Stellantis EVs: Is the Company Failing?

Stellantis just posted its 2025 financial results, and is in the red for the first time since it was founded in 2021. The company reported a net loss of $22.3 billion last year after having to absorb $25.4 billion in unusual charges tied to what now looks like a failed shift to electric vehicles.

The conglomerate claims it may have pushed too many electric vehicles into a market that a growing number of automakers say still values ​​choice. This doesn’t align with its business in the US, which has been slow to roll out any electric vehicles. The electric vehicles launched by these giants are generally uncompetitive, which is why most electric car buyers are looking elsewhere. Although there are many battery-powered models offered in Europe, none of them sells well.

Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept

Its strongest sellers are the Citroen e-C3 and Peugeot e-208, two subcompact city cars that compete with the Renault 5 E-Tech but still lag far behind in the sales charts. In the US, they offered the Fiat 500e, Dodge Charger Daytona, and Jeep Wagoneer S, all of which were panned by critics and shunned by consumers.

The company admitted that it overestimated the pace of the transition to electric vehicles, and as a result it faced huge bills. “Freedom of choice” is the name of the game right now, which is Stellantis’ way of saying it will shift more investment back into combustion-powered vehicles while still offering plug-ins.

According to Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, “these results reflect the impact of overestimation on the pace of the energy transition and the need to reorganize our business based on customer freedom to choose from the full range of electric, hybrid and internal combustion technologies.”

Although Stellantis admitted that changes in the electric vehicle supply chain were the main reason behind the losses, this was also due to changes in warranty estimates and labor-related costs in Europe, where thousands of employees (mostly in Italy) were forced to leave the company, and the company had to cover severance costs.

‘The results reflect the impact of overestimating the rate of energy transition…’

Last year was undeniably a painful one for Stellantis, but the company not only blamed the losses on the EV shift itself, but also on timing and miscalculations regarding EV adoption rates. This refers to growth returning in the second half of 2025, when the company posted revenue figures 10 percent higher year-on-year. Deliveries increased by 11 percent or 277,000 vehicles in H2, reaching 2.8 million units, helped primarily by a 39 percent year-over-year increase in North America.

This is driven by the company’s push to rejuvenate Ram and Jeep, which are its traditional profit centers. Quality issues, soaring prices and the loss of the V8 powertrain all hurt the brand last year. In the second half of 2025, Ram reintroduces the Hemi, and Jeep drops prices drastically. As these brands have long underpinned the group’s profitability, getting them back on track is critical.

Filosa noted that “in the second half of the year, we began to see positive initial signs of progress with early results from our efforts to improve quality, strong execution on our new wave of product launches, and our return to top-line growth. In 2026, our focus will be to continue closing the execution gaps of the past, adding further momentum to our return to profitable growth.”

Stellantis launched several big new models last year, relying heavily on hybrids. Many of them also offer electric variants, but the only bespoke electric vehicle launched last year was the DS N°8, which was a serious rival to the Tesla Model Y. Another significant development that epitomizes the miscalculated electric vehicle transition was Fiat returning the combustion engine to the 500, which was initially launched exclusively as a pure electric vehicle.

Last year, Stellantis also announced that it was canceling a fully electric version of its Ram 1500 pickup, and now it only plans to offer a long-range powertrain for that model. They also discontinued the fully electric Maserati MC20 Folgore, even though it had been in development for five years. It will most likely be an electric car with excellent drivability, much like the GranTurismo Folgore that made it onto the market, although sales will probably be even worse.

Photo by: Jeep

Current EV products aren’t the most exciting on the market, and most are built on the same platforms, batteries and motors. What we tried in America and Europe didn’t seem good enough considering how fierce the competition is among electric vehicles.

Stellantis offers a wide range of electric models, but despite their different looks, many of them are essentially the same vehicle, built around one of two major shared platforms. However, it is working to make its future models stand out more, with several new electric vehicles arriving this year.

This story first appeared on InsideEVs