GM CEO assures investors more profitable days are ahead
GM CEO says 2025 profits will be similar to 2024
GM reducing inventories in China and improving sales, Barra says
Automaker will sunset Ultium branding on batteries
GM shares trade slightly higher
Adds Barra and investor comments in paragraphs 5 and 11
By Nora Eckert
DETROIT, Oct 8 (Reuters) -General Motors GM.N CEO Mary Barra sought to soothe shareholders' worries that lagging demand for electric vehicles and perceived peak demand for gasoline-powered trucks will create a rough road ahead for the automaker.
Barra emphasized at an investor day on Tuesday 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, something sources previously told Reuters would be outlined. That includes 2025 profits in the same range as 2024, she said.
"I believe before the day is done, that you'll agree that GM has plenty of upside relative to the consensus view that the auto industry has reached peak profitability,” Barra told investors.
Shareholders were also eager for more detailson 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.
Barra said it is reducing inventories in China and improving sales, but didn't give additional details on the restructuring efforts there. Cruise hasresumed supervised driving in select cities, she said.
The slower-than-anticipated EV transition has caused many automakers to adjust plans, including GM and rival Ford, and GM's messaging on Tuesday focused less on aggressive growth and more on stability.
GM President Mark Reuss took a jab at Ford F.N, which has established a specialized unit to bring down the cost of its EVs, called its "skunkworks" team.
“We don’t need to create a skunkworks to create affordable electric vehicles," Reuss said, highlighting how GM has brought down costs on its EVs through reducing the number of parts per vehicle, among other measures.
Last month, GM and Hyundai 005380.KS 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."
While EV demand has lagged since Barra set lofty production and profitability goals three years ago, she said GM still expects EVs by year-end to achieve positive variable profitability, which is revenue minus costs like labor and materials.
“A lot of the presentation was focused on reducing complexity, and that leads to lower cost and greater profits, so that's all favorable," said Tim Piechowski, portfolio manager at ACR Alpine Capital Research, a GM investor.
GM shares were up slightly at $46.
Meanwhile, Reuss said GM isn't missing out by foregoing hybrids in the near-term, unlike Ford and Toyota 7203.T. Demand for gas-engine vehicles is strong, and emissions requirements don't ramp up until 2027, when GM will introduce plug-in hybrids, he said.
One focus at GM's event is its Ultium Cells battery technology, which investors saw during tours of the battery and EV assembly operations at the company's Tennessee plant.
The automaker will no longer use the Ultium name on its batteries, Kurt Kelty, head of battery cells, said. Moving forward, GM will be more flexible with battery chemistry and configuration, he said. Moving away from the Ultium name is significant for GM's branding of EVs, especially after the company highlighted it in Super Bowl advertisements.
Reporting by Nora Eckert, additional reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bangalore, editing by Ben Klayman and Nick Zieminski
Aset Terkait
Berita Terbaru
Pengungkapan: Entitas XM Group menyediakan layanan khusus eksekusi dan akses ke Fasilitas Trading Online kami, yang memungkinkan Anda untuk melihat dan/atau menggunakan konten yang tersedia pada atau melalui situs, yang tidak untuk mengubah atau memperluas, serta tidak mengubah atau memperluas hal tersebut. Akses dan penggunaan ini selalu sesuai dengan: (i) Syarat dan Ketentuan; (ii) Peringatan Risiko; dan (iii) Pengungkapan Penuh. Oleh karena itu, konten disediakan hanya sebagai informasi umum. Anda juga harus ketahui bahwa konten Fasilitas Trading Online kami bukan sebagai ajakan atau tawaran untuk untuk melakukan transaksi apa pun di pasar finansial. Trading di pasar finansial mana pun melibatkan tingkat risiko yang signifikan pada modal Anda.
Semua materi yang diterbitkan di Fasilitas Trading Online kami hanya untuk tujuan edukasi/informasi dan tidak boleh mengandung nasihat dan rekomendasi finansial, pajak investasi atau trading, catatan harga trading kami, penawaran, permintaan, transaksi dalam instrumen finansial apa pun atau promo finansial untuk Anda yang tidak diminta.
Konten pihak ketiga apa pun, serta konten yang disiapkan oleh XM, seperti opini, berita, riset, analisis, harga, informasi lain atau link ke situs pihak ketiga yang tersedia "sebagaimana adanya", sebagai komentar pasar umum dan bukan menjadi nasihat investasi. Sejauh konten apa pun ditafsirkan sebagai penelitian investasi, Anda harus memperhatikan dan menerima bahwa konten tersebut tidak dimaksudkan dan belum disiapkan sesuai dengan persyaratan hukum yang dirancang untuk mempromosikan kemandirian riset investasi dan dengan demikian akan dianggap sebagai komunikasi pemasaran di bawah hukum dan peraturan yang relevan. Mohon dipastikan bahwa Anda telah membaca dan memahami Notifikasi pada Riset Investasi Non-Independen dan Peringatan Risiko kami mengenai informasi di atas, yang dapat diakses disini.
