General Motors Ends Electric Van
Production in Canada, Cutting 1,200 Jobs Amid Slumping Demand and Trade
Tensions
The announcement, which will eliminate
about 1,200 jobs, came less than a week after the carmaker Stellantis said it
would move production of a new vehicle to Illinois from a Toronto suburb.
General Motors
announced it will halt production of its BrightDrop
electric delivery vans at its Ingersoll, Ontario plant, resulting in
the loss of about 1,200 jobs and dealing another setback to Canada’s
auto manufacturing sector.
The move
comes less than a week after Stellantis said it would shift production
of a new Jeep model from Brampton, Ontario, to Illinois, heightening
concerns about the future of Canadian automotive jobs.
G.M.
attributed its decision to sluggish demand for electric commercial
vehicles and the expiration of U.S. tax credits for electric vans.
However, Unifor, the Canadian auto workers’ union, blamed President
Trump’s 25% tariff on Canadian vehicles and his rollback of EV industry
support, arguing that trade barriers had made cross-border exports
“prohibitively expensive.”
The
Ingersoll plant, retooled in 2022 with C$519 million (US$370 million) in
joint federal and provincial funding, was temporarily idled earlier this year
due to weak sales. It was expected to restart in November but will now remain
closed indefinitely.
G.M. CEO Mary
Barra told investors that “the commercial electric van market has been
developing much slower than expected.” The BrightDrop
line, launched with high expectations during the pandemic-driven e-commerce
boom, has struggled to compete against lower-cost internal combustion models
and limited fleet demand.
Canada’s Industry
Minister Mélanie Joly said Ottawa will explore options to repurpose the
facility for another vehicle program and ensure G.M. meets its
obligations tied to public funding. Unlike Stellantis, which faces
potential legal action for relocating government-supported production, G.M.’s
case, she said, was “a commercial issue, not a contractual breach.”
The
closure follows earlier cuts at G.M.’s Oshawa pickup plant, where the
elimination of a shift is expected to cost another 2,000 jobs,
underscoring the broader challenges facing Canada’s EV transition amid
policy uncertainty and weakening U.S. trade ties.
General
Motors said on Tuesday that it was ending production of its electric van in
Ontario, a move that will mean the loss of about 1,200 jobs. It was the second
major blow to Canada’s automobile industry in less than a week.
G.M.
cited low demand for its BrightDrop delivery van, as
well as the end of tax credits for electric vehicles in the United States.
But
Unifor, the Canadian union that represents auto workers, blamed the company’s
move on President Trump’s trade battle with Canada, which has made exporting
cars to the United States more expensive.
Last
week, the automaker Stellantis announced that it would move production of a new
Jeep model from an idle factory in the Toronto suburb of Brampton to a plant in
Illinois. The company shut down the factory in 2023 and laid off its roughly
3,000 workers so that it could retool the facilities, but now the fate of those
employees is unclear.
General
Motors previously announced that it would eliminate a shift at a pickup factory
in Oshawa, Ontario, a decision that will lead to a loss of about 2,000 jobs in
that community.
The
company’s decision on Tuesday involves a factory in Ingersoll, Ontario, that
began building electric delivery vans in 2022, after G.M. received 519 million
Canadian dollars, about $370 million currently, from the Canadian and Ontario
governments to retool the site. It was temporarily shut down in May because of
slow sales but was expected to restart production in November.
Lana
Payne, the national president of Unifor, said the shutdown was a direct result
of Mr. Trump’s decision to end support for the electric vehicle industry and
the 25 percent tariff he imposed on cars and trucks from Canada.
“Now
more than 1,000 workers and their families are paying the price for Trump’s
political interference and G.M.’s failure to hold the line,” Ms. Payne said.
G.M.’s
chief executive, Mary Barra, in a conference call with investors on Tuesday,
said that “the commercial electric van market has been developing much slower
than expected.” BrightDrop is the only fully electric
commercial van offered by G.M.
G.M.
did not provide any specifics about the factory’s future, saying it would meet
with the union and government officials to discuss the situation.
Mélanie
Joly, Canada’s industry minister, offered a more measured response to G.M.’s
announcement on Tuesday than last week, when she threatened legal action
against Stellantis.
“It’s
two completely different situations,” she said on Tuesday. The government, she
said, is putting “maximum pressure” on Stellantis to keep the new Jeep in
Canada because of the “obligation” it took on after accepting government money
to retool the Brampton plant. By contrast, she said, G.M. is eliminating its
van because it is “not going well commercially.”
Ms.
Joly said, nevertheless, that the government would seek to reopen the factory
with another vehicle and that it would hold G.M. accountable for any remaining
obligations from earlier government assistance.