General Motors reported strong fourth-quarter financial results in an earnings call with investors and reporters this week. A crucial achievement stood out amid the numbers — the company made more money on electric vehicles (EVs) than it spent building them.
“We doubled our market share over the course of the year as we scaled production. And our portfolio became variable profit positive in the fourth quarter,” CEO Mary Barra said.
The term “variable profit” has a specific meaning in financial reporting, Reuters explains. “The figure does not include costs such as building assembly lines.” It means money earned on EV sales more than covered the cost of labor and materials to build them. It has not covered capital investments like opening factories or retooling older ones to build the new technology.
The company had set a goal of producing 200,000 EVs in North America in 2024. It fell slightly short. Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson explains, “We wholesaled 189,000 EVs and delivered more than 146,000.”
Americans bought a record number of EVs in 2024. GM introduced several new EVs in 2024. One, the Chevy Equinox EV, cracked the list of the 10 best-selling EVs in America despite less than a full year of sales.
GM can also largely claim credit for another top-10 seller. The Honda Prologue results from a partnership, using almost exclusively GM parts but Honda tuning.
Other GM EVs already in dealerships include the Cadillac Lyriq and Escalade IQ, the GMC Hummer, and the Chevrolet Blazer EV and Silverado EV. This year, Cadillac will debut a small electric SUV, the Optiq, and a 3-row midsize crossover, the Vistiq.