Barra mitigates tariffs, sees big GM profits

Today, Mary Barra, head of General Motors, announced that the company had taken steps to reduce the impact of import taxes (tariffs), and believed it would earn around $10 per share of stock for 2025. The tariffs are expected to cost the company $3.5 to $4.0 billion, not including new investments meant to counter them. GM said it was spending $4 billion to move production to three U.S. states over two years, and $1 billion to build new V8 engines in New York.

Moving production into the United States avoids tariffs on vehicles and parts sold in the United States, but will likely hurt sales in Canada and Mexico.

Earnings for third quarter of 2025 were $1.3 billion ($1.35 per share), down from $3.1 billion in Q3 2024. Adjusting for one-time gains and costs brought earnings to $2.80 per share for the quarter on $48.6 billion in revenue. The numbers were better than Wall Street analysts had guessed.

The inexpensive Equinox has turned out to be quite a success, and the company plans to make it in Fairfax, Kansas factory as well as Mexico—but that won’t start until mid-2027, since the factory has to be updated first. The electric Bolt is also being made at Fairfax, as a “limited run” model with no definite timespan; it’s possible the Bolt will leave Kansas (and the world) in early 2027 to make room for the Equinox. The Equinox EV, America’s favorite non-Tesla electric car, is made in Mexico on different underpinnings.

Barra remains committed to electric vehicles and still believes their sales will increase, but more slowly than before, and has changed plans to compensate for that. She has also dropped the company’s investment in “next-generation” BrightDrop commercial vans, whose sales have remained sluggish in the conservative fleet van market. It’s quite likely that high import taxes on the Canadian-built vans played a role, but this year Barra also slashed GM’s investment in a self-driving program which has had disappointing results. Brightdrop vans were made in Ingersoll, Ontario; the plant had been temporarily closed in April due to low demand for the vans. Barra said that GM would be looking for new uses for the factory.