General Motors’ sales rose 17% in the first quarter of 2025 compared with the same period last year, exceeding analyst expectations and underscoring a pull-ahead in customer demand due to tariff fears despite longstanding affordability hurdles in the market.
GM reported Tuesday it sold 693,363 vehicles in the first quarter in the U.S., compared with a 1.5% slide one year ago to 594,233 vehicles sold.
Electric vehicle sales nearly doubled in the quarter, rising 94% to 31,887, making GM the second-largest seller of electric vehicles in the U.S. behind Tesla. Those sales were driven by sharp sales increases in both the Equinox and Blazer EVs.
Rory Harvey, GM executive vice president and president of global markets, said in a statement that GM’s sales growth for the quarter ending March 31 outpaced other automakers due to its vehicle portfolio. Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC and Buick all reported double-digit growth in the quarter.
“We’re the industry leader in trucks and affordable small SUVs, Cadillac is growing significantly in luxury, and we have the broadest portfolio of EVs in the industry,” Harvey said.
GM sold 61,822 Buicks in the quarter, up 39%. Total Chevrolet sales of 443,564 marked a nearly 14% increase, and GMC rose about 18% to 146,220 vehicles.
Cadillac sales rose about 18% to 41,757, including the first sales figures for the all-electric Optiq, at 1,716, and the Escalade IQ EV, with 1,956 sold in the quarter compared with 12,683 of its internal-combustion counterpart.
Not every sales gain for GM reflected dramatic improvements. GM reported sales of just 274 Chevrolet BrightDrop vehicles in the quarter, up 7% from 256 sold in first quarter 2024.
Low sales of the vans, which include BrightDrop 400 and 600 EV models as well as BrightDrop Zevo 400 and 600, reflect an ongoing struggle that GM has had in moving these Canadian-made electric vehicles. GM folded the commercial vans into its Chevrolet brand in a bid to increase sales to dealers, while a Free Press photographer captured images last month of hundreds of vehicles lining a Flint, Michigan, storage lot. Reuters published similar photos from CAMI Assembly plant in Ontario.
GM’s sales surpassed some analyst predictions, even though those estimates still put GM ahead of the competition.
Sales predictions of 656,450 vehicles from Atlanta analytics firm Cox Automotive published ahead of GM’s report was 36,913 vehicles below the actual results. Cox also said pre-tariff concerns drove customers to dealerships at larger than normal levels.
