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General Motors is prepared to pare back its electric vehicle and hybrid offerings if President-elect Donald Trump loosens regulations as promised, the company’s CFO said Wednesday.

“In a world where compliance is eased, you could see where you don’t necessarily need as much plug-in, you might not need as much (battery electric vehicles) as well,” GM CFO Paul Jacobson told a UBS Global Industrials and Transportation Conference in Florida.

Political observers expect Trump to nix the Biden-Harris administration’s $7,500 federal tax credit for EV purchases that’s fueling the government-imposed transition to EVs, and to relax emissions regulations that would push mile per gallon averages past 50 for passenger cars and trucks by 2031, the Detroit Free Press reports.

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“We’ve always said that the plug-in hybrids were really … an option for compliance with regulatory standards,” Jacobson said. “So in the event that those change and you don’t need that or they’re lessened, then maybe that could be something we could look at: Getting down some of those models.”

He continued: “As far as electric vehicles go, we still see that as the future long term, and you can see the trend globally. Many of the customers that are new to General Motors are coming in through the EV channel. That’s in a nurturing stage. We’ve got to get it to profitability, but that doesn’t change if the regulations ease.”

Michigan’s largest employer expects regulation changes from the Trump administration could result in a slower transition to EV production, and smaller volumes, “but those are tweaks to the strategy, rather than a full-blown pivot,” Jacobson told the conference.

“We’ve got two lines of business: One that is mature and doing really, really well and we have full-size SUV refreshes coming very, very soon. We’ve seen the order of magnitude improvement we’ve had in the midsize and small crossovers, we think that can continue in the full-size SUVs,” Jacobson said of GM’s gas-powered lineup. “Then we have an up-and-coming EV business. That’s a good, expanding business, we’ve got to get it to that core profitability and I think we’ll be fine and it’ll give us time to balance to the consumer response” to eliminating the federal tax credit.

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Jacobson’s comments come as GM lays off scores of workers amid waning demand for EVs, despite hundreds of millions from taxpayers in Michigan to prop up its EV efforts.

Last month, GM announced the layoff of another 1,000 workers, including 507 salaried and hourly employees at its Global Technology Center in Warren. It was the second round of layoffs since August, when GM dismissed another 1,000, including 600 at the tech center.

“In order to win in this competitive market, we need to optimize for speed and excellence,” GM spokesperson Kevin Kelly said in a November statement cited by The Detroit News. “This includes operating with efficiency, ensuring we have the right team structure, and focusing on our top priorities as a business. As part of this continuous effort, we’ve made a small number of team reductions.  We are grateful to those who helped establish a strong foundation that positions GM to lead in the industry moving forward.”

GM followed up on those announcements with plans to renovate the Renaissance Center it co-owns with billionaire Dan Gilbert in Detroit that assumes taxpayers will help cover $250 million of the project.

GM is moving its world headquarters from the Renaissance Center to Gilbert’s new Hudson’s Detroit Tower, despite receiving state tax credits in 2009 to keep employees at the Renaissance Center.

The $250 million ask was not well received from lawmakers in Lansing, with legislators on both sides of the political aisle expressing opposition.

“GM is way up there, billions of dollars in profit, but they want $250 million from us to tear down the Renaissance Center as they’ve left Detroit and just laid off 1,000 people in Warren,” Michigan House Speaker-elect Rep. Matt Hall, R-Richland Twp., said at a press conference.

“Does GM need it more, or does your local county need it more?” he said. “That’s the question we have to make and answer to very soon.”

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“What is the benefit to it?” questioned state Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit. “I think there may be some pushback on that side of it.”

“Dan Gilbert has a net worth of $25b. Someone making $50,000 a year would have to work for 500,000 years (saving every penny) to amass that fortune,” state Rep. Dylan Wegela, D-Garden City, posted to X. “GM is making record profits. Yet they have the nerve to ask for a $250 million handout.”

GM officials responded to the pushback with a threat to tear down all five buildings that comprise the Renaissance Center if lawmakers reject their public funding request, rather than renovating three and tearing down two under the original proposal.

This week, GM announced it’s also backing out of an EV battery plant in Lansing it built with joint venture partner LG Energy Solution. That project was funded in part by the largest taxpayer incentive package in state history at the time it was inked in 2022, which involved at least $824 million taxpayer-funded subsidies.

“General Motors is demonstrating, once again, a troubling pattern of fleecing Michigan taxpayers and workers,” Hall said in a statement. “Cutting a side deal to pull out of Michigan and keeping taxpayer money is egregious, especially as they continue to kill family sustaining jobs in the process and seek taxpayer support to redevelop the Renaissance Center.”