The writedowns, which include some 6.5 billion euros in cash payments mainly to compensate suppliers
Published Fri, Feb 6, 2026 · 06:47 PM
[MILAN] Stellantis shares fell the most on record after the automaker announced 22 billion euros (S$33.4 billion) in charges linked to walking back its electric-vehicle strategy.
The writedowns, which include some 6.5 billion euros in cash payments mainly to compensate suppliers, follow similar moves by peers including Ford Motor and General Motors. The maker of Jeep SUVs and Fiat cars is canceling several models and projects as it is struggling with high costs and market share losses in Europe and the US.
Stellantis shares cratered as much as 22 per cent in Milan, wiping some 5.2 billion euros off the company’s market capitalisation. The charges significantly exceeded analyst projections.
They “largely reflect the cost of over-estimating the pace of the energy transition,” chief executive officer Antonio Filosa said in a statement, in which he pinned blame on his predecessor Carlos Tavares. They show “the impact of previous poor operational execution, the effects of which are being progressively addressed by our new team.”
Filosa, who took over in June, is trying to overhaul the 14-brand carmaker to regain market share, while walking back EV ambitions and mitigating the rising cost of tariffs. Friday’s (Feb 6) announcement is meant to help the company move beyond a tumultuous period under Tavares, who had presided over a profit and sales plunge in the key European and US markets.
Buyers had balked at model price increases, product gaps and quality problems. Tavares had pledged to sell only electric vehicles in Europe and 50 per cent EVs in the US by 2030, targets Stellantis walked away from shortly after his ouster in late 2024. It’s also adjusting its battery-making footprint to account for lower demand.
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The manufacturer is not alone in tallying the cost of adjusting to slower-than-expected EV sales. Ford in December said it would take US$19.5 billion in charges tied to an overhaul of its electric-car operations. Writedowns at rival General Motors have ballooned to US$7.6 billion. Porsche walked back its outlook four times last year as it’s course-correcting on EVs.
The charges announced on Friday will impact the second half of the 2025 financial year but not adjusted operating income. Stellantis will not pay out a dividend this year.
The company’s writedown is “massive but it was a necessary step to clean up the mess left by the previous CEO,” said Pierre-Olivier Essig, an equities analyst at AIR Capital.
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As part of his overhaul, Filosa has vowed to invest US$13 billion in the US, a key profit engine, where the company delayed EVs and brought back V8 engines to reinvigorate the Ram brand. He also decided to scrap some investments including a planned hydrogen joint venture and has been slashing prices to claw back market share. The company is
Stellantis is estimating a net loss of as much as 21 billion euros for the second half of 2025. For this year, it is projecting a low single-digit operating margin, which includes tariff-related expenses of around 1.6 billion euros. The company plans to issue as much as 5 billion euros in bonds to shore up its balance sheet. Stellantis is due to report detailed full-year earnings on Feb 26.
The automaker also announced it’s leaving a joint venture with South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution in Canada. In 2022, Stellantis said it would invest over C$5 billion (S$4.7 billion) with LG Energy to establish the first large-scale EV battery plant in Windsor, Ontario. LG is buying out Stellantis’s stake.
Filosa will present his new strategy to investors on May 21. Improving sales in the US is key to a turnaround, with Jeep planning to introduce several new or refreshed vehicles this year.
As Friday’s announcement did not include factory closures, the company’s cost base may not yet be low enough to account for its market share losses, Citi analyst Harald Hendrikse said in a note.
“Any upside to Stellantis most likely feature capacity reductions to fully reset the North America and European businesses,” he said. BLOOMBERG
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