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.
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As electric bikes and e-scooters continue to surge in popularity, and as the growing ridership skews towards younger operators with growing questions about safety and road rules, motorcycle training courses might be an unexpected ally. In Las Vegas, motorcycle safety instructors are expanding their classrooms to include e-bike and e-scooter riders, responding to a growing number of traffic incidents involving younger riders and micromobility vehicles.
The new program, led by instructors at the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) and supported by a grant from the Nevada Department of Public Safety, is designed to give e-bike and e-scooter riders formal safety training similar to what motorcycle riders have long had access to. The move comes as local officials report more than 200 traffic collisions involving juveniles during school hours this year alone, many occurring near school zones.
Unlike traditional motorcycle training, these new courses are tailored specifically to the realities of electric micromobility, reports local CBS affiliate KLAS. That includes understanding e-bike classifications, where different types of electric bikes are legally allowed to operate, lithium-ion battery safety, and practical crash-avoidance strategies for riding in mixed traffic. The goal isn’t to discourage riding, but rather to help riders better understand risk management before something goes wrong.
And to sweeten the deal even further, the class is actually free. Riders won’t need to pay tuition, purchase special equipment, or already own an e-bike to participate. The only real barrier is showing up. For many families, that removes one of the biggest hurdles to formal safety education, especially at a time when e-bikes are increasingly being used by teenagers for commuting to school, after-school jobs, and social activities.
The structure of the course also reflects how younger riders actually learn. Participants begin with an online, self-paced portion that covers the basics, followed by an in-person session focused on real-world riding scenarios. That hybrid approach mirrors what’s already common in motorcycle safety programs, but adapted for vehicles that are quieter, lighter, and often ridden without licensing requirements.
More of these e-bike training programs aimed at younger riders are popping up around the US. This kind of training could play an important role as e-bikes continue to blur the lines between bicycles, scooters, and mopeds. Many new riders jump on an e-bike with little understanding of stopping distances, speed differentials, or how drivers perceive them in traffic. Others may not realize that different e-bike classes come with different rules about bike lanes, paths, and road use. Formal instruction helps fill those gaps in a way that YouTube videos and warning labels often don’t.
There’s also a broader implication here for cities across the US. As e-bike adoption grows faster than infrastructure and regulation can keep up, education becomes one of the most effective tools available. Teaching riders how to safely interact with cars, pedestrians, and traditional cyclists may reduce crashes without resorting to heavy-handed restrictions or outright bans that often follow high-profile incidents.
For new riders especially, programs like this can make the difference between e-bikes feeling intimidating or empowering. Instead of learning through trial and error – or worse, through an accident – riders get guidance from instructors who already understand traffic dynamics and safety principles of two-wheeled vehicles.
The CSN e-bike and e-scooter safety courses are scheduled to begin in January, and if successful, they could perhaps serve as a model for similar programs elsewhere. As electric bikes continue to move from novelty to normal transportation, efforts like this suggest that the future of micromobility safety may look less like enforcement and more like education.
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Ford is jumping into the battery energy storage business, betting that booming demand from data centers and the electric grid can absorb the EV battery capacity it says it’s not using.
To achieve this, Ford plans to repurpose its existing EV battery manufacturing capacity in Glendale, Kentucky, into a dedicated hub for manufacturing battery energy storage systems.
Ford pivots from EVs to battery storage for data centers
Ford says it will invest about $2 billion over the next two years to scale the new business. The Kentucky site will be converted to build advanced battery energy storage systems larger than 5 megawatt-hours, including LFP prismatic cells, BESS modules, and 20-foot DC container systems — the kind of hardware increasingly used by data centers, utilities, and large-scale industrial companies.
The company plans to bring initial production online within 18 months, leaning on its manufacturing experience and licensed battery technology. By late 2027, Ford expects the business to deploy at least 20 gigawatt-hours of energy storage annually.
The move follows a joint venture disposition agreement reached last week between Ford, SK On, SK Battery America, and BlueOval SK. Under the agreement, a Ford subsidiary will independently own and operate the Kentucky battery plants, while SK On will fully own and operate the Tennessee battery plant.
Ford is also planning a separate energy storage play in Michigan. At BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in Marshall, the company will produce smaller amp-hour LFP prismatic cells for residential energy storage systems. That plant is on track to begin manufacturing in 2026, and it will also supply batteries for Ford’s upcoming midsize electric truck — the first model built on the company’s new Universal EV Platform.
Electrek’s Take
Overall, the shift reflects Ford’s broader push toward what it calls “higher-return opportunities.” Alongside taking a step backward to add more gas-powered trucks and vans to its US manufacturing footprint, Ford says it will no longer produce some larger EVs, such as the Lightning F-150, where softer demand and higher costs are resulting from the lack of support for EVs by the Trump administration. (Batteries produced at the Glendale plant were for the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning. The best-selling electric truck in the US in Q3, before the federal tax credit expired, was the Ford F-150 Lightning, with 10,005 EVs sold, a 39.7% year-over-year increase.)
With tax credits eliminated and regulatory uncertainty, Ford is pivoting to adjacent markets, including grid-scale and residential energy storage, to keep its battery plants running and justify billions in sunk investment.
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