General Motors (GM) Risk Factors

We are significantly affected by governmental regulations on a global basis that can increase costs related to the production of our vehicles and affect our product portfolio, particularly regulations relating to fuel economy standards and GHG emissions. Meeting or exceeding the requirements of these regulations is costly, often technologically challenging and may require phase-out of internal combustion propulsion vehicles in certain major jurisdictions, and these standards are often not harmonized across jurisdictions. We anticipate that the number and extent of these and other regulations, laws and policies, and the related costs and changes to our product portfolio, may increase significantly in the future, primarily motivated by efforts to reduce GHG emissions. Specifically, fuel economy and GHG emission regulations at the federal, state or local level or in international jurisdictions could require us to further limit the sale of certain profitable products, subsidize the sale of less profitable ones, change our manufacturing processes, pay increased penalties, purchase additional credits from our competitors or undertake other activities that may require us to incur additional expense, which may be material. These requirements may increase the cost of, and/or diminish demand for, our vehicles. These regulatory requirements, among others, could significantly affect our plans for global product development and, given the uncertainty surrounding enforcement and regulatory definitions and interpretations, may result in substantial costs, including civil or criminal penalties. In addition, an evolving but un-harmonized emissions and fuel economy regulatory framework that could include specific sales mandates may limit or dictate the types of vehicles we sell and where we sell them, which can affect our revenues and profitability. Refer to the "Environmental and Regulatory Matters" section of Item 1. Business for further information on regulatory and environmental requirements. We expect that to comply with fuel economy and GHG emission standards and mandates to sell specific volumes of ZEVs in certain jurisdictions, we will be required to sell a significant volume of EVs, and potentially develop and implement new technologies for conventional internal combustion engines, all of which will require substantial investment and expense. There are limits on our ability to achieve fuel economy improvements over a given time frame, primarily relating to the cost and effectiveness of available technologies, lack of sufficient consumer acceptance of new technologies and of changes in vehicle mix, lack of willingness of consumers to absorb the additional costs of new technologies, the appropriateness (or lack thereof) of certain technologies for use in particular vehicles, the widespread availability (or lack thereof) of supporting infrastructure for new technologies, especially with respect to EVs, the availability (or lack thereof) of the raw materials and component supply to make batteries and other elements of EVs, and the human, engineering and financial resources necessary to deploy new technologies across a wide range of products and powertrains in a short time. There is no assurance that we will be able to produce and sell vehicles that use such new technologies on a profitable basis or that our customers will purchase such vehicles in the quantities necessary for us to comply with current or future regulatory requirements. In the current uncertain regulatory framework, compliance costs for which we may be responsible and that are not reasonably estimable could be substantial. Alleged violations of fuel economy or vehicle emission standards could result in legal proceedings, the recall of one or more of our products, negotiated remedial actions, fines and penalties, restricted product offerings or a combination of any of those items. Any of these actions could have a material adverse effect on our profitability, financial condition and operations, including facility idling, reduced employment, increased costs and loss of revenue. In addition, many of our advanced technologies, including AVs, present novel issues with which domestic and foreign regulators have only limited experience, and will be subject to evolving regulatory frameworks. Current or any future regulations in these areas could impede the successful commercialization of these technologies and impact whether and how these technologies are designed and integrated into our products, and may ultimately subject us to increased costs and uncertainty.

We are subject to legal proceedings in the U.S. and elsewhere involving various issues, including product liability lawsuits, warranty litigation, class action litigations alleging product defects, emissions litigation, stockholder litigation, labor and employment litigation and claims and actions arising from restructurings and divestitures of operations and assets. In addition, we are subject to various governmental proceedings and investigations. A negative outcome in one or more of these proceedings could result in the imposition of damages, including punitive damages, fines, reputational harm, civil lawsuits and criminal penalties, interruptions of business, modification of business practices, equitable remedies and other sanctions against us or our personnel as well as legal and other costs, all of which may be significant. For a further discussion of certain of these matters, refer to Note 16 to our consolidated financial statements.

We are subject to the tax laws and regulations of the U.S. and numerous other jurisdictions in which we do business. Many judgments are required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities, and we are regularly under audit by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities, which may not agree with our tax positions. In addition, our tax liabilities are subject to other significant risks and uncertainties, including those arising from potential changes in laws and regulations in the countries in which we do business (for example, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development proposals, including the introduction of global minimum tax standards), the possibility of tax controversy related to adverse determinations with respect to the application of existing laws (in particular, with respect to full realization of the incentives contemplated by the IRA), changes in our business or structure and changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities. Any unfavorable resolution of these and other uncertainties may have a significant adverse impact on our tax rate and results of operations. If our tax expense were to increase, or if the ultimate determination of our taxes owed is for an amount in excess of amounts previously accrued, our operating results, cash flows and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our automotive operations are dependent upon the continued ability of our suppliers to deliver the systems, components, raw materials and parts that we need to manufacture our products. Other than with respect to certain of our offtake agreements with battery raw material suppliers, our use of "just-in-time" manufacturing processes typically allows us to maintain minimal inventory. As a result, our ability to maintain production is dependent upon our suppliers delivering sufficient quantities of systems, components, raw materials and parts on time to meet our production schedules and specifications. In some instances, we purchase systems, components, raw materials and parts that are ultimately derived from a single source and may be at an increased risk for supply disruptions. Any number of factors, including labor disruptions, catastrophic weather events, the occurrence of a public health crisis, contractual or other disputes, unfavorable economic or industry conditions, restrictions on transactions involving certain territories, entities or individuals, delivery delays or other performance problems or financial difficulties or solvency problems, could disrupt our suppliers' operations and lead to uncertainty in our supply chain or cause supply disruptions for us, which could, in turn, disrupt our operations, including the production of certain higher margin vehicles. When we experience supply disruptions, we may not be able to develop alternate sourcing quickly. Any disruption of our production schedule caused by an unexpected shortage of systems, components, raw materials or parts even for a relatively short period of time could cause us to alter production schedules, increase work-in-process inventory or suspend production entirely, which could cause a loss of revenues or an increase in working capital, which would adversely affect our profitability and financial condition.

Pandemics, epidemics or disease outbreaks in the U.S. or globally, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have previously disrupted, and may in the future disrupt, our business, which could materially affect our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and future expectations. Any such events may adversely impact our global supply chain and global manufacturing operations and cause us to suspend our operations in the affected markets. In particular, we could experience, among other things: (1) continued or additional global supply disruptions; (2) labor disruptions or shortages; (3) an inability to manufacture; (4) an inability to sell to our customers; (5) a decline in showroom traffic and customer demand; (6) customer defaults on automobile loans and leases; (7) lower than expected pricing on vehicles sold at auction; and (8) an impaired ability to access credit and the capital markets. Any new public health crisis could have a material impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations going forward.

Increases in prices, including as a result of inflation and rising interest rates, for commodities, raw materials, energy or other inputs that we and our suppliers use in manufacturing products, systems, components and parts, such as steel, precious metals, non-ferrous metals, critical minerals or other similar raw materials, or increases in logistics and related costs, have led and may continue to lead to higher production costs for parts, components and vehicles. In addition, elevated cost, or reduced availability, of critical materials for our EV propulsion systems, including lithium, nickel, cobalt and certain rare earth metals, could lead to higher production costs for our EVs and could impede our ability to successfully deliver on our EV strategy. Further, increasing global demand for, and uncertain supply of, such materials could disrupt our or our suppliers' ability to obtain such materials in a timely manner and/or could lead to increased costs. Geopolitical risk, fluctuations in supply and demand, fluctuations in interest rates, any weakening of the U.S. dollar and other economic and political factors have created and may continue to create pricing pressure for commodities, raw materials, energy and other inputs. These inflationary pressures could, in turn, negatively impact our profitability because we may not be able to pass all of those costs on to our customers or require our suppliers to absorb such costs.

GM Financial faces a number of business, economic and financial risks that could impair its access to capital and negatively affect its business and operations, which in turn could impede its ability to provide leasing and financing to customers and commercial lending to our dealers. Any reduction in GM Financial's ability to provide such financial services would negatively affect our efforts to support additional sales of our vehicles and expand our market penetration among customers and dealers. The primary factors that could adversely affect GM Financial's business and operations and reduce its ability to provide financing services at competitive rates include the sufficiency, availability and cost of sources of funding, including credit facilities, securitization programs and secured and unsecured debt issuances; the performance of loans and leases in its portfolio, which could be materially affected by charge-offs, delinquencies and prepayments; wholesale auction values of used vehicles; vehicle return rates and the residual value performance on vehicles GM Financial leases to customers; fluctuations in interest rates and currency exchange rates; competition for customers from commercial banks, credit unions and other financing and leasing companies; and changes to regulation, supervision, enforcement and licensing across various jurisdictions. In addition, GM Financial has certain floating-rate obligations, hedging transactions and floating-rate commercial loans that determine their applicable interest rate or payment amount by reference to a benchmark rate, generally the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), which is a broad measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight collateralized by Treasury securities. Any uncertainties associated with these benchmark rates may impact GM Financial's ability to manage interest rate risk effectively. Further, as an entity operating in the financial services sector, GM Financial is required to comply with a wide variety of laws and regulations that may be costly to adhere to and may affect our consolidated operating results. Compliance with these laws and regulations requires that GM Financial maintain forms, processes, procedures, controls and the infrastructure to support these requirements. Laws in the financial services industry are designed primarily for the protection of consumers. The failure to comply with these laws could result in significant statutory civil and criminal penalties, monetary damages, attorneys' fees and costs, possible revocation of licenses and damage to reputation, brand and valued customer relationships.

The global automotive industry is highly competitive in terms of the quality, innovation, new technologies, pricing, fuel economy, reliability, safety, customer service and financial services offered. Additionally, despite the fact that OEMs have experienced supply constraints in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and certain supply chain and logistics challenges, overall manufacturing capacity in the automotive industry has historically far exceeded demand, and we expect conditions to normalize in the near term. In addition, we have made, and plan to continue to make, significant investments in EV manufacturing capacity based on our expectations for EV demand, which is subject to various risks and uncertainties as described above. Many manufacturers, including GM, have relatively high fixed labor costs as well as limitations on their ability to efficiently close facilities and reduce fixed costs, including as a result of collective bargaining agreements. In light of any excess capacity and high fixed costs, many industry participants have attempted to sell more vehicles by providing subsidized financing or leasing programs, offering marketing incentives or reducing vehicle prices. As a result, we have had, and may in the future need, to offer similar incentives, which may result in vehicle prices that do not offset our costs, including any cost increases or the impact of adverse currency fluctuations, which could affect our profitability. Our competitors may also seek to benefit from economies of scale by consolidating or entering into other strategic agreements such as alliances or joint ventures intended to enhance their competitiveness. Manufacturers in countries that have lower production costs, such as China and India, have become competitors in key emerging markets and have begun offering their products in established markets, as well as a low-cost alternative to established entry-level automobiles. In addition, foreign governments may decide to implement tax and other policies that favor their domestic manufacturers at the expense of international manufacturers, including GM and its joint venture partners. These actions have had, and are expected to continue to have, a significant negative effect on our vehicle pricing, market share and operating results in these markets.