General Motors is cutting 1,140 workers at its Factory Zero EV plant in Detroit. The facility was supposed to be the showcase for GM's electric vehicle future, producing the Hummer EV and Cruise Origin. Instead, slow EV adoption and the Cruise autonomous driving setback have left the plant running below capacity.
Factory Zero was a $2.2 billion investment that GM touted as the future of American manufacturing. The layoffs there are a symbolic admission that the EV transition timeline was too aggressive. GM is not abandoning EVs, but it is scaling back production to match actual demand rather than projected demand.