Early Retirement and Voluntary Severance Plans Offered by Mazda : Cutbacks: Action follows the company’s decision to cancel plans for creating the Amati luxury car.

After canceling plans last month for its proposed Amati luxury-car division, Mazda Motors of America has begun offering employees early retirement and voluntary severance packages to scale back its work force.

The company has no firm goals for the number of employees to take advantage of the two programs or how much money it hopes to save, Mazda spokesman Jay Amestoy said Tuesday. Mazda also has no plans for layoffs if only a few employees accept the voluntary programs, Amestoy said.

The decision to cancel the Amati program is so recent that Mazda is still looking for the best way to reshuffle the 50 or so Amati employees, he said. “We don’t really know what the impacts are yet.”

The staff cutbacks would be the first since Mazda consolidated its East Coast and West Coast operations in Irvine in 1988, Amestoy said. The voluntary severance program is being offered to all of Mazda’s employees, he said. He would not reveal the terms.

Mazda Motors of America employs about 800 at its Irvine headquarters and about 450 others across the nation.