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Are EVs running out of gas?
Volkswagen Plant in Chattanooga, TN Axes Production of EV Model, Will Focus on New Gas-Powered SUV Lineup Instead
Volkswagen announced a shift in its U.S. production strategy on Thursday, confirming it will end assembly of its all-electric Volkswagen ID.4 at its Chattanooga plant and refocus efforts on its popular gas-powered SUV lineup. “Volkswagen’s Chattanooga assembly plant will shift its primary focus to higher‑volume models that support sustained growth in North America,” the automaker said. The move comes after the company scaled back ID.4 production and furloughed workers at its Chattanooga plant last year in response to declining demand for the EV model. Volkswagen recently said the plant will prioritize higher-volume vehicles, with the Volkswagen Atlas becoming its primary model.
Ford Motor lost $4.8 billion on its electric vehicle lines in fiscal year 2025.
Over the past few years, Ford has reported losses on its EV lines every quarter. During the company’s earnings call Tuesday, Sherry House, Ford’s CFO, said Ford doesn’t expect to break even on the Model-E division until fiscal year 2029. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the company reported a loss of $1.2 billion on the Model-E division, down from $1.4 billion in the same quarter the previous year. The year-end losses for fiscal year 2025 were down from $5.1 billion in 2024. Ford sold 178,000 electric vehicles in fiscal year 2025, up from 105,000 in 2024. This brings the loss per EV to nearly $27,000. The electric truck plant will focus on gas powered trucks in the future... “This is a customer-driven shift to create a stronger, more resilient and more profitable Ford,” said Ford president and CEO Jim Farley.
Tesla reported on Wednesday that its net income in 2025 plummeted 46%, to $3.8 billion; will turn factory into making humanoid robots
Tesla’s annual profit notably dropped to its lowest level in several years in 2025 amid ongoing struggles such as increased competition from other electric vehicle (EV) makers, Deutsche Welle (DW) reported last week. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday the company is scrapping the production of its Model S and X vehicles, and instead plans to convert its factory in Fremont, California to produce Optimus humanoid robots instead. “Humanoid robotics will advance very quickly. We do have some of the Tesla Optimus robots doing simple tasks in the factory… By the end of this year, I think they will be doing more complex tasks, and probably by the end of next year, I think we’d be selling humanoid robots to the public.” He emphasized that sales would begin when Tesla achieves “very high reliability, very high safety, and the functionality is also very high.”
For more discontinuted models, see this article in Car and DrIver
It doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
I continue to believe that EVs are an excellent solution for commercial vehicle purposes, but, at best, an average solution for passenger vehicles. Hybrid powertrains and, hopefully, hydrogen are a much more promising alternative in my opinion....
I will have to disagree here…
Hydrogen is dead in the water for passenger cars with no manufacturer having a sizable program left anymore. It is simply an unbelievably resource inefficient way of doing things compared to pure electric vehicles.
The main reason hybrids are doing so well are tax incentives in most countries.
As for pure electric vehicles, many manufacturers went all in a tad too early on the one hand when it came to the future product lines and did not prepare the market or the shareholders for the transition adequately. What they often had was a clear end goal but a very hazy path towards it, with lots of steps back along the way prior to any shareholder call 🤦🏻♂️ Understandable if you are a CEO of a traditional car manufacturer that is supposed to generate profit in the short run but hardly the stuff future champions are made of.
The main issue electric cars have at the moment is poor resale value, as many potential customers are waiting for the new better thing, as the pace of improvement is still dramatically higher than with ICE vehicles, which are much closer to the peak already. Less of an issue in markets like China and a lot more in other places.
The main reason hybrids are doing so well are tax incentives in most countries.
As for pure electric vehicles, many manufacturers went all in a tad too early on the one hand when it came to the future product lines and did not prepare the market or the shareholders for the transition adequately. What they often had was a clear end goal but a very hazy path towards it, with lots of steps back along the way prior to any shareholder call 🤦🏻♂️ Understandable if you are a CEO of a traditional car manufacturer that is supposed to generate profit in the short run but hardly the stuff future champions are made of.
The main issue electric cars have at the moment is poor resale value, as many potential customers are waiting for the new better thing, as the pace of improvement is still dramatically higher than with ICE vehicles, which are much closer to the peak already. Less of an issue in markets like China and a lot more in other places.
If I had a long-term romantic partner....
I'd love to get a Toyota Mirai and share that vehicle with the other half, oscillating between that one and the 4-cylinder pick-up in order to gauge practical usability and cost differences.... As far as electric trucks go, my favorites are the Rivian R1T and R1S. Would obviously have to live in a single family home with a garage to properly accommodate that ownership experience........
While a single home…
With solar cells on the roof might make that motoring largely cost free, with the many quick charging points it works for flats nowadays, too 😊👍🏻
As for Mirai I really like it in principle but it’s rarer than limited edition Ferraris, so for all intents and purposes a lovely, if financially pointless, engineering exercise. Fortunately these kinds of hobbies don’t break Toyota’s back financially 😉
From what I've read, Toyota is still the one with the most interest in hydrogen....
Of the European manufacturers, I only recall BMW issuing statements of commitment to some degree of investment in hydrogen....
A bit of blah blah…
The passenger car joint ventures are dormant and even the truck one is dead. And no surprise - simply doesn’t make sense economically 🤷🏻♂️
One thing you can say about auto manufacturers; they are like little children: they hate to share
And in my experience with GM, Ford and a few others, they're not even that keen on sharing with sister divisions of the same corporation
(spoiler alert! I never really liked sharing with MY sister)
I’m with you there 😊👍🏻
Remember from old day reporting that both Ford and VW found their minivan joint development easier than many an internal project with sister brands 😉 Whether the current MEB / Ranger / Transit partnership is equally harmonious remains to be seen but the alternative arrangement with Renault in parallel seems to say no 🤷🏻♂️
The FIA's Formula 1 Prius sports entertainment series, the drawbacks have their limitations.
Within some areas, electric is great. Brilliant even. Tho for a 1200 mile drive, perhaps dead dino juice is best.
Until battery technology dramatically improves at scale, there really aren’t many options
In the meantime you will have electric cars that will do this with the same number of/ duration of stops as dino juice cars…
And comparable if not better fun on the twisty sections 😉
All about power to weight ratio and speed of energy refill.
BYD is developing some very Interesting tech.
Who knows, soon horology of top finishing too. China is quite...
Who knows, soon horology of top finishing too. China is quite...
Filling up the 80 liter tank is not that much faster than recharging a Neue Klasse from 10-80% and will not give the same range even 😉😂
To me and Vlad ...
.. an EV can 'never' be more fun than ICE on twisty roads.
Weight being the main factor off course, our 'lightweight' genes command our brains to only have fun in light vehicles. Offcourse a small track oriented EV could bring us some relief
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Weight being the main factor off course, our 'lightweight' genes command our brains to only have fun in light vehicles. Offcourse a small track oriented EV could bring us some relief
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I fully hear you there 😊👍🏻
But then apart form the Alpine A110 the last years have been painful even in the ICE world. As for the Alpine, if the current situation allowed, it would be to of the list for the fun category 👌🏻🏁
True, only the A110 ...
And no matter how good the M2 drives and how cool it looks ... boosting 500 hp ... it is still a 1700 kilos car. The drive is ..... fabulous, to say the least BUT the weight is there.
If I could choose a 10 to 20K car right now I'd opt for a Citroen Saxo VTS ;-) ... with a few mods ... oh man ... .
Money buys anything !
That said, spend 20K and you can still have a seriously nice Clio 3 RS.
You are right of course…
But a lot of performance cars that were bargains 5-10 years ago are excessively expensive now 🤷🏻♂️
The Rallye has less power.
1.3 or 1.6 gives you around 100 hp.
The 106 1.6-16V has 120 hp and is basically the same as the Saxo VTS, engine etc ... .
But the Saxo is a bit lighter and apparently had some tweaks that make it a lot more fun to drive.
The 106 1.6-16V has 120 hp and is basically the same as the Saxo VTS, engine etc ... .
But the Saxo is a bit lighter and apparently had some tweaks that make it a lot more fun to drive.