AINEWS
A seven year analysis of quarterly transcripts finds both automakers' EV mention rates now sit below their pre pandemic baselines, even as new models and battery programs move forward.
GM and Ford executives mention EVs on their quarterly earnings calls less often today than they did before the pandemic. The transcripts make it clear where the missing attention went.
TechCrunch and Hudson Labs, a New York financial research firm, scored the last seven years of GM and Ford earnings-call transcripts and found that both automakers' EV mention rates now sit below their pre-pandemic baselines. The measure tracks what executives and analysts discuss, not what the companies build or sell.
Neither automaker is walking away from EVs. Both still sell them, and both have new models in their pipelines. The bandwidth that used to go to EV talk is now spent on software and services, autonomous technology, and battery programs the companies say will make EVs profitable.
GM is devoting growing call time to lithium manganese-rich (LMR) battery technology, a chemistry the automaker is betting will lower cost per kilowatt-hour and unlock margin on mass-market electric models. Ford is preparing to launch its "Universal Electric Vehicle" platform next year, with a midsize pickup positioned to "hit the sweet spot of the EV market for cost, price, and technology," per Ford spokesperson David Tovar.
GM's framing of the communications shift is direct. "Quality counts more than quantity," spokesperson Jim Cain said, noting that GM devotes at least half its call to Q&A, with the rest split between growth topics like software, services, and autonomy, and analyst priorities like trade and regulatory policy, operating performance, capital allocation, regional performance, and headwinds and tailwinds. He reiterated that GM views EVs as "the end game," pointing to EV customer loyalty, recent awards, growing EV market share, and continued LMR investment.
The transcripts complicate both companies' talking points. Both automakers have publicly altered, delayed, or abandoned plans for new EV models over the past two years, with associated layoffs and scaled-back factory plans. EV-mention rate on a call measures investor-narrative share, not production or capex. When the narrative share falls while production plans also shrink, executives and analysts are negotiating in a smaller room.
Hudson Labs sourced the transcripts from S&P Market Intelligence data. The dataset is GM and Ford only; Stellantis was excluded because, until Q1 2026, it held comprehensive earnings calls only twice a year rather than four, and it has historically lagged U.S. peers on EV adoption.
Tovar's response is forward-looking. Ford's Universal EV platform and midsize pickup, he said, are aimed at the price band where mainstream EV adoption has lagged. The next test lands in October, when both automakers report Q3 earnings and executives have to choose how much call time to spend on EVs again.