General Motors executives said Tuesday that tariff concerns impacted the first quarter only marginally as profits fell 6.6%, but continued uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s import taxes will lead GM to revise its prior full-year guidance.
The Detroit automaker said production hurdles with full-size pickups and SUVs and other headwinds in North America dragged down earnings in the period ending March 31, although its U.S. sales rose and it swung to a profit in China.
GM is the first of the Detroit Three to report earnings for first quarter of 2025. Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson told reporters on a call that GM would not comment on the cost incurred from tariffs beyond that it impacted the company for only a few days.
Trump signed an executive order to implement a 25% tariff on foreign-built vehicles built starting April 3, with a few key auto-parts subject to a tariff starting May 3. Reciprocal tariffs, also announced April 2, started at 10% on U.S. trading partners. Exactly one week later, he paused most of them for 90 days.
Still, GM’s prospects for the year’s profitability provided earlier this year did not account for tariff concerns, Jacobson said. The company said in a statement later that it will issue revised guidance later this week.
“We did have some minimal costs related to tariffs in the quarter. It’s pretty minor across the board,” he said. “We can’t rely on the guidance we have issued before, because it might be material.”
GM said in January that it expected net profits in the range of $11.2 billion to $12.5 billion for full-year 2025, and pretax profits of $13.7 billion to $15.7 billion.
Those ranges excluded impact from increased tariffs or other policy changes under the Trump administration but assumed a stable policy environment in North America and an estimated benefit of $500 million from reduced year-over-year expenses of its autonomous Cruise business.
The prior financial guidance also included anticipated capital spending of $10 to $11 billion accounting for investments in the company’s battery cell manufacturing joint-ventures.
The company has already moved on its playbook devised ahead of tariffs, including the announcements increasing production at the Fort Wayne Assembly Plant in Indiana by 50,000 more vehicles per year. The Fort Wayne facility builds the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 light-duty trucks.
Further strategies may be employed, Jacobson said, but would not be made before obtaining clarity on the tariff situation.
