Western automakers concede defeat in the EV race as China outproduces the US, Germany, Japan, India, and six others combined; rewriting in five years what took them decades.

Last week’s $26 billion EV write-down by Stellantis follows similar moves by Volkswagen ($6 billion), GM ($7.6 billion), and Ford ($19.5 billion), underscoring a strategic retreat from electric vehicles back to gasoline cars and hybrids. Legacy automakers frame this as pragmatism, but in essence, they are abandoning investment in the future. These write-downs reveal their failure to achieve manufacturing scale, jeopardizing their future competitiveness. A genuine commitment would involve scaling production, cutting prices, and stimulating demand. Meanwhile, aided by subsidies and affordability, EV adoption in China is soaring. ARK’s research indicates that manufacturer hesitancy, not consumer reluctance, has hindered EV adoption. Vertically integrated companies like BYD are now scaling and unleashing mass-market demand. With prospective operating costs approximately one-third those of gasoline vehicles, ARK says that with just one third the operating costs, battery electric vehicles will dominate global auto sales within five years.