Founding and consolidation By 1900,
William C. Durant's
Durant-Dort Carriage Company of
Flint, Michigan, had become the largest manufacturer of
horse-drawn vehicles in the United States. Durant was averse to automobiles, but fellow Flint businessman
James H. Whiting, owner of
Flint Wagon Works, sold him the
Buick Motor Company in 1904. GM's first acquisition was Buick, which Durant already owned, then
Olds Motor Works on November 12, 1908. Under Durant, GM went on to acquire
Cadillac,
Elmore,
Welch,
Cartercar,
Oakland (the predecessor of
Pontiac), the
Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of
Pontiac, Michigan, and the
Reliance Motor Car Company of
Detroit, Michigan (predecessor of
GMC) in 1909. Durant, with the board's approval, also tried acquiring
Ford Motor Company in 1909, for $8 million, but the banks refused to lend him the initial $2 million down payment. Durant over-
leveraged GM in making acquisitions, and was removed by the board of directors in 1910 at the order of the bankers who backed the loans to keep GM in business. The action of the bankers was partially influenced by the
Panic of 1910–1911 that followed the earlier enforcement of the
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. In 1911,
Charles F. Kettering of
Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO) and
Henry M. Leland invented and patented the first electric
starter in America. In November 1911, Durant co-founded
Chevrolet with race car driver
Louis Chevrolet, who left the company in 1915 after a disagreement with Durant. GM was reincorporated in
Detroit in 1916 as General Motors Corporation and became a
public company via an
initial public offering. By 1917,
Chevrolet had become successful enough that Durant, with the backing of
Samuel McLaughlin and
Pierre S. du Pont, reacquired a controlling interest in GM. The same year, GM acquired
Samson Tractor. Chevrolet Motor Company was consolidated into GM on May 2, 1918, and the same year GM acquired
United Motors, a parts supplier founded by Durant and headed by
Alfred P. Sloan for $45 million, and the
McLaughlin Motor Car Company, founded by
R. S. McLaughlin, became
General Motors of Canada Limited. In 1919, GM acquired
Guardian Frigerator Company, part-owned by Durant, which was renamed
Frigidaire. Also in 1919, the
General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC), which provides financing to automotive customers, was formed. At a time when GM was competing heavily with
Ford Motor Company, Sloan established annual model changes, making previous years' models "dated" and created a market for
used cars. He also implemented the pricing strategy used by car companies today. The pricing strategy had
Chevrolet,
Pontiac,
Oldsmobile,
Buick, and
Cadillac priced from least expensive to most, respectively. In 1921,
Thomas Midgley Jr., an engineer for GM, discovered
tetraethyllead (leaded gasoline) as an antiknock agent, and GM patented the compound because
ethanol could not be patented. This led to the development of higher compression engines resulting in more power and efficiency. The public later realized that lead contained in the gasoline was harmful to various biological organisms including humans. Evidence shows that corporate executives understood the health implications of tetraethyllead from the beginning. As an engineer for GM, Midgley also developed
chlorofluorocarbons, which have now been banned due to their contributing to
ozone depletion in the upper
atmosphere. Under the encouragement of GM President Alfred P. Sloan Jr., GM acquired
Vauxhall Motors for $2.5 million in 1925. The company also acquired an interest in the
Yellow Cab Manufacturing Company the same year, and its president,
John D. Hertz, joined the board of directors of GM; it acquired the remainder of the company in 1943. At the age of 24,
Bill Mitchell was recruited by Earl to the design team at GM, and he was later appointed as Chief Designer of Cadillac. After Earl retired in December 1958, Mitchell took over automotive design for GM. Also in 1926 the company acquired
Fisher Body, its supplier of automobile bodies. GM acquired
Allison Engine Company and began developing a 1,000 horsepower liquid-cooled aircraft engine in 1929. Soon after, GM acquired
self-propelled railcar manufacturer
Electro-Motive Company and the
Winton Engine Co., and in 1941, it expanded EMC's realm to locomotive engine manufacturing and created the
Electro-Motive Division (EMD). In 1932, GM acquired
Packard Electric (not to be confused with the
Packard car company, which merged with
Studebaker years later). The following year, GM acquired a controlling interest in
North American Aviation and merged it with the
General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation. The GM labor force participated in the formation of the
United Auto Workers labor union in 1935, and in 1936 the UAW organized the
Flint Sit-Down Strike, which initially idled two key plants in Flint, Michigan, and later spread to 6 other plants including those in
Janesville, Wisconsin and
Fort Wayne, Indiana. In Flint, police attempted to enter the plant to arrest strikers, leading to violence; in other cities, the plants were shuttered peacefully. The strike was resolved on February 11, 1937, when GM recognized the UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative for its workers and gave workers a 5% raise and permission to speak in the lunchroom. Walter E. Jominy and A.L. Boegehold of GM invented the Jominy end-quench test for
hardenability of carbon steel in 1937, a breakthrough in
heat treating still in use today as
ASTM A255. GM established
Detroit Diesel the next year. In 1939, the company founded Motors Insurance Corporation and entered the
vehicle insurance market. During
World War II, GM produced vast quantities of armaments, vehicles, and aircraft for the
Allies of World War II. In 1940, GM's
William S. Knudsen served as head of U.S. wartime production for
President Franklin Roosevelt, and by 1942, all of GM's production was to support the war. Nazi armaments chief
Albert Speer allegedly said in 1977 that Hitler "would never have considered invading Poland" without
synthetic fuel technology provided by General Motors. GM was compensated $32 million by the U.S. government because its German factories were bombed by U.S. forces during the war. Effective January 28, 1953,
Charles Erwin Wilson, then GM president, was named by
Dwight D. Eisenhower as
United States Secretary of Defense.
Periods of innovation Alfred P. Sloan retired as chairman and was succeeded by Albert Bradley in April 1956. In 1962, GM introduced the first ever
turbocharged production car in the world in the
Oldsmobile Cutlass Turbo-Jetfire. Two years later, the company introduced its "
Mark of Excellence" logo and trademark at the
1964 New York World's Fair. The company used the mark as its main corporate identifier until 2021. GM released the Electrovan in 1966, the first hydrogen
fuel cell car ever produced. Though fuel cells have existed since the early 1800s, General Motors was the first to use a fuel cell, supplied by
Union Carbide, to power the wheels of a vehicle with a budget of "millions of dollars". using the advertising slogan
"Putting you first, keeps us first" In the 1960s, GM was an early proponent of
V6 engines, but quickly lost interest as the popularity of
muscle cars increased. GM demonstrated
gas turbine vehicles powered by
kerosene, an area of interest throughout the industry, but abandoned the alternative engine configuration due to the
1973 oil crisis. In partnership with
Boeing, GM's Delco Defense Electronics Division designed the
Lunar Roving Vehicle, which traversed the surface of the Moon, in 1971. The following year, GM produced the first rear wheel
anti-lock braking system for two models: the Toronado and Eldorado. In 1973, the Oldsmobile Toronado was the first retail car sold with a passenger
airbag.
Thomas Murphy became CEO of the company, succeeding Richard C. Gerstenberg in November 1974. GM installed its first
catalytic converters in its 1975 models. From 1978 to 1985, GM pushed the benefits of
diesel engines and
cylinder deactivation technologies. However, it had disastrous results due to poor durability in the
Oldsmobile diesels and drivability issues in the
Cadillac V8-6-4 variable-cylinder engines. GM sold Frigidaire in 1979. Although Frigidaire had between $450 million and $500 million in annual revenues, it was losing money. Robert Lee of GM invented the
neodymium magnet, which was fabricated by rapid solidification, in 1984. This magnet is commonly used in products like a computer hard disk. The same year, GM acquired
Electronic Data Systems for $2.5 billion from
Ross Perot as part of a strategy by CEO
Roger Smith to derive at least 10% of its annual worldwide revenue from non-automotive sources. GM also intended to have EDS handle its bookkeeping, help computerize factories, and integrate GM's computer systems. The transaction made Ross Perot the largest shareholder of GM; however, disagreements with Roger Smith led the company to buy all shares held by Ross Perot for $750 million in 1986. In a continuation of its diversification plans, GMAC formed GMAC Mortgage and acquired Colonial Mortgage as well as the servicing arm of Norwest Mortgage in 1985. This acquisition included an $11 billion mortgage portfolio. The same year, GM acquired the
Hughes Aircraft Company for $5 billion in cash and stock and merged it into
Delco Electronics. The following year, GM acquired 59.7% of
Lotus Cars, a British producer of high-performance
sports cars. In 1987, in conjunction with
AeroVironment, GM built the
Sunraycer, which won the inaugural
World Solar Challenge and was a showcase of advanced technology. Much of the technology from Sunraycer found its way into the Impact prototype electric vehicle (also built by Aerovironment) and was the predecessor to the
General Motors EV1. In 1988, GM acquired a 15% stake in AeroVironment. In 1989, GM acquired half of
Saab Automobile's car operations for $600 million.
Sales of assets In August 1990,
Robert Stempel became CEO of the company, succeeding
Roger Smith. GM cut output significantly and suffered losses that year due to the
early 1990s recession. In 1990, GM debuted the
General Motors EV1 (Impact) concept, a
battery electric vehicle, at the
LA Auto Show. It was the first car with zero emissions marketed in the US in over three decades. The Impact was produced as the
EV1 for the 1996 model year and was available only via lease from certain dealers in California and Arizona. In 1999–2002, GM ceased production of the vehicles and started to not renew the leases, disappointing many people, allegedly because the program would not be profitable and would
cannibalize its existing business. All of the EV1s were eventually returned to General Motors, and except for around 40 which were donated to museums with their electric powertrains deactivated, all were destroyed. The documentary film
Who Killed the Electric Car? covered the EV1 story. In November 1992,
John F. Smith Jr. became CEO of the company. In 1993, GM sold
Lotus Cars to
Bugatti. In 1996, in a return to its automotive basics, GM completed the
corporate spin-off of
Electronic Data Systems. In 1997, GM sold the military businesses of
Hughes Aircraft Company to
Raytheon Company for $9.5 billion in stock and the assumption of debt. In February 2000,
Rick Wagoner was named CEO, succeeding Smith. The next month, GM gave 5.1% of its common stock, worth $2.4 billion, to acquire a 20% share of
Fiat. In December 2000, GM announced that it would begin phasing out
Oldsmobile. The brand was eventually discontinued in 2004, seven years after it had become the first American car brand to turn 100. In May 2004, GM delivered the first full-sized
pickup truck hybrid vehicles, the 1/2-ton
Chevrolet Silverado/
GMC Sierra trucks. These
mild hybrids did not use electrical energy for propulsion, like GM's later designs. Later, the company debuted another hybrid technology, co-developed with
DaimlerChrysler and
BMW, in diesel-electric hybrid powertrain manufactured by
Allison Transmission for transit buses. Continuing to target the diesel-hybrid market, the
Opel Astra diesel engine hybrid concept vehicle was rolled out in January 2005. Later that year, GM sold its
Electro-Motive Diesel locomotive division to
private equity firms
Berkshire Partners and Greenbriar Equity Group. GM paid $2 billion to sever its ties with
Fiat in 2005, severing ties with the company due to an increasingly contentious dispute. GM began adding its "
Mark of Excellence" emblem on all new vehicles produced and sold in North America in mid-2005. However, after the reorganization in 2009, the company no longer added the logo, saying that emphasis on its four core divisions would downplay the GM logo. In 2005,
Edward T. Welburn was promoted to the newly created position of vice president, GM Global Design, making him the first African American to lead a global automotive design organization and the highest-ranking African American in the US motor industry at that time. On July 1, 2016, he retired from General Motors after 44 years. He was replaced by
Michael Simcoe. In 2006, GM introduced a bright yellow fuel cap on its vehicles to remind drivers that cars can operate using
E85 ethanol fuel. They also introduced another hybrid vehicle that year, the
Saturn Vue Green Line. In 2008, General Motors committed to engineering half of its manufacturing plants to be landfill-free by recycling or reusing waste in the manufacturing process. Continuing its environmental-conscious development, GM started to offer the
2-mode hybrid system in the
Chevrolet Tahoe,
GMC Yukon,
Cadillac Escalade, and
pickup trucks. In late 2008, the world's largest
rooftop solar power installation was installed at GM's manufacturing plant in
Zaragoza. The Zaragoza solar installation has about of roof at the plant and contains about 85,000 solar panels. The installation was created, owned, and operated by
Veolia Environment and Clairvoyant Energy, which leases the rooftop area from GM.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy and bailout In March 2009, after the company had received $17.4 billion in bailouts but was not effective in a turnaround, President
Barack Obama forced the resignation of CEO
Rick Wagoner. General Motors filed for a government-backed
Chapter 11 reorganization on June 8, 2009. On July 10, 2009, the original General Motors sold assets and some subsidiaries to an entirely new company, including the trademark "General Motors". A study by the
Center for Automotive Research found that the GM bailout saved 1.2 million jobs and preserved $34.9 billion in tax revenue.
General Motors Canada was not part of the General Motors Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Post-reorganization In June 2009, at the request of
Steven Rattner, lead adviser to President
Barack Obama on the
Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry,
Edward Whitacre Jr., who had led a restructuring of
AT&T, was appointed as chairman of General Motors. Whitacre was tasked with overseeing GM's emergence from bankruptcy and downsizing its sizable number of brand marques, many of which had produced chronic losses even before the recession began. In July 2009, after 40 days of bankruptcy protection, the company emerged from the government-backed
General Motors Chapter 11 reorganization. As mandated by its bailout agreement, GM began the process of shedding its poorest-performing brands in June 2009: Hummer, Saab, Saturn, and Pontiac. An October 2009 agreement to sell the Hummer brand to
China-based
Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd. and a group of private investors fell through three months later, resulting in GM seeking a new suitor. American company Raser Technologies, along with several others, expressed interest in buying the company, but none of the proposed acquisitions came to fruition, and in April 2010 GM said it was officially shutting down the Hummer brand. Similarly, GM's efforts to sell its Saturn division yielded an early suitor. In June 2009, GM announced that the
Saturn brand would be sold to the
Penske Automotive Group. The deal fell through, however, and GM declared the brand defunct in October 2010. While GM agreed to shed its underperforming Pontiac brand as part of its bailout agreement, the company explicitly opted not to sell it to another company. The last Pontiac was built in January 2010. GM was more successful in its attempts to sell
Saab Automobile: the company closed a sale to Dutch automaker
Spyker Cars in February 2010. Saab continued to perform poorly under Spyker's management, however, and in 2012 the Saab division declared
bankruptcy. In 2009, GM faced significant challenges in its Asian operations, particularly in Korea with GM-Daewoo Automotive Technology Company (GMDAT). At the time, GM would manufacture low-cost small cars in Korea and export them to developing markets, including China. GMDAT suffered from cash flow issues exacerbated by a $1.5 billion loss in foreign exchange in the first quarter of 2009. GM's precarious financial situation, exacerbated by impending bankruptcy, and the reluctance of the US government rescuers to address overseas issues, left few options. Facing a frozen credit market and the Korean Development Bank's refusal to extend loans beyond the existing $2 billion owed by GMDAT, GM had no alternative but to seek capital from China. GM opted to appoint Whitacre as its permanent CEO the following month, though Whitacre ultimately stepped down as CEO in September 2010, relinquishing the position to fellow GM board member
Daniel Akerson but agreeing to continue on as GM chairman until the end of the year. Akerson replaced him as chairman, while continuing as CEO, in January 2011. In 2010, GM introduced the
Chevrolet Volt as an
extended-range electric vehicle (EREV), an electric vehicle with backup generators powered by gasoline, a type of
plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. GM delivered the first Volt in December 2010. GM built a prototype two-seat electric vehicle with
Segway Inc. An early prototype of the
Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility vehicledubbed
Project P.U.M.A.was presented in New York at the 2009
New York International Auto Show. On January 15, 2014,
Mary Barra was named chief executive officer, succeeding
Daniel Akerson. Barra also joined the GM board. Only three weeks later, the company announced its
2014 General Motors recall, which was due to faulty ignition switches, and was linked to at least 124 deaths. The resulting settlements with family members of those killed were estimated to cost the company $1.5 billion. Under Barra, GM began a multi-year abandonment of many markets, choosing to focus on higher-profit markets like North America and China. On January 4, 2016, in its first investment in a
ridesharing company, GM invested $500 million in
Lyft. The company does not directly supply Lyft drivers with vehicles, however – and has no plans to do so in the future – and Lyft ultimately partnered with
Motional for production of its autonomous vehicles. In March 2016, GM acquired
Cruise, a
San Francisco self-driving vehicle start-up, to develop self-driving cars that could be used in ride-sharing fleets. In June 2022, Cruise received California's first Driverless Deployment Permit, allowing it to both charge fees for its service as well as offer fully autonomous rides in a major public city.
The Verge reported that the company lost $561 million in Q1 2023, but said it remains on the path to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2025 and $50 billion by 2030. After an incident involving an injured pedestrian, GM halted funding of the robotaxi business in December 2024. In February 2025, Cruise was merged into GM to focus on its Super Cruise system for personal vehicles. By March 2025, Super Cruise had achieved SAE Level 2 autonomy. In October 2016, GM began production of the
Chevrolet Bolt EV, the first-ever mass market
all-electric car with a range of more than . The battery pack and most drivetrain components were built by
LG Corporation and assembled in GM's plant in
Lake Orion, Michigan. In 2017, GM sold
General Motors Europe, which produced the German
Opel and British
Vauxhall brands, to the French
PSA Group (owners of the
Peugeot and
Citroën brands), after having posted 16 years of consecutive losses. The deal was worth US$2.2 billion. Three years later, in 2020, PSA merged with
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the new entity was named
Stellantis. In December 2017, GM ceased vehicle sales in India and sold its
Gujarat plant to
SAIC Motor. The Talegaon plant remained operational for export production until December 2020. In January 2024, the Talegaon plant was acquired by
Hyundai Motor India. In December 2019, GM established Ultium Cells, an electric battery joint venture with LG Chem in the US. On February 17, 2020, GM announced its exit from Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, its major right-hand drive markets, after GM stated it would no longer produce right-hand drive vehicles globally. It pulled out of Indonesia, another right-hand drive market, in 2019. It sold its
Thailand manufacturing plant to Chinese automaker
Great Wall Motor. On January 8, 2021, GM introduced a new logo alongside the tagline "EVerybody in", with the capitalized "EV" as a nod to the company's commitment to electric vehicles. At the January 2021
Consumer Electronics Show, GM launched
BrightDrop, a brand for all-electric
commercial vehicles. On January 28, 2021, GM announced that it will end production and sales of
fossil-fuel vehicles (including hybrids and plug-in hybrids) by 2035 as part a broader plan to reach
carbon neutrality by 2040. GM will be responsible for battery management systems and power electronics, thermal management, as well as the pack assembly. An existing GM facility at Brownstown Township was chosen to be upgraded as a battery pack plant. In mid-2023, GM abandoned its goal of North American electric vehicle deliveries of 400,000 units from 2022 by mid-2024. It had previously set the timeline of by end of 2023. CEO Mary Barra pointed to failures in the scaling of battery module production while simultaneously blaming lack of consumer demand. General Motors and
LG Chem Ltd. have a long-term supply agreement. LG Chem Ltd. will provide GM with more than 500,000 tons of
cathode materials for 24.7 trillion
won (US$18.6 billion). Provided materials to the automaker will be enough for 5 million
electric vehicles. In January 2024, GM announced it would once again manufacture a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) while it aims to balance supply of battery electric vehicles with demand. On April 15, 2024, GM announced that it would relocate its global headquarters from the Renaissance Center to the nearby
Hudson's Detroit development in 2025. As of January 12, 2026 it has begun official occupancy of the site. In October 2024, General Motors increased its investment in lithium production by raising its commitment to Canadian mining company Lithium Americas from $650 million to $945 million. The investment establishes a joint venture with Lithium Americas to develop the
Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada, one of the largest known lithium resources in the United States, positioning GM to meet growing demand for EVs by reducing dependency on foreign lithium sources. In March 2026, General Motors announced that it planned to invest $600 million to upgrade manufacturing facilities and products in South Korea.
Motorsport in the
IMSA SportsCar Championship GM participated in the
World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) from 2004 to 2012, and has also participated in other motorsport championships, including
24 Hours of Le Mans,
NASCAR,
SCCA and
Supercars Championship. GM's engines were successful in the
Indy Racing League (IRL) throughout the 1990s, winning many races in the small
V8 class. GM has also done much work in the
development of electronics for GM auto racing. An unmodified Aurora V8 in the Aerotech captured 47 world records, including the record for speed endurance in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. Recently, the
Cadillac V-Series has entered motorsports racing. GM has also designed cars specifically for use in
NASCAR auto racing. The
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is the only entry in the series. In the past, the
Pontiac Grand Prix,
Buick Regal,
Oldsmobile Cutlass,
Chevrolet Lumina,
Chevrolet Malibu,
Chevrolet Monte Carlo,
Chevrolet Impala, and the
Chevrolet SS were also used. GM has won many
NASCAR Cup Series manufacturer's championships, including 40 with Chevrolet, the most of any make in
NASCAR history, 3 with Oldsmobile, 2 with Buick, and 1 with Pontiac. In 2021, Chevrolet became the first brand to reach 800 wins. In Australia,
Holden cars based on the
Monaro,
Torana and
Commodore platforms raced in the
Australian Touring Car Championship until
2022. Holden won the
Bathurst 1000, a record 36 times between
1968 and
2022 and the Australian Touring Car Championship 23 times. From
2023, the
Chevrolet Camaro will be raced. In November 2024, GM and
TWG Global reached an agreement in principle to enter the
2026 Formula One World Championship under the
Cadillac name with the
Ferrari engine, and would enter as an
engine supplier at a later date.
Logo evolution Evolution of the GM logo through the years: File:Gm logo 1938.png|1938–1964 ==Brands==