Volkswagen AG is looking to cut tens of thousands of additional jobs and may shutter factories in a push by Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume to make Europe’s biggest automaker more competitive, Manager Magazin reported.
The plans, presented by the CEO during a management board meeting earlier this week, include doubling staff reductions to as many as 100,000, Manager Magazin reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Porsche and Audi owner currently employs around 657,000 people.
Blume’s renewed restructuring push will be presented to the supervisory board next month for discussion. VW’s plans often get watered down as labor representatives make up half of the body.
His strategy also involves cutting general overhead costs by €11 billion ($12.5 billion) by the end of this decade, as well as closing four German factories in the medium term, the magazine said. They include an Audi site in Neckarsulm as well as VW plants in Hanover, Zwickau and Emden. Blume is also considering separating componments plants and, crucially, the namesake VW brand to make the group leaner, the report said. The nameplate has long struggled with low profitability.
Volkswagen “must undergo profound change,” said a company spokesperson, declining to comment on the specifics of the Manager Magazin report. The executive board “has been working intensively over the past few months on a future-oriented plan to realign the company.”
Blume has been trying to slim down Volkswagen as the industrial manufacturer grapples with US tariffs, a persistent weakness in China and mounting competition in Europe from rivals including BYD Co. and Stellantis NV.
He’s made some progress, including by selling a 51% stake in its Everllence marine-engine unit to raise cash. Some 28,000 workers have agreed to leave VW, part of an already communicated push to reduce 50,000 workers across the group by 2030. VW has also whittled down its production capacity from 12 million vehicles a year toward a more realistic 9 million.
Labor leaders were swift to push back against the new plans. They “unsettle our workforce and the regions where we operate,” according to a joint statement from the company’s works council and the IG Metall union. “Should such plans be pursued, we would oppose them with all our might.”
Pushing through job cuts at Volkswagen is difficult. Worker representatives occupy half the seats on the carmaker’s supervisory board, and the German state of Lower Saxony — which tends to side with unions — has another two seats.