General Motors ended 2025 with a profit on the books, even as a massive electric vehicle accounting hit turned the final quarter into a sea of red ink. The automaker’s year captures the awkward middle stage of the EV transition, where legacy products are still paying the bills while next‑generation bets are being painfully repriced. Investors, though, seem more focused on what the reset sets up for 2026 than on the ugly headline number from the winter quarter.
The core story is simple enough: GM is still making money building trucks and SUVs, but it is taking big charges to clean up early EV ambitions that no longer pencil out. That combination produced a full‑year profit and a bruising $3.3 billion loss in the fourth quarter, a split screen that says as much about strategy as it does about accounting.
How GM Lost Big In Q4 And Still Finished The Year Profitable
The headline shocker is the roughly $3.3 billion fourth quarter loss tied to electric vehicle write‑downs and restructuring. GM has acknowledged that a large part of the hit came from reassessing the value of EV assets and contracts, a move that effectively concedes its first wave of electrification was too optimistic on costs and demand. One report notes that the company’s revenue in the quarter slid to $45.282 billion from $47.702 billion a year earlier, so the red ink was not just about paper charges, it was also about softer top‑line performance as the company throttled back some EV launches and navigated a tougher pricing environment.
Yet, stripped of those one‑time items, the underlying business looked far healthier than the loss suggests. Before adjusting for special items, GM reported net income of $2.84 billion in the quarter, a double‑take figure that underscores how much of the damage was tied to accounting clean‑up rather than day‑to‑day operations. GM’s own filing from Jan shows full‑year net income attributable to stockholders of $2.7 billion, confirming that even with the late‑year blow, the company still ended 2025 in the black. That is the tension baked into the numbers: a bruising quarter that masks a still‑profitable year.
The EV Charge, China Reset, And GM’s “Great Recalibration”
Under the hood of that $3.3 billion quarterly loss is a broader rethink of GM’s electric strategy. One analysis pegs the specific fourth quarter loss from EV write‑downs and China restructuring at $3.31 billion, and notes that the Automaker absorbed $7.6 billion in EV production‑related adjustments over the year. A separate breakdown of GM’s results puts total EV‑related charges for 2025 at $7.9 billion and says net income fell by $3.3 billion as a result, a reminder that the company is paying real money to reset its electrification roadmap. Those figures help explain why the fourth quarter looked so ugly even as the underlying combustion and hybrid business kept throwing off cash.
GM’s overseas operations are part of the same cleanup job. The company has been narrowing losses in its restructured China business, where it operates joint ventures in the world’s largest auto market and has been squeezed by local EV players and tariffs. Analysts have described the latest quarter as a kind of “great recalibration,” with GM clearing the decks on money‑losing EV programs and uncompetitive overseas bets so it can lean harder into profitable trucks, crossovers, and a more disciplined electrification push. That framing lines up with commentary that the Detroit giant used the quarter to pivot away from aggressive, loss‑leading EV growth and toward a model that prioritizes margins and capital discipline.
Investors seem to like that trade‑off. One market recap notes that GM shares jumped nearly 9 percent on a Tuesday after the earnings release, as investors cheered the company’s willingness to take its medicine now in exchange for cleaner numbers later. Another account of the same day’s events, written by Michael Strong, underscores that GM Finishes 2025 In Black Despite $3.3 Billion Q4 Loss Due To EV Charge, a juxtaposition that helps explain why the stock reaction was more upbeat than the loss headline alone might suggest. The market appears to be betting that the worst of the EV write‑downs and China restructuring is now behind the company.
Looking To 2026: Guidance, Dividends, And The Stakes For GM’s Strategy
GM is not exactly hiding its optimism about the year ahead. The company’s own guidance pegs 2026 adjusted earnings per share in a range that lines up with a consensus forecast of $11.73 per share, a target that would represent a sharp rebound from the EV‑dented 2025 result. A separate financial snapshot from Gasgoo Munich, Edited by Taylor From Gasgoo, notes that General Motors expects its $2.7 billion in 2025 net income to roughly double in 2026, with earnings per share of $10.6. That kind of bounce‑back only happens if the EV business stops bleeding cash at the same rate and if the core truck and SUV franchises keep humming.
More from Wilder Media Group: