General Motors is laying off about 1,700 workers across manufacturing sites in Lordstown and Michigan as the auto giant adjusts to slowing demand for electric vehicles.

The Detroit News first reported the cuts Wednesday — covering about 1,200 jobs at an all-electric plant in the Detroit area and 550 workers at the Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Lordstown, in addition to hundreds of other employees slated for temporary layoffs. GM later confirmed the news to The Associated Press.

“In response to slower near-term EV adoption and an evolving regulatory environment, General Motors is realigning EV capacity,” the company said in a statement, while maintaining it “remains committed to our U.S. manufacturing footprint.”

GM added that Ultium Cells also is “adjusting production in response to recent changes in customer plant demand.” The company said that battery cell production in Lordstown and a facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee, would be paused beginning January.

Per the The Detroit News, another 850 workers at Lordstown are slated for “temporary layoffs,” along with 700 employees in Tennessee.

“I’m hoping that this doesn’t foreshadow something worse to come. We don’t want Ultium to close,” Lordstown Mayor Jackie Woodward said Wednesday.

“Ultium is our largest employer. Is this a reflection of the economy? Is this a reflection of more things to come? I don’t know.”

The village receives income from a 1.5% wage tax that Ultium workers pay.

“That has been very helpful for the village in rebounding from the General Motors Lordstown disaster. We’re finally getting to a good place fiscally. This is a little bit of a setback,” Woodward said.

One regional economic agency said it met with Ultium officials in December to discuss the state of the EV market.

Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, said that changes in federal policies have affected product demand.

“Over the course of the last 10 months, we have seen EV growth slow, and this is the result of that. However, I still think that EVs are the world’s future,” he said.

Coviello said he sees the situation as temporary.

“The market is going to have a resurgence at some point,” he said. “It’s just not going to be artificially propped up by federal tax incentives and other federal policies that stimulated the growth.”

He noted that the Mahoning Valley economy has improved through diversification efforts within the past 10 to 15 years.

“We haven’t experienced this kind of an announcement for many years,” Coviello said. “We have diversified to the point that we’re resilient enough as a community to persevere through this one.”

GM said the impacted employees “may be eligible to continue receiving a significant portion of their regular wages or salary, plus benefits.” The Michigan-based company said it will use the pause to make upgrades at both facilities, and it anticipates resuming operations by the middle of next year.

The dwindling EV adoption cited by GM Wednesday arrives shortly after a recent expiration of federal tax credits. Before Sept. 30, new EVs came with a $7,500 federal tax credit, and up to $4,000 for used vehicles. But prospective buyers can no longer qualify. The incentive was ended as part of the massive tax and spending cut bill Congress passed in June.

GM also has downsized other parts of its workforce recently. In the last week, that’s included layoffs of 200 salaried employees — mostly computer-aided design engineers in Detroit — and another 300 job cuts in Georgia, where the company is shutting an IT Innovation Center.