Much of that money is inefficient infrastructure that didn't have that much of an effect. The car makers didn't go hard with EV because of politics. They got into it because Tesla was making 25% margin on mass market EV and it looked like EV were taking over in massive way. Politics didn't hurt but the direction was pretty clear.
The problem is the traditional companies fell all over-themselves making grand promises without having any understanding, and putting in huge amounts of money while having not enough understanding of the market and supply chain dynamics.
Announcing like 4 gigantic battery factories when you have never built a battery and you barley understand the supply chain for most of the components isn't a great plan.
