GM seeks to ease investor concerns as EV growth slows

By Nora Eckert

DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors (NYSE:) will seek to soothe shareholders’ worries on Tuesday that lagging demand for electric vehicles and perceived peak demand for gasoline-powered trucks will create a rough road ahead for the automaker.

CEO Mary Barra and her executive team will emphasize at investor day in Spring Hill, Tennessee, that profit margins have not peaked on traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles, and its EV sales are ramping up, sources previously said.

Investors are also expecting more details on the automaker’s restructuring in China, as well as updates around its Cruise autonomous vehicle operations, which has struggled since an accident last fall where one of its self-driving cars dragged a person.

The slower-than-anticipated EV transition has caused many automakers to adjust plans, including GM and cross-town rival Ford (NYSE:), and GM’s messaging on Tuesday is expected to focus less on aggressive growth and more on stability.

That will contrast with years past as GM set ambitious targets to rival Tesla (NASDAQ:), including in 2021 when Barra said GM would double revenue to about $280 billion by 2030.

While EV demand has lagged since Barra set that lofty goal, executives are expected to assure investors that profits on battery-powered models are closer than they think and the introduction of eight refreshed ICE models between now and the end of 2025 leaves room for improvement of profit margins.

Rory Harvey, GM’s president of global markets, told Reuters last week that the automaker’s third-quarter sales, which included strong gains on its EVs, were “a positive platform leading into investor day.”

Barra has said that GM is looking for ways to bring down the cost of its EVs, and last month the carmaker and Hyundai (OTC:) signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to consider ways to “leverage their complementary scale and strengths to reduce costs and bring a wider range of vehicles and technologies to customers faster.”

One focus at GM’s investor day will be its Ultium Cells battery technology, which investors will see during tours of the battery and EV assembly operations at the company’s Tennessee plant.

The meeting will be the first since 2022, after GM delayed the event last year to focus on resolving a strike by the United Auto Workers union.