{"id":201704,"date":"2026-03-03T04:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201704\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T04:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:54:11","slug":"futuristic-flying-ev-maker-is-latest-jobs-bloodbath-to-hit-california-as-it-lays-off-80-of-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201704\/","title":{"rendered":"Futuristic flying EV maker is latest jobs bloodbath to hit California \u2014 as it lays off 80% of staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hyundai has slashed 80% of staff from its futuristic flying EV company in California \u2014 in yet another blow for business in the Golden State.<\/p>\n<p>Supernal, which makes vertical take-off prototypes, revealed last week it was axing 296 jobs at plants in Orange County and Fremont and at a test site in Mojave.<\/p>\n<p>The $1.7 billion startup, which relocated from Washington DC to California three years ago, said it would consolidate operations to its Irvine headquarters.<\/p>\n<p>A futuristic gray and blue electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) aircraft displayed on a stage. supernal.aero<\/p>\n<p>Illustration of a futuristic flying electric vehicle, with a transparent cabin showcasing rows of white passenger seats. supernal.aero<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/2026\/03\/02\/supernal-lays-off-296-workers-consolidates-operations-into-irvine\/?utm_email=042E15D064A175109560E5236E&amp;active=yesD&amp;lctg=042E15D064A175109560E5236E&amp;utm_source=listrak&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.ocregister.com%2f2026%2f03%2f02%2fsupernal-lays-off-296-workers-consolidates-operations-into-irvine%2f&amp;utm_campaign=scng-orange_county_register-the_localist-nl&amp;utm_content=curated\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Orange County Register<\/a>: \u201cThis decision is a strategic pivot to ensure our staffing and cost structures are optimized for the long-term delivery of our market-aligned aircraft design.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHyundai Motor Group remains committed to the Advanced Air Mobility business as part of its future mobility vision, and Supernal will continue to serve as the group\u2019s dedicated AAM execution arm for aircraft development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They added the focus \u201cremains on stabilizing the company, shaping a new business model, and developing a commercially viable aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The exterior of a Supernal building. supernal.aero<\/p>\n<p>Hyundai reshuffled the leadership structure at Supernal in September and has been struggling with test flights for autonomous EVs in Mojave.<\/p>\n<p>After 10% of its workforce was laid off last summer, 80 remain.<\/p>\n<p>It is the latest blow for business in California as rafts of companies scale back in the Golden State amid high taxes.<\/p>\n<p>Last week <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/19\/us-news\/gallo-wine-closes-napa-winery-and-cuts-jobs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Post reported <\/a>major wine manufacturer Gallo was closing a large Napa Valley production facility, wiping out nearly 100 jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hyundai has slashed 80% of staff from its futuristic flying EV company in California \u2014 in yet another&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[387,7,9,8,12598,18218,6113,4182,611,3586],"class_list":["post-201704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-business","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-electric-cars","tag-hyundai","tag-layoffs","tag-metro","tag-orange-county","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}