General Motors: History, Brands, Numbers and Leadership

General Motors Company is a Detroit-based maker of trucks, crossovers and cars sold under the Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac and Buick brands. It also offers software-enabled services such as OnStar and Super Cruise, and lends to car buyers through GM Financial.

GM matters now because it is the top seller of vehicles in the United States and is reshaping its plans for electric cars. In 2025 it reported revenue of $185.0 billion and its highest full-year share of the U.S. market in a decade.

General Motors: the Detroit carmaker behind Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac — The Renaissance Center in Detroit, 2014. Photo: Crisco 1492, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Overview and Founding

General Motors was founded by William C. Durant, a former carriage maker from Flint, Michigan. On September 16, 1908, the company was incorporated in Flint, with Buick as its first holding, before it later moved to Detroit.

Durant bought more than 20 companies in GM’s first 16 months, including Cadillac and Oakland, the brand later known as Pontiac. He launched Chevrolet separately in 1911 with the racing driver Louis Chevrolet, and GM bought Chevrolet on May 2, 1918.

The present company, General Motors Company, was incorporated in Delaware in 2009. Its head office is at 1240 Woodward Avenue in Detroit.

Key Milestones

1908: William C. Durant forms General Motors in Flint, Michigan, with Buick as its base.
1911: Durant and Louis Chevrolet start the Chevrolet Motor Company.
1918: GM acquires Chevrolet on May 2.
2009: The current General Motors Company is incorporated in Delaware.
2014: Mary Barra becomes chief executive in January.
2016: Barra is elected chair of the board in January.
2025: GM winds down the Cruise robotaxi operations and folds its autonomous driving work into its North American business.
2025: GM records its highest full-year U.S. market share in a decade, at 17.2 percent.

What It Does

GM designs, builds and sells vehicles and parts, and runs its car business through two segments, GM North America and GM International. Its full-size pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles are the main source of sales and profit, and the company held 33.0 percent of the U.S. truck segment in 2025.

Chevrolet and GMC cover the mainstream market, while Cadillac serves the luxury segment. In China, GM sells vehicles through joint ventures under the Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Baojun and Wuling names.

Its electric line-up includes the Chevrolet Equinox EV, the Cadillac LYRIQ and ESCALADE IQ, and the GMC Sierra EV. Battery cells come from Ultium Cells, a joint venture with LG Energy Solution with plants in Warren, Ohio and Spring Hill, Tennessee. In 2025 GM reduced its electric vehicle capacity to match slower demand.

Software is a growing part of the business. OnStar reached a record 12 million subscribers in 2025, and Super Cruise, which lets drivers travel hands-free on more than 600,000 miles of compatible roads in the United States and Canada, passed 620,000 subscribers.

GM has a network of 50 manufacturing plants and parts facilities in 19 U.S. states, 11 of them vehicle assembly plants. In 2025 it announced about $4.0 billion of investment to move more production to plants in Tennessee, Kansas and Michigan.

Its brands also reach the Kingdom, where the Ministry of Commerce has handled a recall of 27,360 Chevrolet vehicles, part of a car market that took in 1.9 million imported vehicles in 2024 and 2025.

The company describes its long-term aim as a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. In January 2026 it raised its quarterly dividend by 20 percent to $0.18 a share, approved a new $6.0 billion share buyback and guided to EBIT-adjusted earnings of $13.0 billion to $15.0 billion for 2026.