GM and Ford Are Quiet About EVs on Earnings Calls
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- TechCrunch and Hudson Labs analyzed seven years of GM and Ford quarterly earnings call transcripts and found both automakers now talk about EVs at a lower rate than they did before the pandemic.
- General Motors saw EV mentions plummet from 82 on its Q2 2025 call to just 21 on its most recent Q2 2026 call, after EVs once accounted for roughly a third of each call's discussion in late 2020.
- GM spokesperson Jim Cain defended the shift as 'quality counts more than quantity,' emphasizing EVs remain 'the end game' and pointing to lithium manganese-rich (LMR) battery technology to improve profitability.
- Ford began pulling back from its largest EV investments in mid-2024 — before Trump returned to office — pivoting toward a skunkworks project that became its 'Universal Electric Vehicle' platform, with a midsize pickup truck slated as the first product off the line next year.
- Trump and congressional Republicans slashed environmental regulations incentivizing zero-emissions vehicles and tore up the $7,500 federal EV tax credit for new EVs after returning to power.
- Ford CEO Jim Farley has spent more recent call time discussing support for Trump's protectionist trade policy and the company's near-term focus on higher-margin gas-powered F-Series trucks.
Why it matters: The two largest U.S. automakers are no longer making EVs their dominant growth narrative — a reversal from 2020-2023 when EVs commanded roughly a third of every earnings call. With the $7,500 federal tax credit gone and Trump-era zero-emissions regulations slashed, GM and Ford now devote call time to gas-powered F-Series trucks, software, and trade policy instead.
