GM walks back US$6bn EV plans amid Trump policy reversals

General Motors announced 8 January that it will record a US$6bn charge to unwind its prior electric vehicle (EV) investments as it reduces planned production due to weakened demand and Trump administration policy changes. The writedown encompasses a scaling back of EV manufacturing and the broader impact this will have on the supply chain; indeed most of the hit—approximately US$4.2bn in cash charges—is linked to cancelled contracts and settlements with suppliers that had prepared for substantially higher volumes.

GM stressed that the charge will not affect its existing US lineup of roughly a dozen electrified models, stating in a regulatory filing that it plans to continue to make these models available to customers. The automaker will record the writedown as a special item in its fourth quarter earnings, with additional but smaller charges anticipated in 2026 as negotiations with suppliers continue.

GM has been cutting EV-related operations in recent months, halting battery production at two of its joint-venture plants with LG for six months and reducing an EV-only Detroit factory to a single-shift operation. The company also pivoted away from plans for another Michigan facility that was slated to build electric vehicles, instead committing the site to Cadillac Escalade and full-size pickup production.

As is the case with other automakers in the US, GM’s EV sales plummeted during the fourth quarter. It saw sales slide by 43%; the wider market share for EVs collapsed from around 11% to roughly 6.5%. This is due largely to the Trump administration’s elimination of the federal EV tax credit, which allocated up to US$7,500 in tax rebates on the purchase of new vehicles. Industry-wide EV sales increased just 1.2% year-over-year during 2025 according to research firm Omdia. While this represents dramatically slower growth than in other years, the role of regulatory changes must be factored in. Automotive data provider Edmunds has forecast that EVs will account for approximately 6% of overall US sales in 2026.

Ford also announced in December it would record a hefty writedown of US$19.5bn, spread across multiple quarters, as it cancelled and reined in multiple EV programmes. Among the cancelled products were the Ford F150 Lightning—first suspended due to a fire at aluminium supplier Novelis and never resumed—as well as several planned next-generation truck and van models.

In a statement to Reuters, Chief Executive Jim Farley characterised the shift as painful but necessary: “When the market really changed over the last couple of months, that was really the impetus for us to make the call.” Ford has not given up entirely on EVs, but it is taking a radically different approach. Currently it is developing a platform for next-generation EVs that prioritises affordability; the first vehicle will be a mid-size pickup priced at around US$30,000.