DETROIT — General Motors, posting a second-quarter profit that missed analyst estimates, said it will spend at least $400 million to pay victims of the 2.59 million compact cars with a potentially faulty ignition switch linked to at least 13 deaths.
Profit excluding one-time items was 58 cents a share, helped by redesigned pickups and large sport-utility vehicles in the United States and improved sales in China, GM said Thursday in a statement. That compared with an average estimate of 59 cents from 14 analysts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The biggest US automaker reported earning 84 cents on that basis a year earlier.
While GM took a one-time charge of $400 million for the victim compensation program, the automaker said it may rise to $600 million. Chief financial officer Chuck Stevens reiterated that Kenneth Feinberg, an outside lawyer who has managed similar funds for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the BP oil spill, will ultimately decide the cost of the program. GM won’t cap how much money the program pays, Feinberg has said.
‘‘The objective of our compensation program, independently administered by Ken Feinberg, is to get all of the people that were impacted by the ignition switch issues through the compensation program,’’ Stevens told reporters Thursday at the company’s Detroit headquarters.
GM turned to Feinberg to create the victim compensation program as its grapples with the largest crisis since emerging from government-backed bankruptcy reorganization in 2009. Congress and the US Justice Department are both investigating why it took the automaker more than a decade to recall cars with switches that allowed the key to slip out of the ‘‘on’’ position, shutting off the engine and disabling air bags.
Feinberg will begin taking claims Aug. 1.
‘‘This is an absurdly low amount,’’ Bob Hilliard, a plaintiffs lawyer suing GM over deaths and injuries allegedly due to ignition-switch failures, said Thursday in an e-mail regarding the compensation charge. ‘‘GM knows the final number is certain to exceed $1 billion.’’
GM has already agreed to a settlement with the US Department of Transportation that included paying a maximum fine of $35 million and agreeing to unprecedented oversight aimed at changing the company’s culture when it comes to safety.
GM’s revenue rose to $39.6 billion from $39.1 billion a year earlier, missing the $40.6 billion average estimate of six analysts. Net income fell to $278 million from $1.4 billion during the same quarter a year earlier.
While recall headlines have dominated in the United States, sales have increased, rising 2.5 percent through June.