Unless your name is Tesla, the US EV market has been a minefield for OEMs. There were dangerous cracks even as customers set a record sales pace through the first three quarters of 2025.
American consumers flocked to dealerships to buy electric vehicles last year, until September 30, when the $7,500 EV tax credit expired. But even in the third quarter, during the height of that buying frenzy, customers bought 90 different models of electric vehicles; only nine sold more than 10,000 units.
This is the climate in which EV makers other than Tesla have to compete, and it has forced General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, Detroit’s big three, to completely reevaluate their strategies.
“The vast majority of electric vehicles are sold at a rate of well under 2,000 units per month, or 6,000 units per quarter. In the volume-driven auto manufacturing business, low volume is the enemy; EV profitability remains a distant dream for almost all automakers,” Cox Automotive said last year.
GM confirmed this during its first quarter earnings call last month. Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said quarterly electric vehicle losses declined by several hundred million dollars year-over-year due to lower volumes. GM, Ford, and Stellantis lose money on every electric vehicle they sell, so selling less is better for their bottom line.
Despite this fact, OEMs are not abandoning electric vehicle manufacturing. They all still see electric vehicles as the future of transportation and point to the success of their (and Tesla’s) hybrid models to show that there is still demand to be tapped.
But each manufacturer seems to have a different strategy for closing the gap between current demand and what they expect in the near future.
Ford is moving away from more expensive electric vehicles like the Ford Mustang Mach e. ​​Bloomberg/Getty Images
Ford CEO outlines company’s future electric vehicle strategy
Of the Detroit 3, Ford appears to be the most proactive with its electric vehicle strategy. And it has to be that way, since it wrote off $19.5 billion in losses related to electric vehicles.
Ford is completely changing its strategy. Instead of making more expensive electric vehicles, Ford wants to build a fleet of cars that start at less than $30,000 and is relying on its Skunk Works innovation division to deliver more profitable platforms.
Ford Model e losses per year
2025: 4.8 billion dollars
2024: 5.1 billion dollars
2023: 4.7 billion dollars
2022: 2.2 billion dollars
“By the end of the decade, 90% of our global brands will offer electrified powertrains, including advanced hybrids, extended-range electric vehicles and full electric vehicles,” CEO Jim Farley said on Ford’s first-quarter earnings conference call.
Ford is transforming its Louisville assembly plant to build its universal electric vehicle system, which supports multiple brands of electric vehicles built on a single platform. That plant is expected to produce Ford’s next generation of electric vehicles by 2027.
Two years ago, Ford announced plans to reduce its electric vehicle production capacity by 35%, and Farley said last year that “the really high-end electric vehicles, the $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 ones just weren’t selling.”
According to Ford, an electric vehicle battery can account for up to 40% of the vehicle’s total expenditure, so the company reinvented electric vehicle battery technology to make them smaller and more cost-effective.
Ford says its plan is to make electric vehicles profitable by 2029. The Model E lost about $4.8 billion last year.
General Motors’ EV focus is on the present, not the future, like Ford
While electric vehicles were a big part of Ford CEO Jim Farley’s opening remarks to investors during the company’s earnings conference call, GM CEO Mary Barra didn’t talk much about them.
His first mention of EVs was to share the good news that GM’s EV market share rose to about 13% from 10% quarter over quarter, while CFO Paul Jacobson talked about the benefits of lower EV volumes.
GM is looking to reduce losses from its electric division as a company, which took on $6 billion in EV charges in the fourth quarter alone, including $1.8 billion in non-cash charges and $4.2 billion in supplier trade agreements, impairments and contract cancellation fees.
“Our focus remains on improving the profitability of electric vehicles and scaling our business as market adoption grows, albeit at an expected slower pace than we had previously seen,” Jacobson said during the company’s first-quarter earnings conference call.
Of the $5.6 billion in EV-related cash charges recorded since the second half of 2025, GM has refunded about $2.6 billion as of March 31.
“We continue to expect a profit of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion for the calendar year as we resize our EV capacity and operate at substantially lower EV wholesale volumes,” Jacobson said.
Stellantis reveals future plans for electric vehicles, but has bigger problems to solve first
Earlier this year, Stellantis said it had written down $26 billion for its electric vehicle losses, leading to its first annual loss in 2025.
While electric vehicles are clearly a multibillion-dollar problem, Stellantis is also going through other transitions.
New CEO Antonio Filosa is barely a year into his new role and the company has to figure out what to do with its growing portfolio of 14 brands. Last year, the company announced that it was abandoning its plan to sell 100% electric vehicles by 2030.
But that doesn’t mean the company is completely abandoning its electric vehicle ambitions; After all, the company has a huge presence in Europe, where the EV market is much more mature than here in the US.
Last December, Stellantis unveiled the fruits of its partnership with Saft, a new Integrated Intelligent Battery System (IBIS) that could change electric vehicles forever.
IBIS systems incorporate inverter and charger functionality directly into the battery, regardless of chemistry or application, according to Automotive World.
This construction supplies electrical power directly to the engine or the mains, while simultaneously supplying the 12V mains and the vehicle’s auxiliary systems.
The benefits of the IBIS battery system for electric vehicles include:
Up to 10% improvement in energy efficiency
Vehicle weight reduction of 88 lbs. (40 kg), which releases up to 17 liters of volume
15% reduction in charging time
Easier maintenance
Stellantis didn’t go into much detail about its electric vehicle strategy during its first-quarter earnings call.
Related: Jeep and Ram parent Stellantis announce $70 billion move
This story was originally published by TheStreet on May 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the Automotive section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.
