General Motors just discovered that betting the farm on electric vehicles is a lot like betting on a horse that refuses to leave the stable—except the horse costs $1.6 billion and keeps asking for more oats.
In a filing that reads like a breakup text from the future (“It’s not you, it’s the regulatory environment”), GM announced it’s taking a $1.6 billion hit from its EV ambitions not quite zipping along as planned. Apparently, “zero emissions” doesn’t mean “zero financial emissions.”
Of that eye-watering sum, $1.2 billion is non-cash—meaning GM won’t actually write a check, just a very sad accounting footnote. The remaining $400 million? Real, cold, hard cash flushed down the EV toilet in the form of canceled contracts and settlements. Think of it as a breakup fee for ghosting its own battery-powered dreams.
GM’s reassessment of its EV capacity is “ongoing,” which is corporate-speak for “We’re still figuring out how many more billions we can afford to lose before someone yells ‘uncle.’” Analysts now brace for more quarterly confessions, possibly titled “Oops, We Overbuilt Again.”
Just a few years ago, GM was the EV cheerleader with pom-poms made of lithium. The company pledged $30 billion toward an electric utopia featuring dozens of new models and enough battery plants to power a small moon. Today, that vision looks less “moon colony” and more “flat tire on the lunar surface.”
Blame the policy pendulum. Under Biden, EVs got tax credits and love letters from the White House. Then came regulatory whiplash: tax incentives vanished faster than a Tesla in Ludicrous Mode, and emissions rules softened like a melted ice cream cone in July.
GM now expects EV adoption to “slow”—a polite way of saying “people are still fine with gas guzzlers that don’t need 45 minutes to pee at a charging station.”
Ironically, GM actually is selling more EVs this year. Its U.S. market share jumped from 8.7% to 13.8%—a victory lap in a race where the finish line keeps moving. Still, Tesla remains the undisputed king, hoarding 43% of the market like a dragon sitting on a pile of lithium-ion gold. Hyundai and Kia? They’re just trying not to get vaporized by the tailpipe fumes.
Ford, GM’s crosstown sibling in automotive heartbreak, already took its own $1.9 billion EV L last year. They canceled an electric SUV so far along it probably had a name and a Spotify playlist. Now GM joins the club, proving that in the EV race, even the leaders sometimes need a tow truck.
Analyst John Murphy, who apparently moonlights as a fortune teller, warned this was coming. “Multibillion-dollar write-downs flooding the headlines,” he predicted—sounding less like a banker and more like a prophet in a pinstripe suit. His crystal ball must run on diesel.
To be fair, GM isn’t giving up. It still offers the most EV models in the U.S., which is like having the most flavors at a frozen yogurt shop no one visits. But Wall Street won’t care much—the $1.6 billion hit is classified as a “special item,” meaning it won’t dent the all-important adjusted earnings. In finance, it’s not a loss if you call it “special.”
Still, one has to admire GM’s optimism. While the rest of us stress over grocery bills, they’re out here casually writing off enough cash to fund a small country’s space program. Maybe next time, they’ll invest in flying cars—those are definitely happening any decade now.
As the EV market cools faster than a lukewarm battery in winter, GM’s lesson is clear: when you bet big on the future, make sure the future shows up. Otherwise, you’re just building very expensive paperweights with cupholders.
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