U.S. automakers had a punishing week — with a silver lining for shoppers

Wall Street seems skeptical that major U.S. automakers are steering in the right direction.

The Detroit 3 and Tesla all reported earnings this week. Tesla's profits were down sharply from last year — again . Stellantis saw profits crater, too.

Ford missed expectations. And General Motors? Well, GM had a great quarter — but investors still dinged the Detroit automaker with a drop in share prices. So what's going on? There are a lot of factors.

Some are specific to individual companies: Tesla CEO Elon Musk's polarizing comments , Stellantis' overcrowded dealer lots, GM's struggles in China and Ford's wince-inducing warranty costs. But some trends are industry wide. Car buyers have more leverage than they did a year or two ago, when supply was so tight that people would regularly pay over sticker price just to bring a car home.

Now, prices are down from last year and incentives (discounts and deals to entice shoppers) are back. That's good news for car shoppers, but not for corporations. Then there's the question of electric vehicles.

An EV sales challenge, even for Tesla After increasing sharply, electric vehicle sales are now rising more gradually. Making the leap from early adopters to the mainstream shopper is always tricky . Buyers also have concerns about charging infrastructure , and EVs have also become increasingly politicized in a polarizing election year.

Tesla, the company that redefined how the world considers electric vehicles, has seen profits drop by more tha.