BREAKING: GM Lays Off 1,200 Workers At Michigan EV Plant, Hundreds More At Tennessee, Ohio Battery Plants

Washington, D.C. – The Detroit News reported that General Motors is laying off 1,200 workers at its electric vehicle plant in Detroit, along with hundreds of additional permanent and temporary layoffs at battery plants in Ohio and Tennessee. This is the fifth time in two months that clean energy manufacturing jobs in Michigan have been put on hold or canceled. Trump’s war on clean energy is sending good-paying jobs overseas and making electric vehicles more expensive to buy. Meanwhile, Chinese electric vehicle sales are “booming.” Trump has taken a sledgehammer to clean energy manufacturing, and American workers and consumers are paying the price. 

Climate Power Senior Advisor Jesse Lee issued the following statement: 

“China first, Michigan last seems to be Trump’s M.O. heading into the midterms. Trump’s full-scale assault on clean energy manufacturing is serving Americans with pink slips and skyrocketing energy bills, while giving China a competitive edge in the automotive industry. With Trump in Asia now, they are already laughing at him for giving away the store for free. It’s no secret that Republicans in Congress have rubber-stamped these devastating policies, and they will have to answer for them in 2026.”

Trump’s reckless energy policies are killing clean energy projects across the country:

• This week, Topsoe cited the repeal of clean energy tax credits as a reason for canceling  150 jobs and a $400 million investment in their Richmond, VA facility. 
• Earlier this month, Fox 2 Detroit reported that over 100 employees at Dana Incorporated, an EV battery component manufacturer in Auburn Hills, Michigan, had been laid off.
• General Motors canceled a $55 million factory that would have created 300 jobs, citing “decisions of the DOE”. 
• Fortescue blamed U.S. “policy settings” and the elimination of “critical tax credits” in Trump and Republicans’ budget bill for the cancellation of their $210 million Detroit EV battery factory. 
• Trump is using the government shutdown as an opportunity to sow even more chaos and uncertainty for American workers by cancelling $8 billion in investments in states that did not vote for him. The Trump administration has put $24 billion for energy projects on the chopping block since May. 
• According to Climate Power’s Energy Crisis Snapshot report and tracker, more than 80,500 clean energy jobs have already been lost or delayed under the Trump administration. 
• Trump’s federal energy policies contributed to battery startup, Natron Energy, shutting down and canceling its planned $1.4 billion factory in Eastern North Carolina, which would have created 1,000 jobs. 
• Blue Ridge Power blamed insurmountable “market headwinds” impacting the renewable energy industry for their decision to lay off 517 workers in North Carolina 
• Trump planned to revoke federal permitting for a Maryland wind farm, which would have powered 718,000 homes and supported more than 1,300 jobs.