General Motors Co. notified about 5,500 employees across three plants that they are being laid off at least temporarily as the carmaker reassesses electric vehicle production in the wake of President Donald Trump's move to eliminate crucial tax credits.
The total includes 3,400 workers that were furloughed over the summer at its Factory Zero plant in Detroit, where the electric Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra and Hummer EVs are made. The company said on October 29 that it will assess how much production it needs, and bring back about 2,200 of those employees in January when the plant returns to work on one shift. The remaining 1,200 will be furloughed indefinitely.
In a related move, GM laid off 1,400 Ultium battery plant workers in Warren, Ohio, and 710 in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Company spokesman Kevin Kelly said 850 may come back to work in Ohio in May, and 550 of the layoffs are considered indefinite. The Tennessee layoffs are temporary, he said.
The cuts reflect a broader retrenchment by GM, which has moved to cut electric vehicle production because of a sharp slowdown in the market. EV sales growth had been slowing even before the Trump administration ended consumer tax credits of up to $7,500 per vehicle in September.
GM had been lobbying to keep the credits in place, and has been trying to make its EVs cheaper to prop up demand. Under chief executive officer Mary Barra, the company invested $35 billion in plug-in technology, a strategy that has been significantly downgraded recently.
GM took a $1.6 billion charge in the third quarter related to its EV investments, and warned there would be more in the fourth quarter as the automaker continues to reassess how much production it will need.
The latest cuts come days after GM eliminated more than 200 salaried positions, mostly at its Tech Center in Warren, Michigan.