Ann Arbor, Michigan-based AV company May Mobility in mid-February said it would reduce its workforce by about 13% as a way to take “proactive and strategic steps to increase our focus on the company’s highest business priorities," the company said in a statement at the time.

The layoffs come after the AV company in November said it closed a $105 million Series D round, bringing its total funding to about $300 million. May Mobility CFO Anna Brunelle, in a statement to The Detroit News, said the reduction allowed the company "to focus on limited hiring in the areas of autonomy engineers and roles that directly support our commercialization progress."

She added: "Our focused approach underscores our commitment to keeping costs low while attracting strategic investors and developing new technology that will propel our industry forward. We believe this transition strengthens our operational efficiency and puts May Mobility in the best position for growth to better serve our customers across markets.”

Suppliers cut costs

Auto suppliers are also feeling the effects of increased scrutiny on EV adoption timelines. Comments from automaker executives have swung dramatically in the last 15 months, said Warren Browne, an auto supplier consultant and former GM executive who worked at the automaker for 40 years.

"It was we're all-in on electric, (President Joe) Biden is going to give us tons of money, everybody is going to be all-in," Browne said. "Suppliers geared up to meet that vision, to meet that acceleration curve. Now, 15 months later, reality has come. That curve has slowed down, and they have to react."

Our Next Energy Inc. last week cut 37 mostly administrative workers to reinforce its "commitment to its research & development, engineering, supply chain and manufacturing functions," Dan Pierce, a spokesperson for the privately owned Novi battery startup, said at the time. The layoffs came under new CEO Paul Humphries after the company cut a quarter of its staff in November to focus on "core priorities." That cut followed a failed Series C fundraising round even though the startup had been valued at more than $1 billion earlier in 2023.

Aptiv PLC — a manufacturer of vehicle electrical distribution systems, connection systems and smart-vehicle architectures — last month in an annual filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed it had cut nearly 4% of its global employees last year, dropping its salaried employee count by 1,000 and hourly workers by 5,000. It had 154,000 employees globally.

The Ireland-based supplier with North American operations based in Troy spent $211 million on “employee-related and other restructuring charges." About $68 million of that was in the fourth quarter, mostly because of salaried-employee reductions in North America and Europe. Another $75 million charge is expected in 2024.

"The Company plans to implement additional restructuring activities in the future, if necessary," the company said in the SEC filing, "in order to align manufacturing capacity and other costs with prevailing regional automotive production levels and locations, to improve the efficiency and utilization of other locations and in order to increase investment in advanced technologies and engineering.”

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