Automaker Stellantis is looking to quit its battery joint venture with Samsung due to widening EV losses, as per a Bloomberg report.
The update comes as ICE car and automobile companies face losses from EV investments, with whole electric vehicle divisions not able to report a profit on their quarterly reports. For instance, Harley Davidson’s Q4 report showed a loss for EV bike firm called LiveWire of $18 million, in which it has a controlling interest.
Pureplay EV brands such as Tesla and Lucid Motors are also struggling to make their cars palatable for the average consumer.
Last week, Stellantis said it wrote off roughly $26 billion in its EV division, as the company takes a backseat from the sector, a move that General Motors also followed after it had to absorb $6 billion in costs owing to a slowdown in the market.
The whole EV sector is struggling to prove its value to customers, who want to buy cars with net-zero emissions but also have affordable cars that are intuitive and easy to drive.
At the time of writing, Stellantis shares were trading at 6.35 euros, up by 3.4%. Formed in 2021 via a merger, Stellantis owns 12 car brands, including Chrysler, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, and Maserati.