Stellantis announced plans on Friday to lay off as many as 2,450 workers later this year at a pickup truck plant near Detroit, the latest sign of trouble for the trans-Atlantic automaker.
The layoffs are expected to begin as early as Oct. 8 at the Ram truck plant in Warren, Mich., where production will be reduced to one shift from two, the company said on Friday.
Stellantis’s chief executive, Carlos Tavares, has said the company needs to cut costs, and he has noted that at least one North American factory was operating at an unsatisfactory level.
The company has been hit by sluggish sales in North America, where it generates most of its profits, as well as bloated costs and manufacturing inefficiencies. It reported last month that profits in the first six months of 2024 fell by nearly half to 5.6 billion euros (about $6 billion).
“It is an understatement to say that the first-half 2024 results were disappointing and humbling,” Mr. Tavares said on a call with analysts after the earnings report. “This is a bump on the road that we are now fixing and that we are going to fight against to make sure that we can rebound from here, and that we fix the operational issues that we face.”
The layoffs are related to a planned transition to a new version of the Ram pickup that is just going into production at a plant in Sterling Heights, Mich. The Warren plant will continue making an older version of the truck on one shift, the company said on Friday, adding that the actual number of workers affected will probably be lower than the 2,450 noted in a report to the state of Michigan.