Samsung SDI America plans to lay off 179 workers from its EV battery headquarters in Auburn Hills next month, the latest sign Michigan’s big bet on EVs may be a bust.

The company outlined the permanent cuts impacting workers at both it’s Atlantic Boulevard and Continental Drive facilities in a Dec. 18 notice to the state.

“The layoffs are expected to take place between February 24, 2025, and February 28, 2025, and are expected to be permanent,” the notice read.

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Affected employees include managers, engineers, specialists technicians, and more than 100 operators.

Samsung SDI, a subsidiary of the South Korean tech giant Samsung, did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Crain’s Detroit Business about the reason behind the layoffs, but the move follows similar cuts in the EV industry amid waning demand that was already soft in the first place.

While EVs are still gaining market share in the U.S., the government-forced transition to EVs hasn’t played out as fast as automakers like Ford and General Motors expected when they invested tens of billions to make it happen.

Those companies and suppliers including Samsung SDI are now dealing with excess capacity and overstock, as well as public opposition, forcing many to scale back plans or ditch them altogether.

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The situation was created part by billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies negotiated in secret by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration and select lawmakers.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation has awarded Samsung SDI $15 million in incentives to support expansion since 2018, and as recently as late 2023 the company planned to invest $41 million in Auburn Hills to create 368 jobs, according to Crain’s.

MEDC and Samsung SDI have since “chose to mutually terminate” the 2023 plans and an associated $5 million grant, according to the MEDC.

The company previously secured taxpayer funds in 2018 to open its EV battery pack plant and headquarters in Auburn Hills it claimed would create 461 jobs by the end of 2024.

MEDC spokeswoman Courtney Overbey told Crain’s in an email “Samsung successfully completed its milestones (for the 2018 agreement) and as a result, that incentive is no longer active.”

It’s unclear how many employees will remain in Auburn Hills in March.

It’s a similar situation with others in Michigan’s automotive industry that were granted massive taxpayer-funded incentive deals to create jobs that have yet to materialize.

Ford landed more than $1 billion from taxpayers to create 2,500 jobs at a new EV battery factory in Marshall, but have since cut the promised jobs to 1,700, prompting MEDC to slash the prize money to a little over $400 million.

The smaller plant isn’t expected to actually produce batteries until 2026.

MEDC has so far doled out $70.2 million of a $200 million grant for an Our Next Energy EV battery plant in Van Buren Township that’s expected to employ 2,112 when completed in 2027, according to Crain’s.

ONE spokesman Dan Pierce told the news site the company currently employs 50.

General Motors also landed a $666 million cash grant package from MEDC to fund an expansion at the company’s Orion Assembly Plant, and a GM-Ultium battery facility near Lansing it promised would create a total of 4,560 jobs.

MEDC paid out the award in 2023, and GM has since pushed back its plans at the Orion Assembly Plant by a year and pulled out of the Ultium battery facility, a joint venture with South Korea’s LG Energy Solution.

MDEC CEO Quentin Messer told Crain’s the state is now working to renegotiate GM’s incentive deal, which was the largest in the state’s history when it was inked in 2022.

“One of the things that collectively we’ve said is that we will have to go and renegotiate those grants agreements because now GM will not have any employment at (the Lansing plant),” Messer said. “Their sole employment is going to come from the Lake Orion facility, and so that’s going to require us to do a rewrite of those agreements that we’ll be undertaking the first quarter of calendar year 2025.”

Yet another $715 million incentive package for the Chinese Communist Party-linked Gotion Inc. to build an EV battery component plant in Mecosta County remains mired in litigation and opposition from Republicans and local officials.

MEDC has already disbursed $50 million on that project, which is supposed to create 2,350 jobs if Gotion prevails in its legal bid to force the project.

“Due to ongoing legal proceedings involving the Green Charter Township Board, Gotion has chosen to temporarily pause public statements to respect the legal process and ensure fairness,” the company wrote in a statement to Crain’s. “However, this will not affect its ongoing commitment to advancing the project. We look forward to resuming communications and sharing more exciting updates once these matters are appropriately resolved.”

President-elect Donald Trump is “100% OPPOSED” to the Gotion plant over national security concerns, as are a majority of township and county leaders.

On Thursday, a newly elected Mecosta County board of commissioners voted 5-2 to rescind support for Gotion, citing “new information and developments … concerning the project and its ownership structure with direct ties to the Chinese Community Party CCP and broader issues of foreign investment.”

“When 92% of the Mecosta County residents opposed the Chinese battery plant in our community, the board of commissioners should have listened,” newly elected board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said. “When our congressman says there are security concerns with China in our community, the board of commissioners should have reversed their approval of the project.”