Stellantis' record loss isn't an EV verdict. It's the bill for zigzagging

Is a €22.3 billion loss proof that electric cars don't sell, or proof that changing your mind in public is the most expensive thing a carmaker can do? We lean hard toward the second reading.

Here is what happened. As Reuters reported in early February, Stellantis announced €22.2 billion in charges for the second half of 2025 as it scaled back its EV ambitions. For the full year it booked a net loss of €22.3 billion on €153.5 billion in revenue, plus an adjusted operating loss of €842 million, the first operating loss since the group was formed in 2021, as Motor1 noted ahead of the results.

CEO Antonio Filosa put it bluntly, according to MoparInsiders: the results reflect "the cost of over-estimating the pace of the energy transition."

The loss is a planning failure, not a product failure

Read that quote again. The problem isn't that EVs exist. It's that the company sized plants, supply chains and product plans for a demand curve that didn't show up, then tore up the plan. The charges cover adjustments to EV product plans, supply chain investments, warranty provisions and workforce restructuring, the latter primarily in Europe. Roughly €6.5 billion of the total will be paid in cash over four years starting in 2026, so the hangover isn't over.

Notice also what the numbers don't say. Second-half revenue rose 10% and shipments grew 11% to 2.8 million units. North America, the market Stellantis leans on most, grew 39%. A company whose cars were unwanted wouldn't post that. In our view, this is a company that spent heavily on the wrong mix and is now paying to correct it.

And EVs are not the only culprit. Italian outlet Alvolante points to the legacy of Carlos Tavares-era cost cutting: gaps in the lineup, cars priced out of the market, quality problems. Add Takata airbag recall costs in Europe and tariff costs the company expects to reach €1.6 billion in 2026. Blaming it all on electrification is lazy.

Whiplash is the real enemy, and "multi-energy" can become another swing

Stellantis now calls its approach "freedom of choice": combustion, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric side by side. As a response to a market that is uneven, that is reasonable. We'd even call it overdue in North America.

But we'd be careful about celebrating the pivot as wisdom. Going from an EV-first roadmap to hedging everything, with reports that diesel is back under consideration, looks to us like another swing of the same pendulum. The industry is in the same boat, as hdmotori notes, with General Motors and Ford also booking significant EV-related losses. Every swing costs engineering time, supplier trust and customer confidence. The winners will probably be those who commit to a boring, stable range and keep it long enough to get quality and cost right.

Investors don't seem convinced yet. One Italian market site put the share price around €3.92 on October 13, 2026, well below the €5.73 record low that MoparInsiders cited from earlier this year. That's a market asking for proof, not promises.

For buyers, the real test is the cheap end of the range

Forget the headline billions and look at where Stellantis says things are working. Filosa said the company delivered 325,000 units of its "smart car" compacts in 2025, models like the Fiat Grande Panda, Citroën C3 and Opel Frontera, and that orders for them are up 80% year over year. The company plans to add production capacity in Serbia in 2026.

That is the part we'd watch. Affordable, well-built cars are what a mass-market group actually needs, whatever the powertrain. We won't guess how much cheaper the next wave of EVs will be. But Stellantis scheduled a May 21 investor day in Auburn Hills to detail the full plan, and the useful question is simple: does that plan deliver cars with credible prices and fewer quality headaches, or just a longer menu of engines?

Our verdict

Don't read this loss as the end of the EV era. Read it as the price of planning for a market that didn't exist, then abruptly planning for a different one. Buyers should ignore the slogans and track three things: whether compact models keep their order momentum, whether electric versions arrive at prices closer to their combustion siblings, and whether Stellantis can hold a direction for more than a product cycle. If it can, this ugly year will look like a reset. If not, it's just the first installment.