its called free-flow capital. basically its like a savings account for the business. Just because they are losing money, doesn’t mean that they don’t have any money.
They just have to dip into their “savings” account. Auto companies are not non for profits. they are for profits. so when they make money, it goes into a savings acount, which then gets divided up into the different sectors, Marketing, R&D, wages, etc. the left overs stay in the savings, thus building up their free-flowing capital that can be used for anything, including paying off bills as they lose money.
the reason I compare them to non for profits, is because at the end of the fiscal year, non-for profits have to show a free-flow capital balance sheet of $0 after wages and bills. They cannot show any excess money nor profit. so when you make a donation to lets say the Epilepsy foundation (which my mom works for), they take that money, and then use it to help run the foundation, and then the rest of it goes directly to the charity. My mom may pull in 30,000 dollars in an event, but only 25,000 will be actually going to the foundation. the other 5k will be used for bills, wages, etc. It sounds bad, but its the way the world works.