A Springboro company that already has 97 laid-off workers will lay off another 77 next year, leaving about only 20 local workers and an uncertain future.

Battery manufacturer Ovonic Energy Products Inc. is retooling its production line to make a different kind of battery and is laying off employees while it does so, said the head of the union that represents Ovonic workers.

But Ovonic has told Ohio government that it does not know whether the layoffs will be temporary or permanent. It will lay off 77 employees for at least six months beginning in March, according to a WARN (Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification) notice the company filed with the state.

The layoffs will begin March 2, Rachel Reed, the company said in a Nov. 18 letter to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

In addition to the planned layoffs, the company already has 97 employees currently on layoff, Reed wrote. Many of those inactive workers will see their recall rights end next year, she wrote.

In early 2009, Ovonic told the state that it may not be able to recall 119 of 207 workers that it had earlier laid off.

The company is a division of Orion, Mich.-based Cobasys . Ovonics is its only manufacturing facility.

Neither Thomas Neslage, Cobasys chief executive, nor Matt Jonas, Ovonic vice president, manufacturing, returned calls seeking comment.

In late 2010, SB LiMotive — a Korean-German joint venture which acquired Cobasys in 2009 — announced it would assemble lithium-ion batteries for the Fiat 500EV at the plant at 50 Ovonic Way.

James Winship, president of the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communication Workers of America Local 755, which represents Ovonic workers, said the company is transitioning from the production of nickel metal hydride batteries to lithium batteries for electric-hybrid automobiles. The layoffs are occurring while the production line is being retooled, he said.

“It’s a massive undertaking when you change the line,” Winship said.

The company has not lost any customers, he said. The union hopes that the layoffs will be temporary, and he said the company has “actually been good to us” for giving workers four months’ notice on the coming layoffs.

Winship said he feels “confident that all those affected will be called back.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.