GM Suspends Guidance on Trump Tariff Uncertainty

General Motors Co. is pulling earnings guidance for 2025 and putting $4 billion in share buybacks on hold until it has more clarity on the impact of US tariffs.

The Detroit automaker’s decision to withdraw its forecast and partly suspend stock repurchasing underscores how President Donald Trump’s trade policies are upending business plans in Corporate America. GM joins a growing list of US companies pulling earnings projections as they grapple with additional levies on imports — and retaliation from America’s trading partners.

“Because the original guidance didn’t include impact from tariffs, prior guidance can’t be relied upon,” Paul Jacobson, the company’s chief financial officer, said on a call with reporters. “We will update when we have more information on tariffs.”

GM on Tuesday postponed a planned conference call with analysts until May 1 to discuss its latest results and its “updated 2025 full-year guidance,” which the company expects to be able to provide after seeing more tariff details from the Trump administration. That came after a White House official said late Monday that steps will be taken to prevent the stacking up of multiple tariffs on foreign-made cars and to ease duties on some imported auto parts.

Bloomberg's David Welch reports.

“The administration is essentially ‘walking back’ auto tariffs before they got started in a clear sign of progress,” Chris McNally, an analyst at Evercore ISI, said in a research note.

Trump had hinted earlier this month that he might provide some relief to automakers. He is scheduled to visit Michigan, the heart of the American automobile industry, on Tuesday.

Prior to Trump’s tariff announcement, GM told investors in January it was on track to earn between $11 and $12 a share this year. A month later, the automaker announced $6 billion in new share buybacks, with $2 billion slated for the second quarter. That one-third portion of the planned repurchase will still take place as part of an accelerated program, Jacobson said.

Shares of the company fell 3.1% to $45.77 as of 9:33 a.m. Tuesday. The stock is down about 14% so far this year.

GM’s profit outlook for the year had been in doubt mostly due to tariffs on vehicles coming into the US, which is its largest and most profitable market. The car manufacturer gets close to half its domestic sales from imports shipped out of production facilities in Canada, Mexico and South Korea. GM and other automakers have lobbied for a more lenient tariff policy.

“The pivot on auto tariffs offers short-term relief, but structural risks remain,” Daniel Roeska, an analyst at Bernstein, wrote in a research note. “Relief today doesn’t fix the longer-term challenge: US car prices are heading higher just as economic momentum fades.”

The Trump administration has said previously the US will implement 25% tariffs on imported vehicles starting May 3 and will also add the levy to parts once the Commerce Department devises a system to determine what percentage of vehicle content is made abroad. Models made in Canada and Mexico that are compliant with the USMCA trade agreement, which Trump negotiated in his first term, would be exempt. But the non-US content in those vehicles will be subject to tariffs.

GM would be especially hard hit because two of its four large pickup plants are located outside the US, one in Canada and another in Mexico. It also builds its entry-level Chevrolet Trax compact crosssover in South Korea and popular Chevy Equinox small SUV in Mexico.

To mitigate the impact of tariffs on its truck business, GM has increased output at its Fort Wayne, Indiana, pickup plant.

Besides the tariff uncertainty, GM started the year on solid ground despite losing weeks of pickup truck production due to a fire at a key supplier plant. It posted a first-quarter profit of $2.78 a share that beat a consensus estimate of analysts compiled by Bloomberg by 6 cents a share.

For the first three months, its adjusted earnings before interest and taxes totaled $3.49 billion, surpassing Wall Street estimates for $3.45 billion but shy of the $3.87 billion it reported a year ago.

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