About 700 General Motors workers in the U.S. and Canada will be out of a job temporarily, driven by weak demand for electric vehicles, company officials said.
General Motors placed the workers on temporary leave starting Monday from factories in Detroit and Ingersoll, Ontario.
GM (NYSE: GM) is laying off about 200 workers at its Factory Zero plant in Detroit, which produces the all-electric Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV, Hummer EV SUV and pickup, and all-electric Escalade IQ. It employs about 4,500 workers, according to the company’s website.
“Factory Zero will adjust production to align with market dynamics,” GM spokesman Kevin Kelly told The Detroit News. “Impacted employees will be placed on a temporary layoff and may be eligible for subpay and benefits in accordance with the GM-UAW national contract.”
GM is also halting production and laying off 500 workers at its CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll.
The Ingersoll layoffs are the result of a decline in demand for the all-electric BrightDrop delivery vans that are manufactured at the plant, GM said.
“CAMI is making operational and employment adjustments to balance inventory and align production schedules with current demand,” GM told the CBC. “GM remains committed to the future of BrightDrop and the CAMI plant and will support employees through the transition.”
Workers at the Ingersoll factory will be laid off for three weeks and return for two weeks in May for limited production. Then the Ingersoll facility will close for an additional 20 weeks.
GM plans to completely retool the factory to prepare the facility for production of the 2026 model year of commercial electric vehicles. It’s unclear if GM will rehire all 500 employees.
Related: Automaker to temporarily lay off 900 US workers due to tariffs
The layoffs at GM follow temporary layoffs of about 900 Stellantis employees April 7 at auto factories in Warren and Sterling, Michigan, and Kokomo, Indiana.
Stellantis paused production at assembly plants in Windsor, Ontario, and Toluca, Mexico, which caused the layoffs at factories in Michigan and Indiana, company officials said.
Lou Ann Gosselin, Stellantis’ spokeswoman for Canada, said the layoffs were caused by tariffs levied by the Trump administration on April 2.
Stellantis’ Windsor plant is scheduled to resume production around April 21, while the Toluca plant is scheduled to reopen in May.
It’s unclear when Stellantis workers who were temporarily laid off from the facilities in Michigan and Indiana will go back to work.
Stellantis did not immediately reply to a request for comment from FreightWaves.
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