Q3 CEO Letter to Shareholders

2023-10-24


To Our Shareholders,

I’d like to open this letter by thanking the GM team for once again delivering strong results, including net income of $3.1 billion and $3.6 billion of EBIT-adjusted in the third quarter.

Our supply chain team and logistics partners in North America have done great work improving the flow of vehicles from our assembly plants to our dealers.

Our U.S. dealers helped us outperform the market with strong pricing and essentially flat incentives.

We were profitable in every region, including China. And GM International excluding China is on track to deliver significantly higher EBIT-adjusted in 2023 compared to a year ago.

Because we are in a highly competitive, cyclical industry, we have been laser focused on four fundamentals to further strengthen our position:

  • Delivering vehicles that customers love and are willing to pay for
  • A competitive cost structure
  • Marketing efficiency and incentive discipline
  • Matching production to demand

Great vehicles are the foundation, and we have earned leadership in key segments like full-size pickups and full-size SUVs that have consistently strong pricing and margins.  And we’re not letting up. This year and next year, we’re launching a wide range of new SUVs that are more profitable than the outgoing models.

In addition, we are reducing our fixed costs by $2 billion net of depreciation and amortization as we exit 2024. We are also moderating the acceleration of EV production in North America to protect our pricing, adjust to slower near-term growth in demand, and implement engineering efficiency and other improvements that will make our vehicles less expensive to produce, and more profitable.

Regarding the ongoing strikes at some of our U.S. facilities: I know many of you are concerned about the impact of higher labor costs on our business in the United States.

Let me address this head on. It’s been clear coming out of COVID that wages and benefits across the U.S. economy would need to increase because of inflation and other factors.

The current offer is the most significant that GM has ever proposed to the UAW, and the majority of our workforce will make $40.39 per hour, or roughly $84,000 a year by the end of this agreement’s term.

Since negotiations started this summer, we’ve been available to bargain 24/7 on behalf of our represented team members and our company. They’ve demanded a record contract — and that’s exactly what we’ve offered for weeks now: a historic contract with record wage increases, record job security and world-class healthcare.

It’s an offer that rewards our team members but does not put our company and their jobs at risk. Accepting unsustainably high costs would put our future and GM team member jobs at risk, and jeopardizing our future is something I will not do.

Clearly, given the industry’s changing pricing and demand outlook and higher labor costs, we have work to do to ensure we achieve low to mid-single-digit EBIT EV margin targets in 2025, and grow our revenue and sustain strong 8-10% EBIT margins in North America.

The work has already begun and I’m confident we will achieve our targets and grow from there.

Thank you, as always, for your continued confidence in GM.

/mtb

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements: This press release and related comments by management may include “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are any statements other than statements of historical fact and represent our current judgment about possible future events. In making these statements, we rely upon assumptions and analysis based on our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, and expected future developments, as well as other factors we consider appropriate under the circumstances. We believe these judgments are reasonable, but these statements are not guarantees of any future events or financial results, and our actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors, many of which are described in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or other factors that affect the subject of these statements, except where we are expressly required to do so by law.

Non-GAAP Reconciliation

The following table reconciles Net income attributable to stockholders under U.S. GAAP to segment profit (loss) (dollars in millions):

 

Three Months Ended

 

Nine Months Ended

 

September 30, 2023

 

September 30, 2022

 

September 30, 2023

 

September 30, 2022

Net income attributable to stockholders(a)

$                  3,064

 

$                   3,305

 

$                  8,026

 

$                  7,935

Income tax expense (benefit)

                        470

 

                        845

 

                    1,421 

 

                    1,308

Automotive interest expense

                        229

 

                        259

 

                        689

 

                        719 

Automotive interest income

                      (322)

 

                      (122)

 

                      (801)

 

                      (245)                     

Adjustments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Buick dealer strategy(b)

                          93

 

                             

 

                        438

 

                            

   Voluntary separation program(c)

                          30

 

                             

 

                        905

 

                            

   GM Korea wage litigation(d)

                             

 

                             

 

                        (76)

 

                            

   Cruise compensation modifications(e)

                             

 

                             

 

                            

 

                    1,057 

   Patent royalty matters(f)

                             

 

                             

 

                            

 

                      (100)

Total adjustments

                        123

 

                             

 

                    1,267 

 

                        957

EBIT-adjusted

                     3,564

 

                     4,287

 

                  10,601 

 

                  10,675 

Operating segments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GM North America (GMNA)

                     3,526

 

                     3,894

 

                  10,295

 

                    9,334

GM International (GMI)

                        357

 

                        334

 

                        940

 

                        871 

Cruise

                      (732)

 

                      (497)

 

                   (1,904)

 

                   (1,365)

GM Financial(g)

                        741 

 

                        911 

 

                    2,278

 

                    3,301

Total operating segments

                     3,892

 

                     4,642

 

                  11,610  

 

                  12,141  

Corporate and eliminations(h)

                      (328)

 

                      (355)

 

                   (1,009)

 

                   (1,466)

EBIT-adjusted

$                  3,564

 

$                   4,287

 

$                10,601 

 

$                10,675

aNet of net loss attributable to noncontrolling interests.
bThese adjustments were excluded because they relate to strategic activities to transition certain Buick dealers out of our dealer network as part of Buick’s EV strategy.
cThese adjustments were excluded because they relate to the acceleration of attrition as part of the cost reduction program announced in January 2023, primarily in the United States.
dThis adjustment was excluded because it relates to the partial resolution of subcontractor matters in Korea.
eThis adjustment was excluded because it relates to the one-time modification of Cruise stock incentive awards.
fThis adjustment was excluded because it relates to the resolution of substantially all royalty matters accrued with respect to past-year vehicle sales in the three months ended March 31, 2022.
gGM Financial amounts represent EBT-adjusted.
hGM's automotive interest income and interest expense, legacy costs from the Opel/Vauxhall Business (primarily pension costs), corporate expenditures and certain nonsegment specific revenues and expenses are recorded centrally in Corporate.