AI-assembled from public SEC filings
Auto OEMs peer review
Descriptive comparison assembled from public SEC filings and verified companyfacts.
Descriptive comparison — not investment advice. This feature-specific review is assembled from a frozen evidence pack of public SEC filing quotes and verified SEC companyfacts numbers. It is descriptive only and makes no judgment about which company is better. It is not a rating, recommendation, endorsement, forecast, or investment advice. Figures are as of their cited filing dates. See Disclaimer.
Methodology
Mechanical auto-OEM cluster: cached large motor-vehicle manufacturers in grepcent's processed universe with SEC SIC 3711 Motor Vehicles and Passenger Car Bodies, constrained to the requested available members. STLA was requested but is not present in the processed cache.
The cluster is selected from cached SEC SIC 3711 companies and kept to the requested large OEM peer tier: GM, F, and TSLA. TSLA's pure-EV/high-growth model differs from legacy GM and F; that divergence is descriptive rather than a claim of identical business models. For GM and F, liabilities/equity is quarantined because total-company leverage includes captive-finance arms (GM Financial and Ford Credit) and is not comparable to industrial-only auto leverage. STLA is missing from the processed cache and is not fabricated.
Provenance
Verified Quantitative Matrix
Numbers are templated from frozen SEC companyfacts-derived facts already verified by grepcent. Fiscal periods and filing dates are shown in each cell; comparability markers use day-level period ends and reported XBRL source concepts.
| Metric | GM | F | TSLA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue Mixed reporting concepts: us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, us-gaap:Revenues. Ticker concepts: F -> us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax; GM -> us-gaap:Revenues; TSLA -> us-gaap:Revenues. | 185,019,000,000 source | 187,267,000,000 source | 94,827,000,000 source |
| Gross margin Mixed reporting concepts: us-gaap:CostOfGoodsAndServicesSold, us-gaap:GrossProfit, us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, us-gaap:Revenues. Ticker concepts: F -> us-gaap:CostOfGoodsAndServicesSold + us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax; TSLA -> us-gaap:GrossProfit + us-gaap:Revenues. | Not available. | 6.84% source | 18.03% source |
| Operating margin Mixed reporting concepts: us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss, us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, us-gaap:Revenues. Ticker concepts: F -> us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss + us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax; GM -> us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss + us-gaap:Revenues; TSLA -> us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss + us-gaap:Revenues. | 1.57% source | -4.90% source | 4.59% source |
| Net margin Mixed reporting concepts: us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss, us-gaap:ProfitLoss, us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, us-gaap:Revenues. Ticker concepts: F -> us-gaap:ProfitLoss + us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax; GM -> us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss + us-gaap:Revenues; TSLA -> us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss + us-gaap:Revenues. | 1.46% source | -4.36% source | 4.00% source |
| R&D expense | Not available. | 9,400,000,000 source | 6,411,000,000 source |
| R&D / revenue Mixed reporting concepts: us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpense, us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, us-gaap:Revenues. Ticker concepts: F -> us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpense + us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax; TSLA -> us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpense + us-gaap:Revenues. | Not available. | 5.02% source | 6.76% source |
| Capital expenditures Mixed reporting concepts: us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets, us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment. Ticker concepts: F -> us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets; GM -> us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment; TSLA -> us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment. | 9,303,000,000 source | 8,815,000,000 source | 8,527,000,000 source |
| Capex / revenue Mixed reporting concepts: us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets, us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment, us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, us-gaap:Revenues. Ticker concepts: F -> us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets + us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax; GM -> us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment + us-gaap:Revenues; TSLA -> us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment + us-gaap:Revenues. | 5.03% source | 4.71% source | 8.99% source |
| Free cash flow Mixed reporting concepts: us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities, us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets, us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment. Ticker concepts: F -> us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities + us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets; GM -> us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities + us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment; TSLA -> us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities + us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment. | 17,564,000,000 source | 12,467,000,000 source | 6,220,000,000 source |
| Cash and equivalents | 20,945,000,000 source | 23,356,000,000 source | 16,513,000,000 source |
Code-computed comparisons
- grepcent-computed capex intensity range: range endpoints are F (4.71%) and TSLA (8.99%).
- grepcent-computed gross margin range: range endpoints are F (6.84%) and TSLA (18.03%).
Market-risk companion: risk and factor comparison from lmfin. It is descriptive and separate from the SEC fundamentals review.
Narrative Matrix
| Dimension | GM | F | TSLA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business model | — | In its latest annual MD&A, F describes this business model item. For example, in Ford Blue, our larger, more profitable vehicles had an average contribution margin that was 153% of our total average contribution margin across all vehicles, whereas our smaller vehicles had significantly lower contribution margins. company page · source filing · filed 2026-02-11 | — |
| Stated strategy in filings | — | — | In its latest annual MD&A, TSLA describes this stated strategy in filings item. We continue to ramp production and build and optimize our manufacturing capacity, expand our operations while focusing on further cost reductions and operational efficiencies to enable increased deliveries and deployments of our products, and invest in research and development to accelerate our AI, software and fleet-based profits for further revenue growth. company page · source filing · filed 2026-01-29 |
| Idiosyncratic risks in filings | In its latest annual MD&A, GM describes this idiosyncratic risks in filings item. Through its leasing program GM Financial is exposed to residual values, which are heavily dependent on used vehicle prices. company page · source filing · filed 2026-01-27 | In its latest annual MD&A, F describes this idiosyncratic risks in filings item. Most of the vehicles sold by us to our dealers and distributors are financed at wholesale by Ford Credit. company page · source filing · filed 2026-02-11 | — |
Provenance
Withheld quantitative rows
- liabilities_to_equity: Withheld for comparability: GM and F total-company liabilities include captive-finance arms (GM Financial and Ford Credit), so liabilities/equity is not comparable to TSLA's industrial balance sheet without a clean automotive-only split.
Withheld dimensions
- geographic_customer_exposure: No quote passed the evidence checks.
- capital_allocation: No quote passed the evidence checks.
- recent_narrative_change: No quote passed the evidence checks.
Withheld cells
- GM / business_model: no quote passed the evidence checks
- TSLA / business_model: no quote passed the evidence checks
- GM / geographic_customer_exposure: no quote passed the evidence checks
- F / geographic_customer_exposure: no quote passed the evidence checks
- TSLA / geographic_customer_exposure: no quote passed the evidence checks
- GM / capital_allocation: no quote passed the evidence checks
- F / capital_allocation: no quote passed the evidence checks
- TSLA / capital_allocation: no quote passed the evidence checks
- GM / stated_strategy: no quote passed the evidence checks
- F / stated_strategy: no quote passed the evidence checks
- TSLA / idiosyncratic_risks: no quote passed the evidence checks
- GM / recent_narrative_change: no quote passed the evidence checks
- F / recent_narrative_change: no quote passed the evidence checks
- TSLA / recent_narrative_change: no quote passed the evidence checks