Just a few years ago, General Motors and Ford were all-in on electric vehicles, spending billions on new models and promising an electric future. Now, the two largest American automakers are barely mentioning EVs on their quarterly earnings calls — a shift that data from the last seven years makes strikingly clear.
TechCrunch, in partnership with Hudson Labs, a New York-based financial research firm, analyzed earnings call transcripts from S&P Market Intelligence dating back to 2019. The findings show that both GM and Ford are now talking about EVs at a lower rate than they did before the pandemic.
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GM’s EV mentions peaked in late 2020, when the company dedicated roughly a third of each call to the topic. On its most recent call covering Q2 2026, EV references had fallen to just 21 — down from 82 on the Q2 2025 call. Ford followed a similar trajectory, with EV discussion declining sharply after the 2024 election.
From all-in to all-quiet: What changed for GM and Ford
The shift isn’t surprising to anyone who has followed the industry. Both companies have delayed, altered, or abandoned plans for new EV models, leading to layoffs and scaled-back factory plans. GM, which once promised to go all-electric by 2035, now talks more about aligning its EV capacity with regulatory policy than about new electric models.
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GM spokesperson Jim Cain defended the company’s approach, saying “quality counts more than quantity.” He emphasized that GM remains committed to EVs as “the end game” and pointed to its growing EV market share and investments in battery technology like lithium manganese-rich (LMR) cells. But he also noted that the company now devotes call time to software, services, autonomous technology, and trade policy — areas that investors are increasingly focused on.
Ford spokesperson David Tovar pointed to the company’s upcoming “Universal Electric Vehicle” platform, slated for launch next year. “We think the first product rolling off the line, a midsize pickup truck, will hit the sweet spot of the EV market for cost, price, and technology,” he said.
What the data shows: EV talk has dropped to pre-pandemic levels
Hudson Labs used its AI research tool, Co-Analyst, to tag and count topic mentions in each earnings call. The data reveals a clear pattern:
- GM: EV mentions peaked at over 100 per call in late 2020, accounting for roughly a third of discussion. That level held through the Biden administration, with a notable dip in Q1 2021 due to the global chip shortage and again in Q1 2025 when Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs dominated the call.
- Ford: EV talk rose sharply with the launch of the Mustang Mach-E in late 2020 and the F-150 Lightning in 2021, peaking at around a third of call time. But by mid-2024, Ford was already pulling back, and after Trump took office, CEO Jim Farley spent more time discussing trade policy and the company’s gas-powered F-Series trucks.
Stellantis, the third member of the Detroit Big Three, was excluded from the analysis because it only began holding quarterly earnings calls this year — previously it held comprehensive calls just twice a year.
Why this matters for investors and the EV market
The shift in rhetoric reflects a broader reality: EV adoption in the U.S. has slowed, regulatory incentives have been rolled back, and automakers are prioritizing profitability over aggressive EV expansion. The $7,500 federal tax credit for new EVs was eliminated, and environmental regulations that encouraged zero-emissions vehicles were slashed.
For investors, this means the near-term focus is on gas-powered trucks and software services, which generate higher margins. But both GM and Ford insist they haven’t abandoned EVs entirely. Ford’s Farley recently said the company “will become a major scaled competitor as we invest in affordable, versatile EVs.”
The question is whether that’s just talk — or a sign of what’s to come. With Ford’s new EV platform arriving next year and GM still selling a range of electric models, the next few quarters will show whether these companies are truly committed to an electric future or just waiting for the market to catch up.
