Dec. 23, 2025 | Automaker Year-In-Review: GM's steady hand and VW's rocky road

Welcome to Daily Drive for Tuesday, December 23, 2025, I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas. On this special year-end edition of Daily Drive, we continue our conversation with the Automotive News automaker team. With a look at the years, General Motors and Volkswagen Group had in 2025. GM reporter Lindsey Van Healy, and VW reporter Jack Wallsworth, lead the discussion. They're joined by Nick Bunkley, Director of Automaker coverage at Automotive News as well as

Ford reporter Michael Martinez and Stellantis reporter Vince Bond Jr. In the first part of this conversation, Lindsey talks about GM's ability to post solid numbers while navigating the challenging EV landscape. Now Lindsey, GM's mixed signals. Now GM had to mix gear, posting strong profits while making some big reversals. Help us make sense of all of it. You know, it's really interesting. I think they back in October when they reported the

third quarter earnings, they actually increased their earnings forecast for the full year. And a big part of that is because of what we talked about earlier, that the impact of tariffs was going to be less than they had originally anticipated. And there's still a lot of strength in the business, right? They still, sales are still strong, pricing is still strong. They still point to incentives being lower than the rest of the industry. They haven't had to make a lot of big changes there in response to all of the other kinds of shifts that have been made.

But you know, they have made a lot of news, especially in the back half of the year about changes to production. And a lot of that is I think in trying to respond to a lot of the things that we're seeing.

So they've talked about partly because of the tariff impact, they're going to be investing about $4 billion in three US assembly plants so that they can start building more internal combustion engine vehicles in 2027.

One of those is in Michigan, Oregon assembly. It's been down since the end of 2023 and the plan was they were going to use that as sort of extra capacity for their electric pickups, the Chevy Silverado EV and the GMC Sierra EV.

They haven't needed it. The sales of those have been picking up, but the electric pickup segment in general just really hasn't caught on maybe to the degree that automakers had thought several years ago when these were under development.

And so that plant's kind of been pushed back a couple of times and this year they said, you know, it's instead going to be converted back to building gas powered pickups and SUVs.

So the Silverado, the Sierra and the Cadillac escalate actually will be moving up from Arlington assembly in Texas where, you know, that plant's been pretty much running at full capacity building those those big SUVs.

So it's an example of one big pivot, but, you know, they're also going to be expanding, you know, internal combustion engine vehicle production at a couple of plants, one in Tennessee and one in Kansas.

They're actually moving the Chevy Blazer out of Mexico and they'll be building that in the US.

And, you know, some of that is just a response to tariffs. Obviously, the Blazer, I think, being an example of that.

But there's also this recognition that, you know, EV sales are growing just kind of slower than expected that had been kind of the thought heading into the year.

And then with the election of Donald Trump, some of the policies that he's put out, you know, there's there's changes to admissions regulations.

You know, this fall they ended the $7,500 tax credit that had really supported sales and leases of new EVs.

We saw a lot of pull ahead EV sales. And I think now there's this understanding that, you know, that that's going to fall off.

And what that normalized demand looks like, I think we all don't know if we're going to, it's going to take a while to see what, without the federal incentive, what ultimately those EV sales look like.

But GM is sort of getting ahead of that and saying, okay, we don't need as much capacity. We're going to, you know, be, be looking at what production looks like, what our footprint looks like.

You know, they've talked about idoling some plants and having some downtime, including at their battery plants, their joint venture battery plants.

It's just sort of a recognition, I think with what they'll tell you is, you know, we don't want to build beyond demand because then we have a bunch of batteries and EVs that we can't sell without discounts.

And, you know, they don't want to get in a situation where they're overproducing to what demand looks like.

So, you know, they're, they're going to take some charges against earnings because of it, but they're really kind of looking overall at just what that production footprint looks like and how much capacity they really need.

Well, also Lindsey, GM folded crews into a supercruise team this year and announced plans for eyes off driving in 2028.

How important is self-driving technology for GM's future plans?

You know, this is going to be really interesting to watch and to sort of recap, you know, they had invested in this crew's self-driving startup and they were operating, you know, self-driving vehicles with commercial rides out in California and a couple of other places.

And, you know, they had an incident with one of their vehicles in San Francisco.

I got into a crash and, you know, there was a pedestrian who was injured and it really kind of caused them to sort of halt their operation nationwide and we're trying to look at scaling.

And ultimately, GM decided, you know, that Robotexy business is not our core operation.

And what they've decided to do instead is really fold that whole piece of it and bring crews as technology, their employees inside the automaker and really combine those efforts to focus on their supercruise system.

And it's their eyes on hands off technology right now. It allows you to, you know, take your hand off the wheel on freeways and on some kind of divided state highways and, you know, has really been a focus of theirs to try and expand the capability of what it can do and also to more models.

So what they're looking at now is how they can take the models and the simulation and the technology that crews was doing fully self-driving and now to expand with what supercruise can do.

And so what they've said is by 2028, they're going to be able to have an eyes off hands off system.

And, you know, there aren't many in the US right now that are doing this and so how that, how that comes together, how the technology develops and ultimately what that execution looks like I think is going to be a very interesting thing to watch.

Other big news, Lindsey for GM, they have moved their headquarters, give us the whole low down on that.

Yeah, you know, they said this year that they're going to be leaving the Renaissance Center, which if you know Detroit and you know the skyline it's the cylindrical towers right on the river.

Huge icon in the city. It's also a very complicated building. It's sort of a maze. I think everyone who's been in there has a story about getting lost.

You know, for a long time, they've been sort of moving and plays out. A lot of them now are based out in Warren to the north of Detroit where they have their global tech center.

And so there's not a lot of operations, I think still left in the Renaissance Center, at least compared to several years ago.

And so they're planning to stay downtown Detroit, but in a newly constructed building on the site of an old Hudson's department store, they're planning to move out early 2026.

So I think there's just this recognition that they don't need as much space that work has changed. There are still.

And a lot of people who are out in Warren who are and will continue to work at the tech center, but they've got a new building that reflects just kind of the modern workforce and that just isn't the lab rent to navigate.

Coming up, our own Jack Wallsworth outlines Volkswagen struggles and successes in 2025. That's next on daily drive.

Jack, what was VW's 2025 like? They've been relatively quiet compared to these other dramas.

Yeah, I would say it was challenging. I mean, looking at the Volkswagen brand, ID Buzz finally had its first full year sales and sales were pretty, pretty low, pretty, pretty timid.

You know, I think the demand for an expensive minivan that's electric in the US probably wasn't what Volkswagen thought it was going to be back when they first showed us as a concept years ago.

They also launched a new Tiguan, which Tiguan historically is their best summer, but it doesn't have a hybrid. And right now, hybrids are very involved with US shoppers.

Okay, some of the other brands already had a couple of big product launches, but again, you know, it's all kind of goes back to tariffs. Those are still being hit with higher tariffs than what they had to deal with previously.

It seems like it's kind of like a once or two steps forward, one step back throughout the year for Volkswagen as a group.

You know, at the beginning of the year, they were pretty high on. They only have scout coming. They were going to bring Cooper to the US.

Cooper is a brand from Spain. It's kind of a huge stylish brand. Those of them since been pushed back beyond 2030. Scout is still coming, but that's created a lot of angst and anxiety with Volkswagen brand and Audi brand dealers here in the US because scout wants to go direct to consumer.

So I think challenging has just been one of those years where I think Volkswagen and all the big groups would probably wasn't set up for tariffs as well as anybody else.

So they've been dealing with that and then just the way the product portfolios have lined up.

It's just some things work, some things don't.

If Volkswagen has really wanted to grow their US market share for years, it's just been something they talk about every year.

And they still want to do that. It's just becoming increasingly harder. And I think this year kind of really summed up some of those challenges.

You know, it's just going to take a lot for them to get their US numbers up.

And Scout. Scout's been a big story this year, Jack. You know, they chose Charlotte as headquarters and moving toward production.

Are things moving forward on schedule for the new brand? And how is the changing EV landscape affected its chances of success?

Yeah, I think as far as we know, Scout is still on schedule. They're still aiming for late 2027 for production to begin with the caveat they haven't told us which of the two models or which powertrain they're going to launch with.

And still, you know, we could see some new dates in the near term where things kind of get pushed back, so to speak.

But kind of going off of that, you know, when Scout unveiled their cars back in October of 24, they mentioned, no, we're going to have this extended range electrical vehicle system or an era of.

And that has really kind of become their identity, I would say. Scout was going to be this full electric brand.

It was going to be EV only, they weren't considering anything else. And then they kind of did the Steve Jobs one more thing instead of by the way we're doing this era.

And you know, they haven't given us a ton of data on it, but on October, Scout's EO, Scout's EO said 80% of the reservations were for the harvester. That's what they call their era of system.

And they had about 103 reservations at the time. So clearly that seems to be clicking with US shoppers, you know, Scout back in the day was this kind of go anywhere.

Do whatever type vehicle. And I think a lot of people were saying, well, I would like to get one, but if it's an EV, I have range anxiety.

What happened to the amount on the trail, I can't charge it. So I think Scout's really trying to utilize that harvester as this is our, you know, this is the best solution.

As far as we know, they're slowing to offer an EV. But again, going back to 20 set earlier, they haven't specified what power chain is going to launch first in late 2027.

My guess is it's probably going to be the EROF given that's where the consumer demand is. So, you know, I think Scout going to the EROF is probably a pretty shrewd move.

And we'll see down the road what their power chains look like. But it still seems like, you know, Scout's still calling them EVs. It's just a matter of, you know, training the consumer to realize what it is type thing.

But, you know, I was at the LA outer shell last month. The Scout booth was packed the entire time. They seem to really have gotten a following.

It seems like a lot of people really have interest. You know, again, going back to the direct consumer thing. We'll see what happens there because some, there's been some lawsuits in some states.

You know, most Volkswagen or Audi dealers are quite upset with the route. So, you know, there's lots still to come between now and one production begins.

But as far as we can tell, you know, it's full steam ahead for Scout. And it does seem like Volkswagen Group is really counting on the brand. You know, it's talked about pretty much every quarter on their earnings calls that they see this as a huge opportunity.

And, you know, as we all know, Volkswagen Group hasn't really had a pick up a large body and frame SUV in the US. So, it's definitely a new territory for the group and for this brand coming back.

Well, I guess I should mention our colleagues in Germany on the Volko reported that Audi plans to build a vehicle off the Scout platform in South Carolina. That would obviously be huge.

As I mentioned earlier, Audi has been wanting to get a US plant for a long time. So, maybe utilizing the South Carolina plant is the way they do that.

And, you know, American shoppers love our big body on frame SUVs. Audi's had some large crossovers, but having something this big would be, you know, I would imagine a huge one for Audi's US dealer.

So, something to stay tuned here in 2026.

That's daily drive for today. I'm Kellan Walker. Thanks to automotive news executive producer Jake Nier for his help on today's podcast.

You can get the latest news on manufacturing, electrification, and everything happening in the auto industry at autonews.com.

Come back tomorrow for a look at Nissan's tumultuous year in 2025 with our own Irvash Kakaria.

Nissan has had a pretty interesting year. Like I've said, you know, they just can't seem to catch a break.

We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show when the topics we cover today. Send us an email at dailydriveatautonews.com or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774.

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Dec. 23, 2025 | Automaker Year-In-Review: GM's steady hand and VW's rocky road

About this episode

General Motors

Volkswagen Group

EV landscape

internal combustion engine

Chevrolet Silverado EV

Gm Sierra

GMC Sierra EV

Gmc Sierra

Cadillac Escalate

Chevy Blazer

EV sales

$7,500 tax credit

battery plants

GM

self-driving technology

Super Cruise

eyes off driving

hands off technology

Volkswagen Id Buzz

hybrid

Volkswagen Tiguan

International Harvester Scout

Audi

extended range electric vehicle

powertrain

direct consumer sales

body-on-frame SUV

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