Ford is taking seven weeks off from producing its F-150 Lightning electric pickup, temporarily putting 800 out of work, amid what CEO Jim Farley describes as a “slow uptake of EVs.”

The shutdown at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn will run from Nov. 15 through Jan. 6, a Ford spokesman confirmed to Automotive News.

“We will continue to adjust production for the optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” a Ford statement reads.

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Those adjustments have included the company cutting in half production targets for the Lightning earlier this year, costing the jobs of roughly two-thirds of workers at the Dearborn plant, following a plan last year to delay about $12 billion in EV spending.

The delays push back planned production of a new full-size EV pickup in favor of a midsize EV pickup in 2027, and shifted focus at the company’s Oakville, Ontario assembly plant from transitioning to an EV manufacturing hub to producing more Super Duty gas-powered trucks.

Those decisions followed others to shave about $1 billion off Ford’s planned $3.5 billion BlueOval Battery Park near Marshall, a move that slashed projected jobs from 2,500 to 1,700 and prompted the state to cut more than $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies for the project by 60%.

Farley, who recently admitted he drives a Chinese made Xiaomi Speed Ultra 7 EV, told a third-quarter earnings call on Monday that “slow uptake of EVs” will translate into a roughly $5 billion loss from its Model e EV business this year, despite reducing costs by $1 billion and reducing capacity by 35%, Crain’s Business Detroit reports.

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Farley said Ford plans to “improve the trajectory of Model e’s business through cost scaling” next year, when Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas predicts Ford’s EV losses will improve to $4.4 billion, according to the news site.

The continued losses and the public’s reluctance to embrace EVs, particularly in Michigan, home to the Big Three, has played into the 2024 presidential race, as well as the state’s U.S. Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

Republicans are pointing to the detrimental impact of the Biden-Harris EV mandate is having on Michigan’s autoworkers, with former President Donald Trump promising to pursue an all-of-the-above strategy with the automotive industry that would preserve choice between electric, gas-powered and other vehicles.

The Biden-Harris administration is implementing emissions restrictions that would effectively ban all current model gas-powered vehicles and most hybrids.

Trump vowed to “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” thereby “saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration,” while Harris has claimed “I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive.”

Recent layoffs from Stellantis and General Motors and research from the America First Policy Institute illustrate why many Michiganders are leery of Democrats’ forced transition to EVs.

“The Biden-Harris Administration estimates that, under the (new emissions) rule, conventional gas-powered vehicles could make up no more than one-third of newly built vehicles by 2032,” according to AFPI report, which highlighted how fewer moving parts in EVs translates into jobs lost.

The report notes Harris previously sponsored a Zero Emissions Vehicles Act as a senator that would have required 100% of new car sales to be emissions free by 2040.

“If EVs rise to 67% of U.S. vehicle sales the model estimates that almost 123,000 net auto-manufacturing jobs will be lost,” according to the report. “If the government completely bans the sale of conventional gas-powered cars and hybrid vehicles – as policymakers like Vice President Harris have previously proposed – the model estimates 191,000 auto manufacturing jobs would be lost.”

The more conservative scenario would result in the loss of more than 37,000 Michigan manufacturing jobs, far more than any other state.

“It could definitely cost us our jobs, and it already has cost a lot of people their jobs,” Doug, a former Democrat and union auto worker in Warren, recently told BBC.

Doug is among 55% of Michiganders cited in statewide polling this summer that disapprove of the government forced EV transition.

Democrats “are trying to force (EVs) down the public’s throat,” Kim Langenbach, a retired Ford engineer, told Politico. “But the public doesn’t want them.”

“Nobody wants EVs,” added Heidi Baldwin, a self-employed house cleaner. “We want freedom to drive what we want.”

That reality is not lost on politicians like Elissa Slotkin, a champion for EVs in the U.S. House who has since taken a more balanced perspective in her campaign for Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s seat. Her Republican competitor, former Congressman Mike Rogers, has hammered Slotkin repeatedly over a nondisclosure agreement she signed to help negotiate $715 million in taxpayer subsidies for an EV battery component plant in Michigan. The company behind the plant, Gotion, has strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

“I don’t care if people drive an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle or a combustion engine — drive what you want,” Slotkin told Politico following a campaign event in St. Clair Shores. “But if the question is who’s going to build the next generation of cars, I want it to be the United States of America, not China.”

“Slotkin voted three times, including last month, to let the EPA and liberal states ban gas cars that are made in Michigan,” Rogers’ campaign spokesman Chris Gustafson said. “Just like an EV, no one is buying her lies.”

It’s a similar message from Team Trump.

“Kamala Harris is pretending that she never supported forcing Americans to buy electric vehicles, but she was once proud of that, and the facts prove she’s lying today,” Trump campaign adviser Tim Murtaugh told Politico, pointing to Harris’ 2019 legislation to mandate 100% EVs. “And she’s lying specifically to the voters of Michigan because they would be hurt the worst by her devotion to green vehicles and opposition to good old American gas-powered cars.”