The Electric Illusion: A $114 Billion Bill That’s Shaking Up the Auto Industry
There was a time, not too long ago, when the dominant narrative depicted the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) as an inevitable triumphal march toward progress. Anyone who dared to raise doubts about the economic sustainability of this transition was promptly labeled a piston-throwing nostalgic or, worse, an enemy of the planet. Yet, looking at the balance sheets emerging today, it seems that reality is presenting a hefty price tag for what Robert Bryce , in the New York Post , bluntly calls one of the most costly strategic blunders in modern industrial history.
A black hole in the balance sheets
The numbers, usually more honest than political proclamations, are merciless. Between 2022 and the end of 2025, the American and European auto giants—Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen—along with startups Lucid and Rivian, burned through an astronomical $114 billion on their electric vehicle programs.
If we analyze the data in detail, a picture of inefficiency emerges that would put any business management manual to shame. It's estimated that these seven companies produced approximately 5.4 million electric vehicles in three years, incurring an average loss of $20,887 for each vehicle sold . A business model that, if not supported by government subsidies and stringent regulations, would have collapsed in a matter of months. An economic disaster that has burned through enormous amounts of financial resources.
The financial abyss of the big brands
Not all manufacturers are known for their transparency in disclosing these figures. Ford is the only "legacy" company to provide specific reports for its electric vehicle division, revealing losses of $35.1 billion. Others, like GM and Volkswagen, tend to spread costs thinly across their balance sheets, forcing analysts to base estimates on write-downs and public guidance.
| Agency | Estimated EV Losses (2022-2025) | Main Notes |
| Ford | $35.1 billion | Full transparency in SEC filings |
| Legacy Group (GM, VW, etc.) | $83.6 Billion (Total) | Includes heavy write-downs in 2025 |
| Pure Players (Rivian, Lucid) | $30.2 billion | Profitability still years away |
| Overall Total | **$114 Billion** | A record figure for the sector |
The market does not follow the decrees
Why this disaster? The answer is as simple as it is brutal: consumers haven't followed Washington and Brussels' timetable . Despite massive incentives, such as the $7,500 federal tax credit in the US (which expired in September 2025, causing sales to plummet 46% the following quarter), electric cars remain a niche product.
The reasons for the refusal are concrete:
- Prohibitive prices: At an average of $59,000 per car, EVs remain out of reach for the middle class, unless they are willing to take on debt.
- Poor Infrastructure: Range anxiety is not a critical invention, but an everyday reality.
- The return of the hybrid: Many buyers, pragmatically, are returning to hybrid or internal combustion engines, which are more versatile and less expensive.
Meanwhile, Europe finds itself caught between emissions mandates set by climate-obsessed Eurocrats and the advance of Chinese manufacturers like BYD, which by 2025 surpassed Tesla in global volumes thanks to production costs unattainable for the West.
The human cost of forced transition
Behind the lost billions are people. The "strategic realignment" toward electric vehicles has led to drastic job cuts. Volkswagen has announced the reduction of 35,000 jobs by 2030; Mercedes has launched what it calls the largest redundancy plan in its history (30,000 workers); Ford and Stellantis have followed suit with thousands of layoffs at their EV production centers.
Ideology, when it clashes with thermodynamics and the laws of the market, rarely produces good results. The electric car, designed to be the future, is proving to be a luxury for the "intellectual elite" (as Audi's Johan de Nysschen prophetically put it in 2009), paid for dearly by workers and shareholders.
Investments should generate positive multipliers for the real economy. Here, on the contrary, we seem to be witnessing a massive destruction of capital that risks permanently weakening the Western automotive industry to the advantage of Eastern competitors. This is a deliberate destruction of an industrial sector that was once the basis of wealth.
The article The Electric Illusion: A $114 Billion Bill That Shakes Up the Global Auto Industry comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/lillusione-elettrica-un-conto-da-114-miliardi-di-dollari-che-scuote-lauto-mondiale/ on Wed, 04 Feb 2026 20:44:13 +0000.