The decision was announced after a meeting of the presidium committee of the supervisory board, ahead of a plenary meeting of the Wolfsburg group’s oversight body scheduled for Friday. The first European carmaker had already announced between 2024 and 2026 that it wanted to cut 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030, mainly at its flagship VW brand. A total of 100,000 job cuts would represent about 15% of the group’s workforce. “Given the increasing global competitive pressure, changing demand patterns and technological change in the automotive industry, a substantial adjustment of staffing capacity to economic reality is indispensable,” says the crisis-hit leading European carmaker.
A plan called “Future Plan 2030”
The plan, dubbed “Future Plan 2030”, provides for the elimination of around 50,000 additional posts worldwide by the end of the decade, twice the scale of a previous programme announced in 2024 and since expanded. It is unprecedented in scope for the group and for the German automotive sector as a whole.
The supervisory board, on which employee and shareholder representatives sit in equal numbers, took note “of the existence of an overcapacity of 500,000 vehicles in Europe” and of the fact “that no future competitive production allocation, phased between 2031 and 2034, can currently be guaranteed” for four threatened German plants: Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Neckarsulm. For these four sites in limbo, “alternative uses are being examined”, the group says.
Like the rest of the German car industry, Volkswagen is suffering from weak demand, a slower-than-hoped transition to electric vehicles and growing competition from Chinese brands, which are weighing on sales and profitability. “It is important that the board of management (of Volkswagen) now has the necessary basis to tackle the major tasks ahead. This explicitly includes the development of future scenarios for all sites”, commented the deputy chair of the supervisory board and first chairwoman of the IG Metall union.
D’Ieteren, VW importer in Belgium, is also undergoing restructuring (report from our 7.30pm bulletin)
The first European carmaker, which has 10 brands including VW, Audi, Porsche, Seat and Skoda, had already launched a programme to reduce 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030, mainly within its Volkswagen brand, according to a statement.