General Motors reported first-quarter earnings of $3.70 per share on Tuesday, significantly beating the expected $2.62-per-share figure laid out by Wall Street analysts.
The earnings boost comes from the company’s incoming $500 million tariff refund permitted by the Supreme Court’s February decision striking down tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
GM has not received the tariff refund yet, but the Detroit-based automaker decided to include it in its quarterly earnings.
The company’s earnings, with the tariff refund, were $4.25 billion during the first quarter of the year. The figure marked a 22% increase over the first quarter of 2025. Without the tariff refund, the adjusted earnings would have still been up by about 7.5% from the same time last year.
“Our EBIT-adjusted of $4.3 billion surpassed our expectations even after excluding a $500 million tariff adjustment following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision,” GM CEO Mary Barra wrote in a letter to shareholders. “To reflect the flow-through of this adjustment, we are raising our full‑year EBIT‑adjusted guidance by $500 million, to a range of $13.5 billion to $15.5 billion.”
The automaker paid about $900 million in tariffs during the first quarter of 2026 after paying roughly $3.1 billion in tariffs last year.
“We have solid momentum in our core operations,” Barra said, touting the company’s sales of full-size pickup trucks in the United States and Canada.
GM’s first-quarter revenue, however, was slightly lower than Wall Street analysts’ expectations: $43.62 billion compared to $43.68 billion expected. Its revenue was down by about 1% from last year at $44.02 billion.
Speaking with CNBC last week, President Donald Trump said he will “remember” the U.S. companies that do not seek tariff refunds. Amazon and Apple were among the businesses that did not file for reimbursements. GM said it expects to receive a $500 million tariff refund, suggesting it has already applied for one or plans to do so.
U.S. companies eligible for tariff refunds were able to start applying on April 20.
TRUMP PRAISES BIG TECH FOR NOT REQUESTING TARIFF REFUNDS: ‘I’LL REMEMBER THEM’
After the Supreme Court rejected the IEEPA tariffs, Trump promptly announced tariffs under the Trade Act to replace them. Those tariffs are scheduled to expire on July 24. The Trump administration is working to replace the temporary import taxes with more durable tariffs.
The U.S. Trade Representative is holding hearings this week for Section 301 investigations of major trading partners, such as China and the European Union. Under the Trade Act, Section 301 targets unfair trade practices committed by foreign countries.