GM vs VWAGY: How General Motors Company and Volkswagen AG Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: VWAGY is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. GM and VWAGY share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined GM and VWAGY exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

General Motors Company is a Detroit-based global automaker that designs, manufactures, and sells trucks, crossovers, cars, and automobile parts under the Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac brands, and provides automotive financing through its GM Financial arm. The overwhelming majority of its profit comes from North America, where full-size pickup trucks (the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra) and a broad lineup of crossovers and SUVs command strong pricing and margins. GM also operates through equity joint ventures in China, holds a portfolio of electric vehicles built on its Ultium battery platform, and had been developing autonomous-driving technology through Cruise before folding that effort into a leaner in-house driver-assistance program.

Full GM guide

Volkswagen AG is the largest carmaker in Europe and, by revenue, one of the largest industrial companies in the world, with sales of roughly EUR 321.9B in 2025. The group is really a federation of ten vehicle brands rather than a single manufacturer: Volkswagen passenger cars, Audi, Porsche, Skoda, Seat and Cupra, Bentley, Lamborghini, Ducati, Scout, and the Traton commercial vehicle business, alongside a large financial services arm that finances and leases those vehicles. Revenue is reported in euros because Volkswagen is a German company listed in Frankfurt, and its US-traded ADR is a wrapper around that German listing rather than a US listing in its own right. The Porsche Automobil Holding SE family vehicle controls about 53.3% of Volkswagen's voting rights and the state of Lower Saxony holds around 20%, which means the ordinary shares that VWAGY tracks carry votes that are, in practice, already spoken for.

Full VWAGY guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• GM drivers: Truck and SUV profit engine plus capital return; EV rightsizing to cut losses.
• VWAGY drivers: The cost reset, which is now the whole equity story; Cash generation and a balance sheet that buys time.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: GM is deeply cyclical: new-vehicle demand, pricing, and margins can fall sharply in a recession or when interest rates raise the cost of auto loans. For VWAGY, the near-term risk is that the restructuring runs slower than the margin compression: a 3.8% first half operating margin sits at the bottom of the 4% to 5.5% full year target, and Volkswagen's own CFO described the roughly 4% level as a wake-up call.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick GM if you believe its drivers more; VWAGY if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the GM and VWAGY guides.

GM. GM's trailing P/E of roughly 31x is misleading because 2025 GAAP net income of about $2.7 billion was suppressed by more than $7.2 billion of one-time EV realignment charges; on a forward basis against 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of about $11.50 to $13.50, the multiple compresses to roughly 6x, one of the lowest among large-cap US companies. That gap reflects a market that treats GM as a deeply cyclical, tariff-exposed automaker rather than a growth compounder. Heavy buybacks (a new $6.0 billion authorization) and a raised dividend show management returning capital while the shares trade at a low earnings multiple.

VWAGY. The two most common mistakes with Volkswagen numbers are currency and scale. Revenue of roughly EUR 321.9B is in euros, so quoting it with a dollar sign is wrong by the exchange rate, and it is a revenue figure roughly eight times the company's own market value, which is what a single-digit multiple on a low-margin, high-turnover manufacturer looks like. The valuation is genuinely cheap on trailing earnings, but trailing earnings already fell about 38% in 2025 and first half 2026 operating profit fell a further 12%, so the multiple is being applied to a declining base rather than a stable one.

Headline figures (approximate, JULY 2026): GM shows revenue (fy 2025) ~$185 billion, net income (fy 2025) ~$2.7 billion (after ~$7.2 billion of special charges), ebit-adjusted (fy 2025) ~$12.7 billion, 2026 ebit-adjusted guidance ~$13.5 billion to $15.5 billion (~$11.50 to $13.50 adjusted EPS); VWAGY shows revenue (fy2025) ~EUR 321.9B (roughly $367B converted at recent rates; Volkswagen reports in euros), net earnings (fy2025) ~EUR 6.67B, down ~38% year over year, h1 2026 operating profit ~EUR 5.9B, down ~12%, on a ~3.8% operating margin, p/e ratio ~7.3 on the German ordinary line, one of the lowest in the global auto sector.

GM and VWAGY are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined GM and VWAGY exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.