General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is set to axe 500 executive and salaried roles globally as part of a wider effort to reduce costs, despite claiming just last month it would not cut staff.
"In an environment where our competitors’ margins are improving, it's imperative that we act now and focus on our own efficiency," the US-based automaker’s chief people officer, Arden Hoffman said.
It announced a US$2bn savings target for the next two years in January but explicitly said the plan didn’t involve cutting any of its 167,000 worldwide staff.
A letter from Hoffman to staff on Tuesday countered the automaker’s previous claim though, suggesting cuts to a “small number of global executives and classified employees” did not equate to layoffs, but were rather an effort to manage its "attrition curve”.
“Reducing corporate expenses, overhead, and complexity in all [..] products" will contribute to savings, Hoffman said.
GM, which owns brands such as Chevrolet and Cadillac, is planning to solely offer EVs by 2035 and aims to turn a profit from the emerging business by 2025.
It joins other car manufacturers in cutting jobs as competition within the electric vehicle (EV) market hots up.
Ford is in the midst of purging 3,800 jobs in Europe as it looks to refocus on US-based operations, while start-ups Stellantis and Arrival have also said they will streamline operations this side of the Atlantic.
Tesla has fuelled the scramble among its competitors by lowering the prices of its cars in the US, China and Europe in recent months.