LOSING A $50 BILLION BET—OR JUST MORE TRUMP CHAOS? PART 1

“IT’S A BILLION HERE, A BILLION THERE, PRETTY SOON IT BEGINS TO ADD UP TO REAL MONEY.” So recounted The New York Times in 1938. And a variation of the quip is often attributed to Senator Everett Dirksen (1896–1969).

But what about $50 billion?? Even today, that’s real money: ten times what Trump is suing JPMorgan Chase for closing his and his business accounts; five times what Trump is suing IRS (i.e., the U.S. government; i.e., us!) over a leak of his tax information. 

The Auto Industry’s $50 Billion Debacle. Lindsay VanHulle reports “Automakers Regroup As Market Shifts After $50 Billion EV Debacle,” Automotive News, February 13, 2026.

That is, this $50 billion isn’t some mad king’s scam. It’s money that automakers have burned to meet anticipated American demand for EVs. 

How could automakers have got it so wrong? How dissuaded are customers over EV cost, range, or infrastructure? Or is it just concomitant with Trump chaos? Here, in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, are tidbits gleaned from VanHulle’s Automotive News piece, together with my usual Internet sleuthing. 

An Aggressive EV Focus. “The massive price tag,” VanHulle recounts, “is a product of how aggressively automakers focused their capital investments on EVs, said Itay Michaeli, an equity auto analyst at TD Cowen. Yet the charges don’t necessarily reflect ‘a complete about-face’ on EVs, he said, because regulations could change again under future presidential administrations and EV sales are expected to become a larger portion of the market long term.”

Or, as is often the case with TACO, through changes occurring randomly next Thursday.

A Regulation-Driven Industry. VanHulle observes, “The charges follow years of dialing up EV development to keep up with increasingly stringent zero-emission regulations in the U.S. and Europe. Automakers also had to respond to competitive pressures from Tesla and startup EV manufacturers Rivian and Lucid Motors as well as the potential threat posed by up-and-coming Chinese automakers.”

The BYD Han (named after the fabled dynasty). The basic home-market EV model is priced at the equivalent of $27,000 to $30,000.

The standard BYD Han has a range of 605 km (376 miles). Its awd high-performance model goes from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 3.9 seconds. Image from BYD.

And Then There’s BYD. Note, BYD is the world’s largest producer of (quite possibly the world’s best) EVs. Mauro Orru reports “China’s BYD Opens 2026 With Blockbuster Sales Growth in Europe,” The Wall Street Journal, February 24, 2026. 

And Dave McQuilling reports “Canada Just Went ‘Anti-Tariff’ on Chinese EVs—And What BYD Brings Could be Exactly What Americans Start Wanting,” autonocion.com, February 24, 2026. 

Tomorrow in Part 2, we’ll continue with more of such tidbits, VanHulle’s analyses, and Trump’s chaos. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026