Ford vs General Motors: Revenue, Sales, and Vehicle Profit Margin

Stock investment. Pixabay Image.

Ford and GM have long-standing histories, with Ford founded in 1903 and GM in 1908. They have established themselves as iconic brands globally, with a legacy of innovation and leadership in automotive manufacturing.

Both companies are committed to transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs). They have announced significant investments in EV development and have rolled out flagship electric models, such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Chevrolet Bolt EV.

Despite the enthusiasm and dedication, both companies are still in the early stages of their transition, with the bulk of their sales still dominated by traditional fossil-fueled vehicles.

For example, Ford’s EV deliveries in 2023 comprised only 2% of the company’s total vehicle volumes. Similarly, GM’s EV sales in 2023 comprised only 3.3% of the company’s total vehicle volumes.

This article compares Ford and GM from the perspective of several metrics, including vehicle revenue, profit, and margin. Let’s take a look!

Investors interested in Ford and GM’s other statistics may find more resources on these pages:

GM Statistics

• GM global sales and market share,
• GM revenue breakdown and profit margin,
• GM r&d spending vs Tesla,

Ford Statistics

• Ford sales and market share by region,
• Ford revenue by segment: Ford Blue, Ford Pro, Ford Model-e, and Ford Credit,
• Ford total employees, employees by country, and diversity,

Please use the table of contents to navigate this page.

Definitions

To help readers understand the content better, the following terms and glossaries have been provided.

Revenue Per Car: Revenue Per Car is defined as automotive revenue excluding leasing, regulatory credits, non-automotive segments, etc., divided by vehicle sales.

Revenue Per Car = Automotive Revenue / Vehicle Sales

Vehicle sales represent vehicle wholesale for both automakers.

Profit Per Car: Profit Per Car is defined as automotive gross profit divided by vehicle sales.

Profit Per Car = Automotive Gross Profit / Vehicle Sales

Vehicle sales represent vehicle wholesale for both automakers.

Vehicle Margin: Vehicle margin is defined as the ratio of automotive gross profit to automotive revenue.

Vehicle Margin = Automotive Gross Profit / Automotive Revenue

Automotive revenue represents car sales revenue excluding GM Financial in the case of General Motors and Ford Credit in the case of Ford Moyot.

Operating Margin: Operating margin is a financial metric that measures a company’s efficiency in generating profit from its operations.

It is expressed as a percentage and is calculated by dividing operating income (also known as operating profit) by net sales (revenue).

Operating Margin = Operating Income / Total Net Revenue

Essentially, operating margin shows what percentage of revenue is left over after paying for variable costs of production, such as wages and raw materials.

It’s a key indicator of a company’s financial health and its ability to manage its operations effectively. The higher the operating margin, the more profitable the company is considered to be.

Back To Table Of Contents

Insight & Summary of GM vs Ford in Revenue, Profit Margin, and Per Vehicle Economics

The following analysis consolidates the trends observed across the comparison between Ford and General Motors in revenue, vehicle sales, automotive profit and margin, operating profit and margin, and per car economics for the 2017–2025 period.

• The defining strategic divergence between Ford and General Motors over the last decade lies in the contrast between a volume-dependent model and a value-optimized model. Throughout the period, Ford has consistently outpaced GM in sheer wholesale volume — moving roughly 4.4 million units in 2025 compared to GM’s 3.8 million.

• Historically, this volume advantage allowed Ford to maintain a slight edge in absolute top-line revenue. However, GM has effectively neutralized Ford’s revenue advantage in recent years, briefly overtaking Ford in total revenue in 2024 ($187.4 billion vs. $185.0 billion), despite selling substantially fewer vehicles. This indicates that GM has successfully decoupled its revenue generation from raw unit scale, relying instead on a highly disciplined mix and pricing strategy.

• This strategic divergence is most glaring in the companies’ profitability and margin architectures, where GM exhibits clear structural superiority. Even in years where Ford generated higher automotive revenue, GM consistently delivered superior automotive gross profits and operating margins.

• Between 2017 and 2024, GM operated with automotive gross margins comfortably in the 10% to 13% range, while Ford struggled to break 9%. This structural margin gap culminated in a severe divergence in 2025 amidst tightening macroeconomic conditions: Ford’s operating leverage collapsed, resulting in a staggering $9.2 billion operating loss (-4.9% margin) and negative automotive gross margins, while GM absorbed the industry headwinds to remain profitable with $2.9 billion in operating income (1.6% margin).

• The underlying mechanics of this profitability gap are fully explained by per-vehicle unit economics. GM commands exceptional pricing power, structurally expanding its revenue per car from $25,082 in 2017 to $44,215 by 2025 — a premium of over $4,600 per unit compared to Ford’s 2025 ASP of $39,590. This premium pricing, coupled with tighter cost of revenue controls, translates directly into superior gross profit per vehicle.

• At the recent 2024 peak, GM extracted $5,122 of gross profit per vehicle compared to Ford’s $3,193. Consequently, GM’s model provides a durable margin cushion that absorbs supply chain shocks and cost inflation, whereas Ford’s thinner per-unit economics leave its bottom line highly vulnerable to cyclical compression, as evidenced by its transition to negative per-car gross profit (-$107) in 2025. Ultimately, GM has engineered a far more resilient, high-yield enterprise relative to Ford’s high-volume, low-margin vulnerability.

The table below combines all comparison metrics between Ford and General Motors into a single view for the latest three fiscal years.

Back To Table Of Contents

Ford vs GM: Total Sales & Revenue, Automotive Profit and Margin, and Operating Profit and Margin

The definition of operating profit and margin is available here: Operating Margin.

Back To Table Of Contents

Ford vs GM: Vehicle Wholesales and Revenue and Profit Margin Per Car

Vehicle margin for both automakers is evaluated based on the automotive gross margin. The definition of the vehicle margin is available here: vehicle margin.

The definition of revenue per car is available here: revenue per car.

Back To Table Of Contents

References and Credits

1. All financial figures in this article are obtained and referenced from annual reports published on the company’s investor relations pages:

i) Ford Earnings Releases, and
ii) GM Investor Relation.

2. Pixabay Images.

Back To Table Of Contents

Disclosure

We may use the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to produce some of the text in this article. However, the data is directly obtained from original sources and meticulously cross-checked by our editors multiple times to ensure its accuracy and reliability.

If you find the information in this article helpful, please consider sharing it on social media. Additionally, providing a link back to this article from any website can help us create more content like this in the future.

Thank you for your support and engagement! Your involvement helps us continue to provide high-quality, reliable content.

Back To Table Of Contents