The EV Illusion Just Cost Ford $19.5 Billion
Ford’s latest earnings move should finally put an end to the myth that electric vehicles are a self-sustaining market. This week, the company announced it will take a staggering $19.5 billion charge tied largely to its electric-vehicle business, one of the largest corporate write-downs in recent history. That is not “growing pains.” That is an admission of failure.
After losing roughly $13 billion on EVs since 2023, Ford is pulling back hard. It is bolstering gas-powered models, shifting toward hybrids, and walking away from the fantasy that large EVs can ever be profitable without permanent government support. CEO Jim Farley said the quiet part out loud, according to WSJ:
“Instead of plowing billions into the future knowing these large EVs will never make money, we are pivoting.”
That single sentence shatters years of political spin. If large EVs “will never make money,” then the so-called EV revolution was never about consumer demand. It was about subsidies, mandates, and taxpayer cash papering over a broken business model.
The most symbolic casualty is the electric F-150 Lightning. Ford is effectively ending the all-electric version of America’s best-selling truck and replacing it with an extended-range model that includes a gasoline engine. That is not a minor adjustment. It is an acknowledgment that real truck buyers value affordability, reliability, and range more than green talking points.
Ford’s pivot exposes what Americans have known all along. EV demand spikes when Washington hands out incentives and collapses when the subsidies fade. That is not a market. It is a handout scheme.
The company is now redeploying EV investments into areas that actually make economic sense, including battery storage for utilities and data centers. In other words, once the politics are stripped away, capital flows back toward practicality.
A technology that requires tens of billions in write-downs to survive is not the future. It is a warning. And Ford just delivered it in black and white.
December 16, 2025