GM Factory Construction Slows, Indiana Workers Laid Off
General Motors and Samsung broke ground on an EV battery plant in New Carlisle, Indiana, in late August 2024. The two companies promised $3.5 billion in investments into a 680-acre site expected to create 1,600 jobs. Now, with the building’s skeleton already up, construction is slowing down.
Michigan-based Barton Marlow is the contractor entrusted with the plant. It announced, “We can confirm that we recently had to lay off some of our workforce on the New Carlisle, Indiana, project.”
The company took the opportunity to “commit to supporting them through this transition and working to get them back onto this or another project shortly.”
What’s behind the slowdown
The contractor claims construction activities will continue, and the workers may even come back once the pace “ramps up.” So what is going on here? GM and Samsung originally targeted a 2027 opening date for the plant. There’s a good chance the companies are shifting the schedule. Or perhaps GM is getting buyer’s remorse and Samsung is scrambling for a new partner.
At the end of October, GM closed all three shifts of “Factory Zero,” which builds its EVs in Detroit. Why? Lukewarm demand. Two shifts are temporarily back online, but GM finally admitted the third shift will be laid off permanently in 2026.
