One hundred and forty billion dollars in writedowns from automakers in just the past three years, and all connected to the manufacture of electric vehicles.
You know, that next 'big thing.'
The gruesome parade of news had people gasping at the numbers in the quarterly earnings reports this past week.
Automotive News Europe had this headline:
EV reckoning drags Ford to worst loss since Great Recession
And there were stories all over the sector about the company's bloodbath losses.
Ford reported a large quarterly loss after it booked one-time charges in its electric-vehicle business. The automaker set an optimistic tone for 2026 as it forecasts higher profit and cash flow.
Ford said fourth-quarter revenue reached $45.9 billion, down 5% from a year earlier. Full-year revenue rose 1% to a record $187.3 billion.
Ford posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $11.1 billion, compared with a $1.8 billion profit in the same period of 2024. For 2025, it reported a net loss of $8.2 billion. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 13 cents for the quarter.
The Ford CEO was quoted as finally crying, 'UNCLE!'
Ford's electric vehicle business lost nearly $5 billion last year — and CEO Jim Farley says the company got the message.
"So I think the customer has spoken. That's the punchline," he said during Tuesday's earnings call.
And then, warning investors, it was looking at another three years before it would be possible to pull out of its bad-bet-and-government-largesse-induced slump.
Three years is an eternity.
Ford Says Electric Vehicle Losses Will Continue for 3 More Years
...On Tuesday, Ford said its electric vehicle division lost $4.8 billion in 2025 and was expected to lose $4 billion to $4.5 billion in 2026. The company also said the division would continue losing money for at least two more years.
“We are now targeting break-even around 2029,” Ford’s chief financial officer, Sherry House, said on Tuesday during a conference call to discuss the company’s financial results.
Including the loss in 2025, Ford has lost more than $16 billion on its electric vehicle business since 2022.
Just a few days earlier, Stellantis had its own share of crappy headlines, again all related to dismal EV-sector performance.
The international auto giant was looking for a 'reset' to change the downturn in its fortunes.
Stellantis eyes reset after taking 'jaw-dropping' EV investment charge
More pain is likely ahead for Stellantis NV and suppliers as the automaker takes a whopping $26.5 billion in charges to unwind its electric vehicle investments, analysts said Friday.
The company, which launched an ambitious EV push under former CEO Carlos Tavares, has suffered several years of sales declines in its largest and most profitable market, North America, and is writing off far more than Detroit rivals General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are doing in connection with EVs. Investors sold off Stellantis shares in Milan and New York.
"It's a dark day for Stellantis with this hit," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who described the charges as "dramatic," contrasting them with Ford's write-off of $19.5 billion and GM's $7.6 billion in charges.
The billions that Stellantis and its rivals are eating from their EV investments reflect demand for battery-powered models that fell far short of expectations because of factors including high prices, range anxiety and government pullbacks on incentives and emissions regulations, particularly in the United States.
And, yet again, woke corporate executives preaching the Climate Cult gospel of Green to consumers, basically dictating what consumers would buy, have been forced to retreat into a mea culpa of 'we're going to listen this time, trust us' without exactly apologizing for being the arrogant, elitist twits they were.
Listen to this argle-bargle globalist speak for 'we got busted, so we put new guys on it.'
...Stellantis (STLA) CEO Antonio Filosa noted that the strategy reset is part of the decisive process started in 2025 to once again make customers and their preferences the company's guiding star. "The charges announced today largely reflect the cost of overestimating the pace of the energy transition that distanced us from many car buyers’ real-world needs, means, and desires. They also reflect the impact of previous poor operational execution, the effects of which are being progressively addressed by our new team," he updated.
They're not fooling anyone.
But there's nothing like an expensive failure that sits on a pissed-off dealer's lot for 480 days without selling to eventually get the attention of the guys in the office with big corner windows.
That's what happened with this Volkswagen EV model, whose legendary gremlins helped feed that EV insecurity the honchos all wailed about costing them sales. European Union EV mandates, helped by intransigent German labor unions, have nearly destroyed Volkswagen.
If you have a minute, watch this - it's a hoot.
The # 1 worst selling car in America, (hint it was a Tesla killer!) You have to hear why and I want EVERY @tesla owner to see this. I normally just clip from YouTube BUT this list was so long it wouldn’t fit in 60 sec. Link is to the full list of 12 worst selling autos in… pic.twitter.com/JaYCFDj6p0
— JoNation (@JoNationLive) February 11, 2026
There are a couple of big, fat recalls on these suckers, too.
Volkswagen is recalling more than 44,000 ID.4 electric vehicles in the United States due to potential battery-related fire risks, according to a notice released Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The recalls involve a combined total of 44,551 vehicles and are being conducted under two separate actions tied to high-voltage battery concerns.
The larger recall affects 43,881 ID.4 vehicles from the 2023 through 2025 model years. NHTSA said the vehicles’ high-voltage battery may overheat, increasing the risk of a fire. To address the issue, Volkswagen dealers will update the battery management software and replace the battery pack if necessary. All repairs will be performed free of charge.
In a separate recall, Volkswagen is recalling an additional 670 ID.4 vehicles from the 2023 and 2024 model years. This action stems from the potential for misaligned electrodes in certain high-voltage battery cell modules, which could also raise the risk of a battery fire.
And as far as that insecurity about available and convenient recharging...
So you need to charge for 10 hours for less mileage than it would take you five minutes to fill a tank of gas. Good deal
— Sandy Hardy (@har26606511) February 11, 2026
..."Each charging port will deliver up to 11.2kW, offering drivers up to 30 miles of range per hour of charging."
...for the whole thirty miles you get after an hour of sitting there.
[INSERT: eyeball roll]
You're screwed in the current polar vortex if you have to take public transportation as the alternative in some of the woker areas that have also gone electric.
Not that I haven't been warning anyone for three years...
Electric buses are proving unreliable this winter for Vermont's Green Mountain Transit, as it needs to be over 41 degrees for the buses to charge, but due to a battery recall the buses are a fire hazard and can't be charged in a garage.
Spokesman for energy workers advocacy group Power the Future Larry Behrens told the Center Square: “Taxpayers were sold an $8 million ‘solution’ that can’t operate in cold weather when the home for these buses is in New England.”
“We’re beyond the point where this looks like incompetence and starts to smell like fraud,” Behrens said.
“When government rushes money out the door to satisfy green mandates, basic questions about performance, safety, and value for taxpayers are always pushed aside,” Behrens said. “Americans deserve to know who approved this purchase and why the red flags were ignored.”
General manager at Green Mountain Transit (GMT) Clayton Clark told The Center Square that “the federal government provides public transit agencies with new buses through a competitive grant application process, and success is not a given.”
You'll never guess what these local districts couldn't get 'competitive grants' to purchase from the Biden administration...or maybe you can.
That's right - POTATUS and Kamala wouldn't pay for any new, nasty diesel buses. The kind that work like a charm in winter. The kind that are reliable for hundreds of thousands of miles and decades of use.
Nope.
...“From 2020-2024, the [Federal Transit Administration’s] priority for grants had been low or no emission vehicles, with grant requests for diesel buses often not awarded,” Clark said.
“This was part of a concerted effort of the previous administration to accelerate public transits' migration to replace diesel buses,” Clark said.
I have a really pungent Issues and Insights editorial teed up for the headlines for later, about this 'boondoggle' as they call it. And I want to quote their last couple of paragraphs now, because what they say is the absolute truth.
There must be an accounting of all of this - the money, the waste, who got what, and the fraud, both from the financial side and the influence.
...And, thankfully, the Trump administration has been pulling the wiring out of the various federal EV subsidy schemes.
Even so, there must be a reckoning. There needs to be an effort to tally all the wasteful spending imposed by the EV mania. Because, when all is said and done, it could prove to be the most expensive boondoggle in human history.
And then all the politicians, industry “experts,” regulators, environmentalists, and everyone else who had a hand in selling EV snake oil should be held to account for these costs.
That’s especially true of automakers who, rather than standing up for their consumers, eagerly bent the knee to the Climate Industrial Complex.
This is the COVID collaborators in an industrial setting.
Money, influence, control, and power.
We need to know who, what, and where.
The why is pretty obvious.
