General Motors said on Oct. 14 that it will bear a $1.6 billion loss to scale back its electric vehicle (EV) operations, citing weaker expected demand following recent U.S. policy changes that ended federal EV tax credits and loosened emissions rules:
The Detroit-based automaker said its Audit Committee approved the loss on Oct. 7, covering the three months ended Sept. 30. The company noted that the loss is part of its plan to realign EV production and factory operations to better match customer demand.
The decision was made after the expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit on Sept. 30, part of a broader policy rollback under President Donald Trump.
[...] "Following recent U.S. government policy changes, including the termination of certain consumer tax incentives for EV purchases and the reduction in the stringency of emissions regulations, we expect the adoption rate of EVs to slow," GM said in a filing.
[...] According to the filing, $1.2 billion of the loss is related to non-cash impairments, mostly write-downs of EV assets. The remaining $400 million will be paid in cash for contract cancellations and commercial settlements tied to EV investments.
The company said its review of EV manufacturing and battery component investments is ongoing.
Related:
- Canadian EV Sales Collapse by 35% as Gas Car Purchases Surge
- Tesla Continues Slide As Musk Warns Of "Rough Quarters" Ahead
- Electric Truck-Maker Nikola Falls Into Bankruptcy Joining a Procession of Failed EV Startups
See Also:
- EV Sales In Europe Keep Surging, With One Exception
- EVs Poised To Exceed Half Of Europe's New Car Sales Sooner Than Expected
- EV sales are surging in Europe, except for Tesla
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Electric vehicle startup Nikola Corp. has announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy:
Nikola now joins a line of EV startups that fell into bankruptcy over the past year. While the Biden-Harris administration went full-speed ahead with a vision of EVs replacing gas-powered vehicles, electric-vehicle production has become a bad bet for the companies that jumped into the vision head-first. Consumers just never got on board with the plan.
With Trump planning to end federal EV mandates and legislation seeking to stop tax credits for the purchase of new EVs, the list of failed EV startups might continue to grow.
[...] The company went public in 2020, according to Bloomberg, through a deal with a special-purpose acquisition company. Nikola's stock went up after the transaction was closed, but shortly after, Bloomberg revealed its founder, Trevor Milton, had overstated the capability of the company's debut truck. He was later convicted on fraud charges.
"Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have impacted our ability to operate," Nikola president and CEO Steve Girsky said in a recent statement on the company's bankruptcy filing.
Previously:
- Nikola Stock Craters After Cancellation of Major Garbage Truck Order
- Nikola Stock Falls 14 Percent after CEO Downplays Badger Truck Plans
- Nikola's Deal With GM Was Supposed to Close Today—It Didn't
- Nikola Founder Bought Truck Designs From Third Party
- Nikola Stock Plunges 26% after Fraud Claims Complicate Hydrogen Plans
- New Report Claims Widespread Deception by Nikola Motor and Founder Trevor Milton
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
As expected, last night’s Tesla earnings announcement brought more bad news for the challenged EV-maker with 13.5pc less vehicles delivered in Q2.
Elon Musk’s Tesla woes continue as the electric vehicle (EV) maker again announced disappointing quarter two results, with its biggest decline in revenues in over a decade. And the future does not look bright with the loss in electric vehicle incentives on the way thanks to Donald Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’.
Revenues at Tesla fell 12pc in Q2 to $22.5bn. On an earnings call, the normally optimistic Musk warned of “rough quarters” ahead, when pressed on the loss of the EV incentives, and markets reacted with a drop of up to 5pc in the share value.
Most analysts believe the launch of a promised new affordable Tesla is the short-term fix, but there was little yesterday to reassure them. Having originally said the long-awaited affordable Tesla would start builds in the first half of the year, it said yesterday that “the first builds” started only in June. Musk mentioned on the call that the new model would be a version of the existing Y model.
“A lightly refreshed product offering, plus increasingly compelling alternatives from competitors in Asia, Europe and North America make it harder to sell Teslas than has been the case until quite recently,” said Forrester principal analyst, Paul Miller.
“The withdrawal of EV incentives in several countries makes the vehicles less attractive and the full impact of tariffs imposed by the US and other countries is not yet clear.”
On the earnings call, Musk continued to promote the idea of his robotaxis as the proverbial white horse that would bring Tesla back to success, but the Austin robotaxi pilot got off to a shaky start and many question Musk’s optimism when it comes to reaching his huge ambitions.
“During the investor call, Elon Musk talked about ‘getting the regulatory approvals’ to expand the Austin pilot even further, and to launch in the Bay Area, Arizona, Nevada and Florida soon,” said Miller. “He went so far as to suggest the company ‘could’ address half the US population by the end of 2025, ‘subject to regulatory approvals’.
“That caveat is an important one, as regulatory approvals take time and there is no evidence that these formal applications to the separate state regulatory processes have begun.”
While Canadians flocked to purchase gas-powered vehicles over the summer, electric vehicle sales continued to nosedive, according to new data from Statistics Canada:
Electric vehicle sales dropped 35.2 per cent in June compared to last year. Zero-emission vehicles comprised only 7.9 per cent of total new motor vehicles sold that month, with 14,090 entering the market.
Meanwhile, 177,313 new motor vehicles were sold in Canada in June, up 6.2 per cent from June 2024.
"In dollar terms, sales increased 3.1 per cent during the same period. In June 2025, there were more new motor vehicles sold in every province compared with the same period in 2024," reads the Statistics Canada data.
"Sales of new passenger cars increased 19.5 per cent in June 2025, marking the first gain in this subsector since November 2024. In June 2025, sales of new trucks (+4.3 per cent) were also higher than one year earlier."
Despite dwindling sales, the Carney government remains committed to its electric vehicle mandate of having 60 per cent of all vehicles sold be ZEVs by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035, banning all motor vehicle sales.
Previously:
- Automobile Sales, Including EVs and Hybrids, Surge in 2024
- Mazda: Americans Want Cheap Gas Cars
- The EV Graveyard
- South Korean EV Battery Makers Reporting Big Losses as EV Demand Slows
Ford will ramp up production of the F-150 and F-Series Super Duty in 2026, but the Lightning will pay the price :
A fire at a Novelis aluminum plant has disrupted operations for several automakers, including Ford and its top-selling F-150. The setback has been costly, but the Blue Oval plans to bounce back next year by ramping up truck production.
Under the plan, the Dearborn Truck Plant will add a third shift with roughly 1,200 employees. This will be supported by more than 90 new workers at Dearborn Stamping as well as more than 80 additional employees at Dearborn Diversified Manufacturing.
Thanks to these workers and the extra shift, Ford aims to produce an additional 45,000+ F-150s in 2026. They’ll have traditional powertrains as the F-150 Lightning hasn’t lived up to expectations.
[...] In total, the automaker will increase production by more than 50,000 units and create up to 1,000 new jobs. Ford’s Chief Operating Officer, Kumar Galhotra, said “The people who keep our country running depend on America’s most popular vehicle – F-Series trucks – and we are mobilizing our team to meet that demand.”
Related:
- GM to Take $1.6 Billion Hit as It Scales Back Electric Vehicle Operations
- Electric Truck-Maker Nikola Falls Into Bankruptcy Joining a Procession of Failed EV Startups
- Ford Motor Company is Planning a Big EV Future
Electric vehicle demand is set to crash this month after tax credits vanish and buyers back away:
- J.D. Power predicts a 60% EV sales drop in October from September levels.
- Decline follows expiration of federal tax credits that boosted affordability.
- EVs will make up 5.2% of new sales, down from September's record 12.9%.
[...] The research firm, working with GlobalData, predicts 54,673 EV retail sales for October. If that figure holds, it represents a 43.1 percent decline compared with October 2024, when 96,085 electric vehicles were sold. That would also mean a slide in market share from 8.5 percent to just 5.2 percent.
[...] "The automotive industry is experiencing a significant recalibration in the electric vehicle segment," said J.D. Power data analyst Tyson Jominy. "The recent EV market correction underscores a critical lesson: Consumers prefer having access to a range of powertrain options."
Perhaps the wildest bit of this entire thing is that it could've been even worse for EVs. Many brands, including Hyundai, GM, and Tesla, rolled out different methods to ease the pain of losing the federal tax credit.
Previously:
- GM to Take $1.6 Billion Hit as It Scales Back Electric Vehicle Operations
- Porsche EV Roll-Out Delay Deals $6 Billion Hit to Parent Volkswagen
- Canadian EV Sales Collapse by 35% as Gas Car Purchases Surge
(Score: 5, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday October 18, @10:39PM (1 child)
Electric Cars: Everything offered seems to be for rich bleeding-edge rich people to be used for signaling disposable income. They appear to be difficult (and expensive) to service, require special support infrastructure, and of deliberately limited functionality.
The battery packs in particular seem designed to enforce planned obsolescence with their "Series-string Christmas-Tree lights design with very-difficult to replace bulbs, yet have one fail and the whole string goes out. Witn no way of diagnosing / bypassing / replacing the one failed cell that will condemn the whole pack.
With all this stored electrical energy, looks like there oughta be plenty for convenience outlets, and charging circuits...basically an really big USB power bank , NEMA15 instead of USB, built in a vehicle.
Back to something simpler to operate than a Ford Model T. One-off, forward-stop-reverse, go faster-coast-slower-brake, and steering wheel. Instruments? Show me how fast I am going, how much energy I have left, how fast I am using it, estimate time/distance to exhaustion. I would like a gps to show me where I am and time. Don't ever ask me to set the damn clock. By now, as ubiquitous as GPS is, just about everything oughta have GPS. And plenty of USB outlets.
Personally, I am fond of a hybrid diesel - electric. Owning an old mechanical diesel van has given me a lot of appreciation for diesel technology. Diesels are excellent for gensets. Back to mechanical, with valving set by cam, gear driven from the crank. I am talking nearly the exact design of my Diesel engine as designed by International Harvester. Finely optimized to run at 1800 rpm. Redesign starter/generator into the flywheel. ( No transmission or gears ). Native generator output 3-phase "star" ( three 240/120 windings, center/neutral ground ). Easy to rectify to DC. Generator output voltage, controlled by RPM, which is adjustable by diesel fuel flow, for optimal battery terminal voltage. Raw AC also available at an outlet box,
Personally, I would like the car's computer to offer a local WIFI hotspot, with the computer hosting its own website with all techie / diagnostics available, requiring NO specialized "readers" of ANY kind. Standard HTML, text dumps, .csv files for logs, and any smartphone browser will interact with it. NO connection to the public internet !!! ( The owner gets a hardwired jumper which must be in place to gain access to any setups and security . )
If I need a file of the internet, let me download the appropriate and verifiable file on a "technology du-jour" device so I can share a verified image of the file with the car computer, as technologies change almost daily, but the car computer is what it is. I know from experience the frustration of dealing with enforced obsolescence by controlling communication formats, bogus scam files, discontinued file/authentication servers, and DRM/Expiry issues. It's one thing to toss a three year old phone, quite another for a three year old car. I flat don't trust "business talk" any more.
I will end up spending big bucks for an electric car. I haven't spent yet. From my chair, all I see offered in new cars is "customer lock-in". Enforced Monopoly. Enforced by planned obsolescence, DRM, Expiry coding, anything the Marketing MBA can dream up to wring every last cent out of me.
Go ahead and call me a "Luddite", "slow adopter", maybe "ignorant", from that cozy, highly paid position in the executive suite, while customers indicate it's those very decisions that make them averse to purchase. Investors and other funders will be influenced by those are trained in the art of "reading people like a book", "getting ahead", legal methods of customer lock-in, and other means of trapping customers as if they were just some stray cat to trap...
Or someone else who will build what the customer wants.
Most likely, China. Not working under The American MBA.
Of course, American manufacturers will lobby their Congress to pass Tariffs to protect their business model instead of having to design and build usable product. For them, China is like that hole in the back of their customer trap. The one management man that had a clue, Deming, was ignored. In search of Quarterly profit instead of Excellence.
You MBA folks made a few people filthy rich and destroyed a nation. The few filthy rich are multinational. The leftover human dregs are the American Public, immersed in debt instruments. It's legal to use psychology, debt instruments and lawfare , but not legal to use physics, to enslave others.
I know way too many gullible people that are quite vulnerable to psychology. Just as I will use the ignorance of a rat to induce it to eat a lethal dose of poison.
I try to distance myself from the MBA, as invariably the Degree of Greed will get me entangled in huge legal obligations and debt. I want both engineering and manufacturing excellence, which includes simplicity and form following function. Volkswagen Bug. The Germans knew what a lot of use wanted and built it.
Tl;dr
I flat don't wanna buy all that complexity. Basically, I don't want it any more difficult to control than a golf buggy.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 19, @05:59AM
What...? Download? FFS, you're in a car, just drive there and pick it up
(Score: 5, Informative) by corey on Saturday October 18, @11:08PM (3 children)
Likely that customer demand is down because they’re buying superior and cheaper Chinese imports. That’s happening here in oz.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Sunday October 19, @01:09AM
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 19, @02:24AM
No low cost Chinese BEVs in USA. We do have Volvo/Polestar (Geely) but they are in the luxury price range.
Right about now Toyota is looking pretty smart, they went all-in on hybrids early (for USA market), but held off on BEVs because they could see that mainstream customers (and the charging network) weren't ready yet.
https://www.wired.com/story/this-is-how-you-get-a-chinese-ev-into-the-united-states/ [wired.com] or if paywalled, try https://archive.is/uKrxX [archive.is]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday October 19, @08:41AM
Came here to say the same thing: Don't worry GM, BYD will pick up the slack.