The numbers Stellantis published Wednesday, February 26, confirm what the February 6 preliminary announcement already signaled: Stellantis booked a €20.1 billion net loss for the second half of 2025, or roughly $23.8 billion, driven by €25.4 billion in total writedowns across the full year. The second-half adjusted operating loss came in at €1.38 billion, in line with the company’s own guidance. Despite the scale of the damage, shares in Milan climbed around 5% by mid-afternoon — a market move that says more about how low expectations had already fallen than about any genuine optimism in the numbers. H2 revenue actually grew 10% year-over-year and shipments rose 11%, but those are the kinds of positives you find on page four of a report headlined by a $23 billion loss.

The fact: Stellantis reported a €20.1 billion net loss for H2 2025, with €25.4 billion in total charges for the full year — €22.2 billion of those concentrated in the second half.
The delta: Industrial free cash flows won’t turn positive until 2027, one full year beyond what CEO Antonio Filosa is promising investors for operating income recovery.
The buyer impact: No dividend in 2025, approximately €6.5 billion in cash payments tied to EV unwind obligations running through 2029, and US tariff exposure rising this year. The balance sheet has real constraints on new product investment.

Stellantis Booked €25.4 Billion in Total 2025 Writedowns

Stellantis recorded €25.4 billion in total charges across 2025, with €22.2 billion concentrated in the second half. The full-year net loss reached €22.3 billion. The core driver was the company’s decision to abandon its all-electric product strategy after overestimating how fast consumers would shift to battery-electric vehicles. As we reported in February when Stellantis first disclosed the charges, CEO Antonio Filosa described them as “largely the cost of over-estimating the pace of the energy transition.” The official Full Year 2025 Results press release released Wednesday didn’t change that framing.

The charge breakdown tells the story in concrete terms: billions written off against canceled EV products, impaired battery-electric platforms, and downsized supply chain commitments. About €6.5 billion of that total is actual cash — not an accounting adjustment — expected to leave the company over four years starting in 2026, with €2 billion of those payments hitting this year alone. Quality problems attributed to cost-cutting under former CEO Carlos Tavares account for a significant portion of the cash component.

For context, Stellantis is the third Detroit-aligned automaker to absorb a massive EV-related charge in less than four months. Ford, GM, and Stellantis together have now absorbed roughly $53 billion in losses from EV strategies built on government incentives and regulatory targets that no longer exist in the United States.

Filosa’s Profitability Promise Has a Fine Print Problem

On Wednesday’s analyst call, Filosa was direct when asked whether North America and Europe would return to positive adjusted operating income. According to reporting from the webcast, his answer was an unambiguous yes. Stellantis reiterated 2026 guidance of mid-single-digit percentage revenue growth and a low-single-digit adjusted operating margin. A capital markets day is set for May 21.

The problem is what “profitability” means in this context. Adjusted operating income and industrial free cash flow are two different things. Stellantis confirmed in Wednesday’s press release that free cash flows won’t turn positive until 2027. That means the company could post a technically positive operating margin in 2026 while still consuming cash. For a company that has already suspended its dividend and is facing €6.5 billion in EV unwind payments, that distinction matters.

US tariff exposure adds another weight. Stellantis makes a significant portion of its vehicles in Mexico and Canada, where trade policy remains uncertain. As we covered last month, Canadian auto operations are under pressure from multiple directions simultaneously.

The Stock Recovery Is Misleading

Wednesday’s share gain in Milan sounds like good news. It isn’t, in any meaningful sense. Stellantis shares had already lost significant ground since February 6, when they touched multi-year lows not seen since the company was created in January 2021 through the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA. A 5% bounce off a multi-year floor, on the day a company confirms a $23 billion loss, means investors were simply relieved the numbers weren’t worse than previewed. That’s a low bar.

The stock’s longer arc is worth remembering. Stellantis traded above €27 in April 2024. The collapse started with plant shutdowns across Europe, accelerated through the Tavares departure, and the shares now sit roughly 80% below that peak — even after Wednesday’s session. The company’s market capitalization is now less than the value of the writedowns it just took.

Stellantis and the Broader European EV Retreat

Stellantis’s situation reflects a pattern across European automakers. Renault reintegrated its Ampere EV unit in January rather than spin it off independently. Volkswagen is working through its own restructuring after posting a €1.3 billion quarterly operating loss. The EU’s 2035 combustion engine ban has been softened to allow plug-in hybrids and ICE vehicles to account for 10% of new sales after the deadline — a concession won in part through lobbying pressure from Stellantis and others during their retreat.

The math behind the European EV push was always fragile. BEVs outsold petrol cars in Europe for the first time ever in December 2025, but that crossover happened against a backdrop of large corporate fleet registrations and regulatory compliance buying — not organic consumer demand. Stellantis, like its peers, built investment plans around regulatory targets and discovered too late that targets and demand are not the same thing.

EVXL’s Take

I’ve now written three versions of this article in four months. Ford’s $19.5 billion. GM’s $7.6 billion. Stellantis’s €25.4 billion. The numbers get bigger each time, but the story is identical: companies built EV programs on the assumption that governments would hold the policy line, and governments didn’t.

What’s different about Stellantis compared to Ford and GM is the absence of a profitable core business to lean on during the recovery. Ford Pro generates significant cash each quarter from commercial vehicles. GM has trucks. Stellantis has Jeep inventory sitting at 90-day supply levels and a quality crisis that will cost real cash through 2029. Filosa giving an easy, confident “yes” to profitability questions on an analyst call is the kind of answer that sounds reassuring and means very little without a product pipeline to back it up.

The May 21 capital markets day will be the real test. That’s where Filosa either shows a specific turnaround plan with model timelines and margin targets, or confirms the current strategy is “fix quality, cut costs, wait for demand.” The latter won’t move the stock.

My prediction: free cash flow stays negative through all of 2026. Stellantis said as much themselves in Wednesday’s press release. The adjusted operating income recovery Filosa is promising is real but thin, and it will be tested hard by US tariff exposure, quality-related cash payments, and a European consumer market that still hasn’t fully recovered. Don’t expect a dividend before late 2027 at the earliest. Don’t expect STLA shares to reclaim €10 before the May 21 capital markets day gives investors something concrete to price in.

Editorial Note: AI tools were used to assist with research and archive retrieval for this article. All reporting, analysis, and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.