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Nature of Operations and Basis of Presentation | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2018
Nature of Operations and Basis of Presentation [Abstract] |
Nature of Operations and Basis of Presentation | Nature of Operations and Basis of Presentation General Motors Company (sometimes referred to in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as we, our, us, ourselves, the Company, General Motors or GM) designs, builds and sells cars, trucks, crossovers and automobile parts worldwide. We also provide automotive financing services through General Motors Financial Company, Inc. (GM Financial). We analyze the results of our continuing operations through the following segments: GM North America (GMNA), GM International (GMI), GM Cruise and GM Financial. GM Cruise is our global segment designed to build, grow and invest in our autonomous ride-sharing vehicle business. As a result of the growing importance of our autonomous vehicle operations, we moved these operations from Corporate to GM Cruise and began presenting GM Cruise as a new reportable segment in the three months ended June 30, 2018. All periods presented have been recast to reflect the segment changes. Nonsegment operations and Maven, our ride- and car-sharing business, are classified as Corporate. Corporate includes certain centrally recorded income and costs such as interest, income taxes, corporate expenditures and certain nonsegment specific revenues and expenses. On July 31, 2017 we closed the sale of the Opel and Vauxhall businesses and certain other assets in Europe (the Opel/Vauxhall Business) to Peugeot, S.A. (PSA Group). On October 31, 2017 we closed the sale of the European financing subsidiaries and branches (the Fincos, and together with the Opel/Vauxhall Business, the European Business) to Banque PSA Finance S.A. and BNP Paribas Personal Finance S.A. The European Business is presented as discontinued operations in our condensed consolidated financial statements for all periods presented. Unless otherwise indicated, information in this report relates to our continuing operations. Refer to Note 19 for additional information on our discontinued operations. The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with U.S. GAAP pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for interim financial information. Accordingly they do not include all of the information and notes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements. The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements include all adjustments, which consist of normal recurring adjustments and transactions or events discretely impacting the interim periods, considered necessary by management to fairly state our results of operations, financial position and cash flows. The operating results for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for any other interim period or for the full year. These condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our 2017 Form 10-K. Except for per share amounts or as otherwise specified, dollar amounts presented within tables are stated in millions. In the three months ended June 30, 2018 we changed the presentation of our condensed consolidated statements of cash flows to separately classify Depreciation and impairment of Equipment on operating leases, net and Depreciation, amortization and impairment charges on Property, net. We have made corresponding reclassifications to the comparable information for all periods presented. Principles of Consolidation The Principles of Consolidation supplements information presented in our 2017 Form 10-K for the adoption on January 1, 2018 of Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-01, “Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities” (ASU 2016-01). We consolidate entities that we control due to ownership of a majority voting interest and we consolidate variable interest entities (VIEs) when we have variable interests and are the primary beneficiary. We continually evaluate our involvement with VIEs to determine when these criteria are met. Our share of earnings or losses of nonconsolidated affiliates is included in our consolidated operating results using the equity method of accounting when we are able to exercise significant influence over the operating and financial decisions of the affiliate. Beginning January 1, 2018 we no longer use the cost method of accounting. Recently Adopted Accounting Standards Effective January 1, 2018 we adopted ASU 2014-09, "Revenue from Contracts with Customers" as amended (ASU 2014-09), as incorporated into Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 606, on a modified retrospective basis by recognizing a cumulative effect adjustment to the opening balance of Retained earnings. Under ASU 2014-09 sales incentives will now be recorded at the time of sale rather than at the later of sale or announcement, thereby resulting in the shifting of incentive amounts to an earlier quarter and fixed fee license arrangements will now be recognized when access to intellectual property is granted instead of over the contract period. We currently expect the retiming of quarterly incentive amounts to offset for the year ending December 31, 2018. Actual incentive spending is dependent upon future market conditions. Beginning January 1, 2018 certain transfers to daily rental companies are accounted for as sales when ownership of the vehicle is not expected to transfer back to us. Such transactions were previously accounted for as operating leases. Transfers that occurred prior to January 2018 continue to be accounted for as operating leases because at the original time of transfer an expectation existed that ownership of the vehicle would transfer back to us. The following table summarizes the financial statement line items within our condensed consolidated income statement and balance sheet significantly impacted by ASU 2014-09:
| Three Months Ended September 30, 2018
| As Reported |  | Balances without Adoption of ASC 606 |  | Effect of Change
Income Statement |  |  |  |  |
Automotive net sales and revenue | $ | 32,276 |  |  | $ | 32,959 |  |  | $ | (683 | )
Income before income taxes | $ | 2,630 |  |  | $ | 3,321 |  |  | $ | (691 | )
Net income attributable to stockholders | $ | 2,534 |  |  | $ | 3,071 |  |  | $ | (537 | )
| Nine Months Ended September 30, 2018
| As Reported |  | Balances without Adoption of ASC 606 |  | Effect of Change
Income Statement |  |  |  |  |
Automotive net sales and revenue | $ | 98,242 |  |  | $ | 97,961 |  |  | $ | 281 |
Automotive and other cost of sales | $ | 88,788 |  |  | $ | 87,749 |  |  | $ | 1,039 |
Income before income taxes | $ | 7,091 |  |  | $ | 7,661 |  |  | $ | (570 | )
Net income attributable to stockholders | $ | 5,970 |  |  | $ | 6,402 |  |  | $ | (432 | )
| September 30, 2018
| As Reported |  | Balances without Adoption of ASC 606 |  | Effect of Change
Balance Sheet |  |  |  |  |
Equipment on operating leases, net | $ | 474 |  |  | $ | 1,428 |  |  | $ | (954 | )
Deferred income taxes | $ | 23,242 |  |  | $ | 22,661 |  |  | $ | 581 |
Accrued liabilities | $ | 28,104 |  |  | $ | 25,963 |  |  | $ | 2,141 |
Other liabilities | $ | 12,261 |  |  | $ | 12,657 |  |  | $ | (396 | )
Retained earnings | $ | 20,865 |  |  | $ | 22,633 |  |  | $ | (1,768 | )
Effective January 1, 2018 we adopted ASU 2016-01, on a modified retrospective basis, with a $182 million cumulative effect adjustment recorded to the opening balance of Retained earnings to adjust an investment previously carried at cost to its fair value. ASU 2016-01 requires equity investments that are not accounted for under the equity method of accounting to be measured at fair value with changes recognized in Net income. In the three months ended March 31, 2018 we adopted ASU 2017-12, "Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815), Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities" (ASU 2017-12), on a modified retrospective basis and adopted ASU 2018-02, "Income Statement-Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income” (ASU 2018-02), on a modified retrospective basis. ASU 2018-02 provides the option to reclassify stranded tax effects related to the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the Tax Act) in accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings. The adjustment relates to the change in the U.S. corporate income tax rate. The cumulative effect of the adjustments to the opening balance of Retained earnings for these adopted standards was $108 million. The following table summarizes the changes to our condensed consolidated balance sheet for the adoption of ASU 2014-09, ASU 2016-01, ASU 2017-12 and ASU 2018-02:
| December 31, 2017 |  | Adjustment due to ASU 2014-09 |  | Adjustment due to ASU 2016-01, ASU 2017-12 and ASU 2018-02 |  | January 1, 2018
Deferred income taxes | $ | 23,544 |  |  | $ | 444 |  |  | $ | (63 | ) |  | $ | 23,925 |
Other assets | $ | 4,929 |  |  | $ | 195 |  |  | $ | 242 |  |  | $ | 5,366 |
GM Financial short-term debt and current portion of long-term debt | $ | 24,450 |  |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | (13 | ) |  | $ | 24,437 |
Accrued liabilities | $ | 25,996 |  |  | $ | 2,328 |  |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | 28,324 |
Other liabilities | $ | 12,394 |  |  | $ | (235 | ) |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | 12,159 |
Retained earnings | $ | 17,627 |  |  | $ | (1,336 | ) |  | $ | 290 |  |  | $ | 16,581 |
Accumulated other comprehensive loss | $ | (8,011 | ) |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | (98 | ) |  | $ | (8,109 | )
Effective January 1, 2018 we adopted ASU 2016-15, "Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230), Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Payments" (ASU 2016-15), which clarified guidance on the classification of certain cash receipts and payments in the statement of cash flows. The adoption of ASU 2016-15 did not have a material impact on our condensed consolidated financial statements and prior periods were not restated. Effective January 1, 2018 we adopted ASU 2017-07, "Compensation - Retirement Benefits (Topic 715), Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost" (ASU 2017-07) on a retrospective basis, which requires that the service cost component of net periodic pension and other postretirement benefits (OPEB) (income) expense be presented in the same income statement line item as other employee compensation costs. The remaining components of net periodic pension and OPEB (income) expense are now presented outside operating income. Amounts previously reflected in Operating income were reclassified to Interest income and other non-operating income, net in accordance with the provisions of ASU 2017-07. Refer to Note 13 for amounts that were reclassified. Accounting Standards Not Yet Adopted In February 2016 the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued ASU 2016-02, "Leases" (ASU 2016-02), which requires us as the lessee to recognize most leases on the balance sheet thereby resulting in the recognition of right of use assets and lease obligations for those leases currently classified as operating leases. The accounting for leases where we are the lessor remains largely unchanged. We are continuing to assess the accounting and disclosure impact of ASU 2016-02 and refine our processes to permit adoption on January 1, 2019. We plan to elect the optional transition method as well as the package of practical expedients upon adoption. We expect the primary impact to our consolidated financial position upon adoption will be the recognition, on a discounted basis, of our minimum commitments under noncancelable operating leases on our consolidated balance sheets resulting in the recording of right of use assets and lease obligations. Our minimum commitments under noncancelable operating leases are not significantly different than those disclosed in our 2017 Form 10-K. In June 2016 the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, "Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments" (ASU 2016-13), which requires entities to use a new impairment model based on Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) rather than incurred losses. We plan to adopt ASU 2016-13 on January 1, 2020 on a modified retrospective basis, which will result in an increase to our allowance for credit losses and a decrease to Retained earnings as of the adoption date. Estimated credit losses under CECL will consider relevant information about past events, current conditions and reasonable and supportable forecasts, resulting in recognition of lifetime expected credit losses upon loan origination.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for the nature of an entity's business, the major products or services it sells or provides and its principal markets, including the locations of those markets as well as the basis of presentation concept. If the entity operates in more than one business, the disclosure also indicates the relative importance of its operations in each business and the basis for the determination (for example, assets, revenues, or earnings). Basis of presentation describes the underlying basis used to prepare the financial statements (for example, US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Other Comprehensive Basis of Accounting, IFRS). + References No definition available. + Details
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