GM CEO Mary Barra: Tariffs will cost us $5 billion, and prices ‘will stay at the same level’

The Trump administration’s tariffs on imported cars and auto parts will cost General Motors between $4 billion and $5 billion this year, as the nation’s largest automaker slashed its earnings projections.

The Trump administration’s tariffs on imported cars and auto parts will cost General Motors between $4 billion and $5 billion this year. But in an interview on CNN, CEO Mary Barra said the company doesn’t necessarily expect to pass those higher costs onto consumers in the form of elevated prices. “We believe …pricing is going to stay at about the same level as it is,” she told CNN’s Erin Burnett Thursday, although she added, “Pricing changes in our industry at least monthly, and sometimes more frequently. We’re going to respond to the market.” The company does expect the higher tariff costs to eat into its earnings as it slashed its profit guidance for the year. The estimated tariff cost, and the lower profit target, were revealed in a letter to shareholders from Barra released early Thursday. The letter and guidance were delayed from their planned release on Tuesday, when the company reported lower first-quarter earnings and awaited tariff changes from the Trump administration. The lower earnings guidance resulted in GM halting plans to spend additional billions in repurchasing its stock, a move it announced Tuesday. But it’s not just investors who could be hurt by lower profits. The roughly 45,000 members of the United Auto Workers union also get profit sharing payments from the company annually. They received record payments of up to $14,500 for 2024. GM is the first major company to estimate, in dollars, how much President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs will cost it. Many others have walked back earnings forecasts because of the ensuing economic uncertainty. Trump’s tariffs have unnerved not only global companies, but investors, nations and everyday Americans alike. Major stock indexes closed out a volatile April, and on Wednesday new data showed that the US gross domestic product unexpectedly shrank in the first three months of the year as recession fears abound.