You may have seen some of the automakers' dismal financial reports in recent months, posting billions of dollars in losses and writeoffs tied to heavy investments in battery-electric vehicle development and assembly – as the market stalled in the US. Ford, Stellantis, Honda, General Motors, and Volvo were among the many automakers chalking up big losses due to EVs. Now, all automakers are rethinking their future product strategies for the US and realizing it was probably premature to set a date to phase out internal-combustion power under the hood.Jared Rosenholtz/CarBuzz/Valnet So, looking across a beleaguered auto industry, how much do all these EV losses amount to? Plante Moran, one of the nation's largest public accounting, tax, consulting, and wealth management firms, has crunched the numbers. To be blunt, the price tag is absolutely staggering for the industry as a whole. How Staggering? Not just billions. Tens of billions. Tens upon tens – not far from $100 billion, actually.While other parts of the world, particularly Asia and Europe, are more receptive to EVs, the environment is volatile in the US, where the Trump administration discontinued federal tax credits for EVs last year and has removed regulatory hurdles that had encouraged automakers to bring more EVs to market. Automakers that are heavily invested in North America are feeling that impact, said Dan Lee, Plante Moran principal of Strategy & Operations during a webinar this week hosted by the Society of Automotive Analysts."Collectively, there's been $70 billion of EV impairments."–Dan Lee, Plante Moran Principal of Strategy & Operations 'Multi-Powertrain' Strategy Is Better Plante MoranBut some automakers have managed to navigate the complex dynamics of the US market without burning piles of cash (see chart above). "When we look at the OEMs that haven't reported any EV impairments, a mix of that is due to perhaps better strategy," Lee said. He called out Toyota and BMW for being early adopters of the "multi-powertrain manufacturing strategy" that didn't put all the propulsion eggs in the EV basket."Hyundai, Kia have a very strong, flexible global footprint... producing multiple powertrain types... allowing them more flexibility," Lee said. "Mercedes-Benz has been strong on cost discipline," focusing on reducing bill-of-material costs for their EVs.He said these companies were more realistic in planning how to dedicate their manufacturing capacity for powertrains. "Then companies like Mazda that were a little later and more cautious on the EV rollout just avoided committing major capital to alternative powertrain adoption," Lee said. Hybrid Sales Growing While EVs Rebound ToyotaOver the past 10 years, Plante Moran has been tracking growth in hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery-electric powertrains in US vehicles, while internal-combustion volumes fell from 17.4 million units in 2015 to 12.9 million in 2025. But over the past 12 months, ICE, PHEV, and BEV volumes have dropped while only hybrid volumes are up 18% (see chart below), with Toyota, Honda, Subaru and others driving the growth.Plante Moran"Hybrids year over year are the one segment that's continuing to grow, and that's largely due to a proliferation of offerings in the marketplace."–Dan LeeLee also sees BEV sales starting to recover, "but we're still below the '24 and '25 volumes," he said. "With May sales numbers, we're about 10% below BEV sales from the prior year." CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters: Many of us won't lose sleep because automakers are losing tons of money developing battery-electric cars that are not selling at a higher rate. Tesla demonstrated that there's a huge market for EVs in the US, and it's understandable why legacy automakers tried to pivot quickly to emulate that success. But how much thought, how much thorough research was done by these deep-pocketed, multi-national corporations before they decided, in some cases, to tear up assembly lines that had been in place for decades making combustion engines? It's easy to look back now and say automakers would have been better served by dipping a toe in the EV pool rather than diving head first into the deep end.And maybe companies like GM, with its full portfolio of 12 BEVs, will survive this turmoil and be well positioned when, or if, the market starts regaining steam. It seems best to approach this segment not as a sprint, but as a marathon.Source: Plante Moran