GM braces for a $5 billion hit as it fights to keep up in China’s intensifying EV price war
As it struggles to keep up with low-cost rivals like BYD, GM expects to suffer a $5 billion blow to its business in China. The multi-billion hit comes as GM rapidly loses market share in the world’s largest EV market.
GM sees $5 billion impact from restructuring in China
GM’s Chinese joint venture, SAIC-GM (SGM), a 50-50 partnership with state-owned SAIC Motor, is facing an over $5 billion impact as it restructures the business.
SAIC-GM revealed in a regulatory filing on Wednesday (via The New York Times) that it expects to write down between $2.6 billion and $2.9 billion in the fourth quarter. The automaker is also expecting another $2.7 billion in restructuring expenses.
According to the filing, GM’s latest measures will include “plant closures and portfolio optimization.” However, no specifics were given about which facilities would be included.
GM is “focused on capital efficiency and cost discipline” as it works with SGM to “turn around the business in China.” The company is close to finalizing a restructuring plan and expects year-over-year (YOY) improvement in 2025.
The announcement comes as GM’s market share in China has nearly halved over the past 10 years. GM’s market share in China fell from around 15% in 2015 to just 8.6% last year.
With three straight quarterly losses, GM has lost nearly $350 million in China this year. Its sales are down nearly 20% through the first nine months of 2024.
Like most legacy automakers, GM is struggling to keep pace with low-cost EV makers like BYD in China. BYD sold a record 506,804 vehicles in November, its second straight month topping the 500,000 mark. Through the first 11 months of the year, BYD has sold over 3.7 million EV and PHEV models.
BYD surpassed Volkswagen to become China’s top-selling car brand last year, ending the German automaker’s four-decade run.
As it expands overseas, BYD is now on pace to surpass Ford in global deliveries, which could make it the sixth-largest automaker globally.
Electrek’s Take
With low-priced EV models, like its top-selling Seagull, starting under $10,000 in China, BYD is squeezing legacy automakers like GM, VW, and Ford out of the market.
As it looks to overcome the new wave of EVs launching in China, BYD is quickly expanding in overseas markets like Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and parts of Europe.
For the first time in Q3, BYD delivered more vehicles than Nissan and Honda. Can it catch up to Ford and other leading global automakers? Although best known for its cheap EV models, China’s auto giant is quickly expanding into new segments like pickup trucks, midsize smart SUVs, and luxury models.
GM’s CEO Mary Barra told Fortune in October that China’s EV price war “has become a race to the bottom with pricing and the level of subsidies.” Barra explained that low-cost loans enable some companies to sell cars at a loss, which puts pressure on foreign automakers like GM.
Meanwhile, in the US, GM sold a record 32,095 EVs in the third quarter, up 60% year over year. The record sales were enough to top Ford and Hyundai, making GM the number two seller of EVs in North America, behind Tesla.
GM said its EV profitability in North America is steadily improving. The company expects to generate between $10.4 billion and $11.1 billion in net income this year.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike