The Detroit News reported Wednesday that General Motors has laid off thousands of workers from manufacturing facilities in Ohio and Michigan. Though it is tempting to suggest the reason is purely a matter of GM’s overeagerness to catch up to the electric vehicle push, the reality is a bit more complicated.

At the company’s Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Warren, there are expected to be approximately 550 cuts and 850 temporary layoffs, according to a report by CNBC. There will also be approximately 700 layoffs at the Ultium Cells plant in Tennessee.

Those gleefully pointing to the staffing cuts as evidence that the electric vehicle movement is failing should be quickly silenced by the reminder that these are hundreds upon hundreds of Buckeye State residents being laid off or losing their jobs entirely, less than two months before Christmas — and in the middle of a federal government shutdown that has put all kinds of resources in jeopardy.

And this isn’t about reassessing Americans’ desire to drive electric vehicles.

“In response to slower near-term (emphasis ours) EV adoption and an evolving regulatory environment, General Motors is realigning EV capacity,” the company said in a statement. “Despite these changes, GM remains committed to our U.S. manufacturing footprint … ”

One of those changes is a planned upgrade of the facilities in Ohio and Tennessee, which will allow it to resume operations at both sites in the middle of next year, according to CNBC. Meanwhile, the company is also cutting hundreds of jobs at its global tech campus near Detroit, and working through that “evolving regulatory environment” — i.e. uncertainty about which way the wind will blow from day to day in Washington, D.C.; and continued slow spending growth as families remain cautious about how they use their money.

Companies don’t make this kind of decision based on political whims. They’re interested in numbers, facts … what will make them money AND be best for the company and its employees.

“We continue to believe that there is a strong future for electric vehicles, … but we do have some structural changes that we need to do to make sure that we lower the cost of producing those vehicles,” CFO Paul Jacobson said on CNBC.

GM isn’t giving up on EVs. It’s changing the way it thinks about producing them. While it goes through those growing pains, the rest of us should steer clear of political cheap shots and remember instead that GM’s workers are experiencing pain, too.