It's been a volatile year for American car makers amid tariffs, changing policies, and uncertain demand. General Motors investors badly want some insight into how things will unfold the rest of this year.

Some answers should come Tuesday morning, when the company reports earnings. For the second-quarter, Wall Street is looking for an operating profit of $2.7 billion from sales of $45 billion. A year ago, in the third quarter of 2024, GM reported an operating profit of $4.1 billion from sales of $48.8 billion.

Profits are down partly because of tariffs, which auto makers haven't been able to fully offset. For 2025, the "gross" impact GM expects from tariffs is $4 billion to $5 billion. The company's goal is to offset 30% of that through "manufacturing adjustments, targeted cost initiatives, and consistent pricing."

Full-year operating profit is expected to land between $10 billion and $12.5 billion. In 2024, GM earned an operating profit of almost $15 billion.

Beyond tariffs, the loss of the $7,500 EV purchase tax credit, which expired in September, should pressure EV profitability. GM recently took $1.6 billion in write-downs related to EV assets, a sign it doesn't see the technology spreading in the U.S. as fast as it once did.

"While the tariff headlines and recent EV impairment charges continue to put further pressure on the bottom line in the near-term...GM continues to impressively navigate the complex backdrop while seeing stable demand for its entire fleet," wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a preview report. He sees stable auto demand helping the stock in 2026. Ives rates shares Buy and has a $65 price target.

Car demand has been remarkably solid in 2025, despite EV and tariff noise. Through August, U.S. new car sales were up about 4% year over year, despite new car prices rising about 4% year over year. (The average transaction price for a new car in September was more than $50,000.)

GM sales have been solid as well. It sold more than 710,000 vehicles in the U.S. in the third quarter, up 8% year over year.

Options markets imply shares will move about 5%, up or down, following earnings. Shares have moved an average of about 7% over the past four quarterly reports. Shares have fallen three times and risen once over that span.

Coming into the week, GM stock was up about 10% year to date, trailing the S&P 500 by almost four percentage points.