About eight months after inking a new contract with the United Auto Workers, Stellantis is offering buyouts to its non-unionized workers amid “inflationary pressures” and declining interest in electric vehicles.

Stellantis Senior Vice President of Human Resources Tobin Williams sent a memo on Tuesday offering separation packages to nonunion salaried employees in the United States at the vice president level and below “in certain functions” following an earnings report last week that showed a decline of 48% through the first six months of 2024, The Detroit News reports.

The voluntary buyouts, which include an “enhanced benefits package that has not been previously available,” is part of a strategy to reduce the company’s headcount through attrition, but Stellantis officials warned layoffs could be next if it doesn’t meet its reduction goal.

It’s unclear how many of Stellantis’ 11,000 salaried employees in the U.S. are eligible. The company that produces vehicles under the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram brands inked a new contract with the UAW last year that offered $50,000 retirement incentives for hourly workers in 2024 and 2026, according to the news site.

“As Stellantis continues to address inflationary pressures and, importantly, provide customers with affordable vehicles at the highest quality, we remain focused on taking the necessary actions to reduce our costs to protect the long term sustainability of the company,” according to a Stellantis statement. “One of those actions is offering a voluntary separation package to U.S. employees in certain functions. More detailed information will be provided to eligible employees in mid-August.”

The buyouts are part of a broader cost cutting mission led by CEO Carlos Tavares since Fiat Chrysler and the PSA Groupe based in France merged in January 2021. The company’s “Dare Forward 2030” plan aims to increase profits to double revenue to $325 billion by 2030, CNBC reports.

Stellantis on Thursday reported net profits of $6 billion through the first half of 2024, a figure that’s down 48% from the same timeframe last year. Net revenues of $92 billion was down 14%, results Tavares described as “disappointing and humbling,” according to the Detroit Free Press.

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“It’s to me a no-brainer that this industry is going to be in turmoil,” he said, but noted the company is launching 20 new vehicles this year in a long-term strategy to boost sales, which declined from more than 1 million to 838,000 in North America.

Stellantis’ new lineup includes an electric Ram 1500 pickup, electric Jeep SUVs, and an electric Dodge Charger, despite plans from its competitors to delay EV products, reduce EV investments, and cut EV programs due to slowing growth in sales, The News reports.

In Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic majority in the legislature has pumped billions of tax dollars into incentives for the EV industry, Ford recently shaved about $1 billion off its plans to build a $3.5 billion BlueOval Battery Park near Marshall. The move reduced the footprint from an initial 730 acres to 500, and slashed jobs from 2,500 to 1,700, prompting the state to reduce taxpayer subsidies by 60%.

Ford’s EV business lost $4.7 billion in 2023, and that trend has continued in 2024.

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During the first quarter, Ford sold 10,000 electric vehicles, losing $132,000 on each, company data shows.

“Ford Model e had an EBIT loss of $1.1 billion amid ongoing industrywide pricing pressure on first-generation electric vehicles and lower wholesales,” according to its second quarter 2024 earnings report.

That report came about the same time LG Energy Solution announced it is “adjusting the speed of overall investment” with General Motors in a Michigan electric vehicle battery plant as demand wanes.

GM CEO Mary Barra said in mid-July the company won’t meet its previously touted goal of selling one million EVs next year, citing a slowdown in sales, CNBC reports.

“We won’t get to a million just because the market is not developing, but it will get there,” Barra said. “We’re going to be guided by the customer.”

Tim Nash, auto expert and director of the McNair Center, told WWMT “the fact of the matter is, customers are just not buying EVs the way they thought they would.”

Nash pointed to electric comprising an underwhelming 7% of vehicles sold in the U.S. last year, and noted “this year, the numbers are slowing.

“We are running on an annualized rate of 6.8%, so that is a decline in electric vehicles overall.”

That’s not expected to change much in the short term, despite some upbeat news on EV deliveries from GM, Rivian, and Toyota, Reuters reports.

Analysts who spoke with the news site predict “EV makers still face a bumpy road ahead” and cautioned against reading any increase in sales as a reacceleration of the market.

“We’re expecting this period of time to have bumps along the way for the next few years as the transition goes from early adopters to mainstream buyers and we’re going to see this happen for a long time,” Sam Fiorani, vice president at AutoForecast Solutions, told Reuters. “Some quarters will be up, some quarters will be down, but all in all, it won’t be as strong a growth as we saw over the last few years.”