Ronald Reagan was known for a typically cogent observation about government: “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” As is so often the case, he was right. He likely didn’t foresee the onset of electric vehicles and the climate scolds’ touting of them to prevent the planet from catching on fire; those were subsidized before they ever moved in the first place.
But those subsidies are gone now, and so a bunch of people who worked on vehicles and batteries are finding themselves out of work.
General Motors is laying off thousands of UAW-represented workers at factories that make electric vehicles and EV batteries as it retrenches from EVs after the end of federal subsidies and the elimination of some emissions regulations.
GM plans to lay off more than 3,300 hourly workers at plants across Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee starting in January. Of those, more than 1,700 are being laid off indefinitely, while more than 1,500 are expected to be called back in mid-2026.
The automaker said that battery plants it jointly owns with LG Energy Solution in Ohio and Tennessee will be idled starting Jan. 5 and that it plans to resume production in mid-2026.
GM is also placing about 1,200 of the 3,400 workers at its dedicated EV assembly plant in Detroit on indefinite layoff.
If they’d asked me, I could’ve told ’em:
Read More: The Federal EV Credit Is Gone – What Happens Now?
Turns out that GM isn’t the only manufacturer hit by the loss of the subsidies.
GM isn’t alone in pulling back on EV plans. Ford is moving workers from the plant that makes the electric F-150 Lightning to a nearby factory that makes the more popular—and profitable—gasoline-burning version. Nissan has decided not to offer its Ariya EV as a 2026 model and Honda has halted orders of the electric Acura ZDX, which is manufactured by GM.
“In response to slower near-term EV adoption and an evolving regulatory environment, General Motors is realigning EV capacity,” the company said.
That’s a nice way of saying “The federal gravy train isn’t running anymore, so we will have to go back to making cars that people want to buy.” That’s how it should be, of course, but we should note that these subsidies were products of the previous administration, and if economic reality is here, as in, anywhere on the North American continent, then the Biden administration’s economic policy was somewhere out past the Horsehead Nebula, and lost in space.
Read More: What Does a $19.5 Million EV Charger Look Like? Ask Pete Buttigieg.
While we feel bad for the people who are out of work, some of them permanently, this was inevitable. Stein’s Law applies here; if a thing can’t continue, it won’t, and the flow of federal baksheesh into the builders and buyers of electric vehicles couldn’t go on forever. The fact that, absent subsidies, electric vehicle sales crumbled, well, that speaks for itself, doesn’t it? If these things were economically viable, they wouldn’t have required subsidies. People would have bought them on their own merits.
Now, because of a stupid policy out of Washington, a bunch of American auto workers are out of a job. Hopefully, they can get hired back on in the gas-engine car and truck side, where jobs are no doubt far more secure.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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