico and GM account for another $2 billion, with an extra $1 billion attributed to "indirect material imports."
With the tariff impact factored in, GM's full-year EBIT-adjusted guidance fell to a range between $10 billion and $12.5 billion. All things considered, that's not too bad. But the way the current administration is going back and forth on tariffs, that could all change tomorrow.
"We look forward to maintaining our strong dialogue with the administration on trade and other policies as they continue to evolve," Barra said during the company's conference call.
That's especially true considering GM isn't planning to raise prices on its vehicles. That is, the company isn't planning additional price hikes based on tariffs. Some models like the Chevrolet Tahoe jumped by over $2,000 compared to 2024, and the cheapest 2025 Chevrolet Silverado—of which some production does take place in Mexico—now starts over $40,000.
"One of Tuesday’s presidential actions will provide a tariff offset based on the more than 1.5 million vehicles we build in the US each year," said Jacobson. "This will help mitigate a substantial portion of the tariffs on parts going into those vehicles, and help avoid added costs on US vehicle production."
Amid all the tariff confusion, GM's sales in the US were up a robust 17 percent for the first three months of 2025. That could be partially due to buyers nabbing new cars before full effects of the tariffs kick in, though according to GM, that's not going to trickle down to buyers. But given the near-daily changes in tariff policies, things will likely change before 2025 comes to a close.
