Dana Thermal Products laying off 200, closing Auburn Hills facility

By Max Reinhart, MediaNews Group

Dana Thermal Merchandise has knowledgeable state labor officers that roughly 200 staff at its Auburn Hills plant are being laid off.

The corporate is completely closing its Giddings Highway facility, plant supervisor Chris Dodge wrote in a Employee Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act discover to the Michigan Division of Labor and Financial Alternative.

The letter, dated Oct. 8, mentioned the primary layoffs had been anticipated to start Oct. 9 and proceed by means of Jan. 31, 2026. Dodge wrote that the layoffs shall be everlasting.

The corporate attributed the power closure to “unexpected and rapid reductions in buyer orders.” The drop in orders was “pushed by decrease demand for electrical autos,” the corporate informed The Detroit Information in a press release.

The Auburn Hills plant got here on-line in 2022. Employees there manufactured battery cooling plates, in response to an August 2022 information launch from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s workplace. On the time, Dana anticipated continued progress within the electrical car market.

Individuals purchased 438,500 electrical vehicles and vehicles within the third quarter of 2025, Bloomberg reported final week. That determine set a brand new excessive for quarterly EV gross sales, however analysts anticipate gross sales to say no after the federal tax credit expire on September 30.

The closure of Auburn Hills comes after Dana Thermal Merchandise completely closed its St. Clair facility in 2023. As a part of that closure, roughly 204 staff had been laid off.

Dana Thermal Merchandise is a subsidiary of Dana Included, a world chief in thermal administration applied sciences for the mobility business. The Maumee, Ohio-based firm employs roughly 42,000 folks in 31 international locations, in response to its web site.

Initially revealed: October 23, 2025 at 12:13 EDT