For the second time in less than half a year, Novi-based electric battery startup One Next Energy is resorting to layoffs to stay afloat amid financial turbulence. The latest announcement comes a year-and-a-half after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) administration pledged $236.6 million in state support for the fledgling company.
According to reports in several Michigan publications, including the Detroit News, Our Next Energy — or ONE, as it is more commonly known — recently trimmed 37 jobs from its payroll, with the bulk of them (24 positions) based in Michigan.
The latest layoffs come on the heels of a November round of staff cuts that resulted in one quarter of ONE’s employees losing their jobs in the waning months of 2023. At that time, 128 workers lost their jobs.
Current estimates indicate ONE has a headcount of about 270 employees, with 240 of them in Michigan.
ONE reportedly has been making cuts to the expense side of its ledger based on market conditions. Numerous car manufacturers and companies in the electric vehicle space have been facing cash crunches as consumer demand for the emerging technology has cooled in the face of rising interest rates, unreliability, among other factors.
In a statement sent to various media outlets, ONE officials said the layoffs are the result of shifted priorities within the company, which raised $300 million just a year ago in a round of funding, shortly before consumer sentiment cooled.
“ONE is reinforcing its commitment to its research and development, engineering, supply chain and manufacturing functions,” ONE’s statement, in part, reads. “To accomplish this, the company is re-aligning resources and reducing overall operating expenses in its non-product related functions.”
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The shift in focus, according to the company, will enable ONE “to operate in a more financially efficient manner.”
Whitmer touted Michigan’s ONE investment in an October 2022 news release, when the $236.6 million in state support was first announced.
Michigan Economic Development Corporation pledged $200 million via a performance-based grant through the strategic outreach and attraction reserve fund; $15 million in the way of a Jobs for Michigan Investment Fund loan; and $21.6 million in the form of a state essential services assessment exemption.
In recent months, a growing number of state officials have called on Whitmer and others within her cabinet to slow the brakes on EV incentives. House Republican Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, is among the critics.
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“The governor must right-size state funding and ensure taxpayers aren’t left on the hook for her failure,” Hall said in a November news release on Ford’s job cuts at its Marshall EV plant.