General Motors Company 2026 Q3 Earnings Call

Thanks, Amanda, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us as we review GM's financial results for the third quarter of 2026. Our conference call materials were issued this morning and are available on GM's investor relations website. We are also broadcasting this call via webcast. Joining us today are Mary Barra, GM's Chair and CEO, along with Paul Jacobson, GM's Executive Vice President and CFO. Susan Sheffield, President and CEO of GM Financial, will also be joining us for the Q&A portion. On today's call, management will make forward-looking statements about our expectations. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include the factors identified in our filings with the SEC.

Please review the safe harbor statement on the first page of our presentation, as the content of our call will be governed by this language. With that, I'm delighted to turn the call over to Mary.

Thanks, Ashish, and good morning, everyone. I want to begin by recognizing our employees, dealers, and suppliers. It takes commitment, focus, and resilience to deliver solid results quarter after quarter and year after year in this industry. The agility, teamwork, and commitment have been exceptional, and I'm very appreciative. This year, through the third quarter, we have delivered $12.3 billion in EBIT adjusted, $12.2 billion in adjusted automotive free cash flow, and $10.97 in EPS diluted adjusted, which is up more than 35% year-over-year. During the third quarter, our margins in North America were 8.7%, up two and a half points year-over-year. The compelling products, technology, and services we're delivering for customers around the world makes us confident in the consistent long-term growth of our earnings and cash generation, as well as our ability to return capital to shareholders.

Our track record of improved cash flow generation began 5 years ago, and we have responded by increasing our investment in the business and continually strengthen our balance sheet. Then, in 2023, we began using surplus cash to repurchase shares, given our low valuation. Since that time, we have reduced our fully diluted shares by 37%. The new $20 billion multi-year authorization we announced today further demonstrates our board's commitment. As this quarter's results and our revised guidance show, our business is performing well, even with a major launch underway and the inflationary pressures we're experiencing in areas like logistics, commodities, and memory. That's because we've spent years making the business more resilient by strengthening our vehicle portfolio, developing new high-margin revenue streams, and operating with strong discipline around production, pricing, and incentives. Looking ahead, there are clear external headwinds, and in some cases, they are intensifying.

While the path forward is more challenging, we continue to believe that 2027 will be another strong year and better than 2026, assuming customer demand remains strong and commodity, logistics, and other recent cost pressures moderate. On the plus side, we expect incremental benefits from warranty expense improvements, lower EV losses, growth in software and services revenue, and the launches of our next-generation Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light-duty pickups. The performance of today's Silverado and Sierra has been consistently strong because of their design, capability, technology, and innovative features. We have now achieved 19 consecutive quarters of sales leadership in the U.S. and grown our market share by 10 full points since the current generation went on sale in 2018. And now, in their final year of production, we're seeing robust sales, share, and financial results. This speaks directly to the value we offer customers.

Our new trucks build on this foundation. Their interior and exterior designs are high watermarks for refinement and precision. Our trim series strategy allows us to meet customers at different price points while creating a clearer path to the higher value configurations. For example, High Country, Chevrolet's premium sub-brand, has become more premium, modern, and athletic, with materials, features, and technology closer to a luxury SUV experience. Sierra Denali remains the core premium capable truck, and the Denali Ultimate is moving further into halo territory. We've also made powertrain choice a critical part of the value ladder and a mix lever. We will offer the TurboMax four-cylinder with best-in-class standard torque, our segment-exclusive Duramax inline six turbo diesel, and all new 5.7 liter and 6.6 liter V8s.

Each engine is tuned to distinct performance and lifestyle needs, and we will focus on the things truck customers desire most: usable torque, smooth and predictable power delivery, fuel economy under real-world use, trailering confidence, durability under load, and refinement. To ensure quality and durability, we have put our new V8s through more than 100,000 hours of dynamometer testing, and we have completed more than 1.6 million miles of real-world on-road validation before the truck reaches customers. Production has begun at Silao, and customers should see the first trucks arrive in dealerships later in the year. Fort Wayne will follow in Q1, and we will launch the trucks at Orion in Q2. We expect to build roughly the same number of trucks in 2027 as in 2026, and then in 2028, we will have incremental capacity to support segment and market share growth.

Trucks will also be a big driver of incremental Super Cruise adoption and digital revenue as we make the technology standard on high-end Silverado and Sierra LD trims, and offer on most others. We expect full-size truck Super Cruise penetration to grow 4 to 5 times next year, reflecting strong customer demand and our ability to scale the technology across critical customer segments. The base is already strong and growing rapidly. Year-over-year, deferred revenue from software and services is up 40%. For the full year, we are on pace to approach $7.5 billion in deferred revenue, driven by 1 million new OnStar subscriptions and a 1 million-strong Super Cruise-equipped car park. The quality of the Super Cruise driving experience and frequent customer engagement with the technology underscores why it is so successful with customers. Our Super Cruise-equipped vehicles travel well over a cumulative 1 million miles hands-free each day.

Nearly 70% of our customers use it at least once a month, and I am confident we can grow our Super Cruise installed base by close to 50% next year. I will close by recognizing the tremendous progress GM Defense has made since our last call, including several new multi-year contract awards that will help us drive annual top-line growth of more than 30% with double-digit margins. During the quarter, the Pentagon announced increased production volumes for the ISV, including a contract for the ISV utility variant. These are part of a more than $1 billion potential ISV award based on the US Army's procurement objectives, subject to congressional appropriation. The Army has contracted with us to deliver Silverado HD-derived tactical vehicle prototypes for its ISV heavy competition. We have signed contracts with four customers since June for our factory-armored Suburban Shield VIP transport.

Our Epic mobile energy system is now certified and ready for sale to customers, and we delivered our first component set to Lockheed Martin for the Patriot PAC-3 less than a month after we signed a formal contract. As Lockheed said at the time, our ability to deliver components that can traditionally take months to years to produce underscores the effectiveness of defense and commercial partnerships, and our own capabilities. These are all very positive developments for our country, our partners, taxpayers, and our business. Thank you, and I will now turn the call over to Paul.

Thank you, Mary, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I want to begin by recognizing the entire GM team. Their hard work and consistent execution are showing up in both our operating performance and consistently in our financial results. Revenue for the quarter was a record $50 billion, up 3% year-over-year. EBIT adjusted was $4.1 billion, up 22% year-over-year, and EPS diluted adjusted was up more than 30% year-over-year to $3.70. The industry backdrop remains healthy, with a total industry SAAR in the upper 16 million-unit range in the third quarter, with resilient demand across trucks, SUVs, and fleet. Our U.S. sales totaled more than 670,000 vehicles in the quarter. ICE sales of 645,000 were up slightly year-over-year, despite the impact of discontinued models.

Our light-duty full-size pickups continue to perform exceptionally well in the final year of their product cycle, with sales up 9% year-over-year. This leaves us on track to lead the industry in full-size pickup sales in 2026 for the seventh consecutive year. With deliveries of our all-new light-duty trucks expected to begin in the late fourth quarter, we plan to carry this momentum into 2027. In terms of the changeover, we have already completed four down weeks at Silao Assembly ahead of starting production of the new truck last week. To ensure a high-quality launch, production will start at measured pace and ramp up over the coming months and quarters to more normalized levels. At Fort Wayne, we are planning four down weeks beginning in mid-December, with production scheduled to restart in January.

In preparation for the downtime, the sell-down of the existing truck is on track, with inventories at planned levels and incentives as a percentage of MSRP that are several hundred basis points lower than prior truck changeovers. This is part of the broader discipline with which GM has been operating over the past five years. With that in mind, we expect to finish the year with overall inventory in our 50- to 60-day target range. On the cash side, continued strong cash generation supports both our growth-focused investments and ongoing share repurchases, which combine nicely to drive continued EPS growth. In the third quarter, we repurchased $2.5 billion worth of shares. That reduced our diluted share count by approximately 27 million shares to around 866 million, or 9% below the third quarter 2025 level. So far in October, we have already repurchased another $1 billion.