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MISHAWAKA – Layoffs were announced Friday at the Seres Automotive plant in Mishawaka, two days after the CEO of the company's electric vehicle dismissals at its California headquarters and the suspension of the work SF5, an electric vehicle allegedly sold in the United States. consumers.
The factory manager, Todd Leahy, who was previously director of the AM General Commercial Assembly plant, said "about thirty" employees were informed Friday that they would be fired. Leahy said that before the Friday layoffs, there were 81 employees here.
The remaining employees will remain to complete five prototypes of SF5 being assembled at the plant and expected to be completed in "early fall," Leahy said. The development process of these prototypes could still be used if the SF5 program is restarted here.
The company's plan now is to look for contract manufacturing contracts for vehicle assembly, which Leahy says would not necessarily be for electric vehicles. He added that Seres "is already in discussion with some of these opportunities (contract manufacturing)".
Mr. Leahy said it depends on the status of the suspended SF5 program or the progress of the other vehicle assembly contract.
Before being sold to SF Motors in 2017, the plant belonged to AM General and the assembled vehicles were under contract for Mercedes-Benz and Hummer.
SF Motors, a subsidiary of Chinese automaker Sokon, has changed its name to Seres Automotive earlier this year. She was working on re-equipping the factory for the assembly of electric vehicles, with upgrades to paint booths, automation for the installation of front and rear windows and a new booth. to calibrate autonomous driving systems, among others.
"We always want to build cars here and we still want to build cars in the United States," Leahy said. "We have already spent $ 20 million and we plan to continue improving the plant's capital assets."
Seres CEO James Taylor, who took office in May and previously served as an executive at Hummer and Cadillac, told employees in California of his intention to refocus the company's work on the Chinese auto market on Wednesday.
Instead of trying to assemble and sell the electric vehicle in the US and Chinese market, Taylor told his employees that the company would only focus on selling SF5 in China. The Chinese market's SF5 are expected to begin delivery in the fourth quarter of this year, the company said in May.
The layoff comes at a time when auto sales in China have declined in the past year, with June sales being the lowest in the past three years, according to data from the China Association of Automotive Manufacturers. This slowdown in China has been cited by Taylor as one of the reasons for the suspension of the SF5 assembly here in the United States.
Taylor also said that the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China is a factor contributing to the radical change in the US market.
When an agreement was announced two years ago to SF Motors for the acquisition of the Mishawaka plant from AM General, it was presented as a plan that would save hundreds of high-paying jobs in the US. self-employed sector.
In June 2017, AM General announced its intention to sell the commercial assembly plant for $ 110 million to SF Motors, following the local manufacturer's contract for the production of Mercedes-Benz R-Class vehicles for the market. Chinese automobile and large-scale dismissals. scheduled for later this year. The plant was originally opened to produce H2 for General Motors, but the automaker closed the mark in 2010, at the height of the Great Recession.
But many of the 435 workers whose jobs were supposed to be saved have still not been brought back to the factory since it began to be refurbished for SF5 assembly.
The factory was mandated to receive state and county incentives, including a property tax rebate, state tax credits, and training grants. . But these incentives have conditions that require some investment and job creation in the plant.
A tax break with the county, designed to save $ 900,000 over seven years, includes a requirement of 100 jobs and an investment of $ 19.6 million. Until now, the company has met the requirement for investment, but remains below the number of employees.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. also provides tax credits of $ 3.8 million. To obtain this amount, a contract with the state requires that the company totals 467 jobs. Until now, tax credits of $ 100,921 have been certified according to IEDC spokesperson, Abby Gras.
Under this agreement, the company must give notice of at least 60 days of workforce reductions totaling 50% or more of the employees of the Mishawaka plant. As the number of redundancies was less than this number, the company was not contractually obliged to inform the state agents. Leahy said Friday that "state and local officials have been informed of the implementation of the new plan".
"Our goal is to continue manufacturing in this plant and create jobs in this sector," said Leahy. "(The SF5 program) is delayed at this point. It is not canceled, it is simply delayed until the economic situation is better understood. "
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