General Motors Corp. said Thursday that its quarterly earnings quadrupled because of strong U.S. sales of its highly profitable sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, driven by heavy consumer incentives.
The world's largest automaker said its fourth-quarter net income, including one-time items, rose to $1.02 billion, or $1.71 a share, from $255 million, or 60 cents, a year earlier.
Some of the gains came from GM's North American automotive operations, where profit rose to $633 million from $392 million in the year-ago quarter, despite costly incentives.
Those incentives, which according to research firm Autodata climbed by about 80% year-over-year to about $3,370 a vehicle in December, led to North American earnings that failed to meet expectations, said Rod Lache, an analyst with Deutsche Bank.
