SK Battery America cuts 958 jobs at $2.6 billion Georgia plant amid EV pullback

SK Battery America confirmed on March 7, 2026 that it laid off 958 workers at its Commerce, Georgia, battery manufacturing facility, a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed by human resources chief Chuck Moore shows. The WARN states Friday was the last working day for those employees, who will be paid through May 6. The plant, which opened in January 2022 as a $2.6 billion investment, will continue operating with about 1,600 employees.

The layoffs amount to roughly 37 percent of the Commerce workforce and mark a sharp reversal for a plant that was part of a wave of U.S. battery investments tied to automakers’ initial push into electric vehicles. SK has supplied batteries for the Ford F-150 Lightning and is also a supplier to Volkswagen. Ford announced in December that it was canceling the fully electric version of the F-150 Lightning, a decision that contracted near-term demand for SK’s cells and modules.

Joe Guy Collier, SK Americas spokesperson, explained the move in a company statement: "To align operations to market conditions, SK Battery America has made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce. We appreciate the contributions of employees and will be working with those affected during this transition. SK Battery America remains committed to Georgia and to building a robust U.S. supply chain for advanced battery manufacturing. We are pursuing a range of future customers, including the Battery Electric Storage System arena."

The cuts follow a broader retreat in U.S. electric vehicle policy and consumer incentives, which has reshaped demand expectations for automakers and their suppliers. The Trump administration has moved to scale back federal tax incentives for EV buyers and manufacturers and to loosen emissions rules, reversing a policy environment that earlier encouraged rapid expansion of domestic battery capacity. Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff blamed the administration directly, saying, "Let’s be clear: these were battery manufacturing jobs and now they’re gone," and, "As predicted, Trump’s war on electric vehicles is hurting Georgia’s economy. We were booming and building new plants. Now Georgians are losing their jobs."

For SK, the Commerce layoffs expose the risk of oversized capital commitments when vehicle electrification plans shift. The company and automaker partners had previously funneled billions into U.S. battery capacity; one report cited a combined $11.4 billion investment with Ford in joint battery plants, and the partners ended their joint venture in December. That withdrawal of joint-development support has left standalone cell makers facing underutilized lines and elevated fixed costs.

Locally, the reduction removes a substantial share of good-paying manufacturing jobs in Jackson County, roughly 70 miles northeast of Atlanta, and raises questions about the ability of regional suppliers and service firms to absorb the shock. SK said it will work with affected employees during the transition, but details on severance, benefits continuation, or recall rights were not disclosed in the WARN.

Strategically, SK’s stated intent to seek customers in the Battery Electric Storage System market signals an attempt to pivot toward stationary storage demand to fill idle capacity. The Commerce action underscores a broader inflection in the U.S. EV industrial strategy: without sustained policy incentives and stable automaker commitments, the factory-scale build-out of battery capacity risks becoming a stranded-asset problem rather than a durable reshoring success.