For months, General Motors has made clear the extent to which its electric vehicle business is struggling.
In October, the country’s largest automaker by volume said its board of directors approved third-quarter charges of $1.6 billion at GM North America for a “planned strategic realignment of our electric vehicle capacity and manufacturing footprint” to meet consumer demand.
2025 (until November): more than 1 million units, 10.5% market share
That included a $1.2 billion non-cash impairment charge in the quarter as the company is in the process of converting electric vehicle manufacturing platforms for other purposes, and another $400 million in contract cancellations and trade settlement fees.
However, the company warned in an 8-K filing at the time that the $1.6 billion figure could grow substantially as it undertook a reassessment of its electric vehicle capacity, manufacturing footprint and battery component manufacturing.
The company completed its reassessment and it turns out that the $1.6 billion was just the tip of the iceberg.
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In recent years, GM says it has spent billions to meet customer demand for electric vehicles and meet “increasingly stringent” emissions and fuel economy regulations.
And while the effort paid off in some ways—as of mid-2024 GM is the second-best-selling EV maker behind Tesla—the company’s EV division is nowhere near profitable.
Related: General Motors Makes Tough Decision as Electric Vehicles Fail
US market share: 17%
Electric vehicles sold: 67,000
Electric vehicle market share: 16.5%
Dealer Inventory: Down 16% year over year
Electric Vehicle Inventory: 30% less since June Source: General Motors
In fact, the company announced it would take a $1.6 billion charge for electric vehicle operations in the third quarter alone. However, he also warned that the number would grow as he evaluated the program comprehensively.
GM says in its latest 8-K filing that it will take a $6 billion charge related to its electric vehicle operations in the fourth quarter. Those charges include about $1.8 billion in non-cash charges for commercial agreements with suppliers and contract cancellation fees.
GM will also take cash charges of $4.2 billion as it looks to reduce production in response to declining U.S. demand for electric vehicles.
Sales of electric vehicles in the United States fell sharply in October, the first month without a tax incentive.
Dealers sold 74,835 electric vehicles in the U.S. in October, according to data from Cox Automotive, representing a 48.9% year-over-year decline.
Related: Latest EV Sales Data Reveals an Inconvenient Truth
While a drop of almost 50% sounds problematic, let’s remember that purchasing activity was exceptionally strong in September due to the expiration of the tax credit.
However, the 30% year-on-year drop is almost as worrying.
“October marked a sharp shift for the electric vehicle (EV) market, as the expiration of the federal EV tax credit cooled demand after three months of accelerated sales,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights for Cox Automotive.
“Buyers rushed to get incentives ahead of the deadline, but once it passed, momentum slowed. Inventories rose rapidly and prices rose for both new and used EVs, reflecting a market in transition.”
American car buyers bought 90 different models of electric vehicles in the third quarter, but only nine sold more than 10,000 units.
Tesla Model Y and Model 3 were the best sellers, moving more than 114,000 and 53,000 vehicles, respectively. GM’s own Chevy Equinox sold just under 25,000 units.
However, those three models were outliers.
“The vast majority of electric vehicles sell at a rate of well under 2,000 units per month, or 6,000 units per quarter. In the volume-driven auto manufacturing business, low volume is the enemy; EV profitability remains a distant dream for nearly all automakers,” according to Cox Automotive.
The General Motors Factory Zero plant is an electric vehicle-only assembly plant located in the Detroit-Hamtramck, Michigan area.
The plant was originally built in 1985, but was adapted to produce electric vehicles (EV). It currently makes the GMC Hummer EV truck and SUV, the Chevy Silverado EV, the Cadillac Escalade IQ, and the GMC Sierra EV.
In October, GM announced it would reduce production at the factory to one shift and lay off more than 1,000 workers. This week, a WARN notice filed in Michigan details exactly how many workers would lose their jobs and when.
According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice that GM filed with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, GM is scheduled to lay off 1,140 hourly Factory Zero employees beginning Jan. 5, 2026.
Factory Zero currently employs about 4,000 workers, but there were also a series of layoffs at the plant earlier this year.
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This story was originally published by TheStreet on January 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the Automotive section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.
