US EV sales up, but slow to pick back up in China: GM CFO

General Motors (GM) released its second quarter results, which saw rising domestic EV sales, signaling that EV sales may be on the rebound in the US.

GM posted adjusted earnings per share of $3.06 (beating expected $2.70 per share) and revenue of $47.97 billion ($45.51 billion expected), a 7.2% jump from last year's revenue.

General Motors CFO Paul Jacobson sits down with Yahoo Finance executive editor Brian Sozzi to give insight into the company's recent performance, the auto sector at large, and GM's plans for future EV battery plants.

"When you look at our EV sales today, at about 54% of EV sales this year are from customers that are new to General Motors, which is great. We want to continue to attract more people with the choice that we're offering in our portfolio," Jacobson sales on US vehicle sales. "Whether it's full size truck, SUV, or it's small, compact SUVs on the ICE side [internal combustion engine], or the incredible growing EV portfolio. So our sales were up 40% in the second quarter against the industry. [which] was up 11%."

GM is "trying to rise above politics," Jacobson says on the role electrification policies are playing in the 2024 US election.

Jacobson calls sales in China "a little bit challenged right now," at a time when even electric vehicle competitor Tesla (TSLA) is participating in price wars with domestic automakers in the Chinese market.

"As we highlighted in the first quarter, we expected a loss in Q1 as we worked through some inventory challenges and responded to demand out there as well. What we didn't expect was that was going to continue on in the second quarter," Jacobson says on General Motors's presence in the region. "We're continuing to see share erosion. We know we need to produce to where demand is. We need to get some of the structural costs out to increase our competitiveness and help stabilize and ultimately grow our share again."

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This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

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