General Motors (GM) cut 1,000 jobs Friday as part of a broader push to cut costs and boost electric vehicle (EV) sales, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Although GM’s EV sales have been increasing as of the third quarter of this year, the company is still expected to lose money on EVs in 2025, according to The WSJ. About 5,000 GM executives and employees accepted voluntary buyout offers in 2023 as the company aimed to avoid mass layoffs, according to CNN.
Many automakers have walked back EV goals due to a lack of consumer demand, including Ford, which announced in August that it was canceling plans to build three-row electric SUVs, and Mercedes-Benz, which announced in February that it would scale back plans to have an all-electric line-up by 2030. Some companies have increasingly pushed to incentivize EV purchases, including Ford, which announced in September that it would offer free chargers and home installations for buyers. GM announced in January that it would provide incentives of $7,500 for EVs that lost a government tax credit, according to Reuters.
This round of job cuts follows a September announcement that GM would temporarily lay off almost 1,700 factory workers. The automaker reported a $1.7 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2023 in January in the sales and production of its EV line, despite having positive net income growth.
The Biden-Harris administration has rolled out various EV-related policies as part of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda, including introducing stringent tailpipe emissions standards in March that would require about 67% of all light-duty vehicles sold after 2032 to be EVs or hybrids. The president has also led a push to build 500,000 public EV chargers nationwide by 2030, which has thus far been significantly delayed.
Toyota’s North American COO Jack Hollis criticized U.S. policies promoting EV adoption on Nov. 8, saying the standards are “impossible” to meet. Ford CEO Jim Farley admitted to driving a Chinese-made EV in October despite his company previously receiving billions in subsidies for domestic EV manufacturing.
GM did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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