US, European car brands have lost $114B on EVs as idiocy abounds in electric market

Just two years ago, Mary Barra, chief executive of General Motors, declared: “We believe in an all-electric future.” She went on to claim that the challenges her company was facing in the EV market were merely temporary bumps on the road to net zero.But as Bob Dylan famously observed, things have changed.On Jan.

8, GM announced it would take a $7.1 billion hit in charges against its earnings, of which $6 billion is due to Barra’s failed EV strategy.In a filing with the SEC, the company also warned that it would take more write-downs this year as part of a “strategic realignment of EV capacity.”The car companies made 5.4 million EVs in three years — and incurred an astonishing $20,887 loss on each one.GM’s move came less than a month after Ford Motor Co.

announced it was taking a $19.5 billion write-down on its EV business.Ford has racked up a jaw-dropping $35.1 billion in losses on its EV misadventure, which raises the question: why on earth does Ford chief executive Jim Farley still have a job? Ford’s EV disaster will go down as one of the biggest fiascos in modern automobile history, yet Farley still took home $24.9 million in compensation in 2024.It’s true that global EV sales are rising.

Some 20.7 million EVs were sold last year, up 20 percent from 2024, but those numbers are misleading because nearly two-thirds of those EVs were sold in China.Of the 20.7 million EV units sold, China accounted for 12.9 million and Europe for 4.3 million.

Meanwhile, North American EV sales totaled just 1.8 million last year, or 9 percent of the global total.Further, EV sales in the US grew by just 1 percent in 2025 and in Canada, they dropped by a whopping 41 percent.The US-based pure-play EV makers had a lousy 2025.

Tesla, which is now the world’s second-largest EV maker, saw its sales drop 9 percent in 2025.CNBC reported that it was “a stunning reversal” for Elon Musk.Rivian got hammered.

The EV company delivered 42,247 vehicles in 2025, an 18 perc...