Stellantis Takes a $26 Billion Hit on Its EV Retreat — And the Entire Auto Industry Should Be Paying Attention
Stellantis sent shockwaves through global automotive markets on Friday when it disclosed a staggering €22 billion ($26 billion) charge tied to a sweeping business overhaul — the largest such writedown in the company's brief history. Shares of the Jeep and Ram parent company cratered 23.6% on the New York Stock Exchange to $7.28, hitting a fresh 52-week low and erasing roughly $6.5 billion in market capitalization in a single session. Trading volume surged to 91.1 million shares, more than six times the daily average of 14.1 million. The charge, which CEO Antonio Filosa described as the cost of "over-estimating the pace of the energy transition," marks a decisive turning point not just for Stellantis but for the entire Western auto industry's approach to electrification. Coming on the heels of Ford's $19.5 billion and General Motors' $7.1 billion in EV-related writedowns, Stellantis's announcement brings the combined EV retreat bill for Detroit's Big Three to more than $52 billion. It's a sobering reckoning for an industry that bet heavily on an electric future that consumers have been slower to embrace than boardrooms anticipated — even as Chinese rivals like BYD surge ahead with the very technologies Western automakers are now abandoning.