The Chevrolet Bolt is General Motors’ most affordable and popular EV, so it’s only natural the automaker would decide to discontinue the car. To be fair, it will return in a couple of years, but we’ll only see the larger Bolt EUV on GM’s Ultium platform going forward. That shift is bringing layoffs for the people involved in building the Bolt, and another factory also got bad news this week.
GM said it would cut 945 jobs from its Lake Orion assembly facility, where it built the Bolt and Bolt EUV. The site will eventually make the Chevy Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV, but it will take a $4 billion investment to get there, and the project won’t take shape until late 2025. This move isn’t entirely unexpected, as the Bolt’s aging BEV2 platform has been aching for a replacement for a while now, and Ultium brings improvements in every measurable metric.
A smaller group at the Lansing Grand River Assembly facility is also being laid off. The location is where the Chevy Camaro was built, but its production run ended yesterday, leaving 369 people without jobs. GM is giving the workers until January to start the layoffs and said that UAW members will be offered other jobs in the state. The automaker’s Factory Zero location in Detroit-Hamtramck is a possibility, where it builds the GMC Hummer, the Cruise Origin, and other electric models.Â
These layoffs come after Stellantis announced workforce cuts at Jeep Plants in Michigan and Ohio. While the job cuts coincide with planned EV investments by GM, the automaker has noted that it needed to restructure in response to the new UAW contract. A GM subsidiary, GM Subsystem LLC, became part of the contract this time, almost doubling wages for some employees.Â
