{"id":44300,"date":"2026-06-27T02:57:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/44300\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T02:57:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:57:39","slug":"volkswagen-weighs-cutting-up-to-100000-jobs-and-closing-four-german-plants-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/44300\/","title":{"rendered":"Volkswagen weighs cutting up to 100,000 jobs and closing four German plants, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Volkswagen employees work on the assembly line at the company’s plant in Emden, northern Germany, in May, 2022. The carmaker is considering closing the plant as part of a large-scale overhaul.DAVID HECKER\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Volkswagen VWAGY<\/a> is considering shutting four German factories and ramping up job cuts to as many as 100,000, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday, in what could be the biggest overhaul in the carmaker\u2019s history. <\/p>\n

Members of Volkswagen\u2019s supervisory board have been informed of the plans, which are due to be discussed at a July 9 meeting, the people said, as the carmaker faces mounting pressure from Chinese rivals. Closing the plants at Hanover, Zwickau, Emden and Audi\u2019s Neckarsulm site would put more than 45,000 jobs at risk, according to the people. That would add to the 50,000 cuts agreed with unions in late 2024. <\/p>\n

Oliver Blume, who became Volkswagen CEO nearly four years ago, presented the plans to senior executives earlier this week as he seeks to align management behind deep cuts likely to face strong resistance from unions and the state of Lower Saxony, which is the carmaker\u2019s second-largest shareholder. <\/p>\n

The overhaul was first reported by Manager Magazin. The world\u2019s No. 2 automaker would also cut planned investment by about 15 per centt to just over \u20ac130 billion (US$148-billion) over the next five years, the magazine said. Blume and chief financial officer Arno Antlitz aim to fundamentally restructure the 89-year-old company, including spinning off the core VW brand and parts operations into separate entities, the magazine added, citing sources.<\/p>\n

\u2018Far-reaching\u2019 change needed, company says<\/p>\n

A Volkswagen spokesperson declined to comment on \u201cconfidential documents.\u201d \u201cThe entire group, including its brands and subsidiaries, must undergo far-reaching change,\u201d the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

VW\u2019s works council and Germany\u2019s powerful IG Metall union vowed to resist any such measures, saying in a joint statement on Friday: \u201cShould such plans go ahead, we would do everything in our power to prevent them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Porsche SE, the investment vehicle of the Porsche and Piech families and Volkswagen\u2019s biggest shareholder, declined to comment. In its 2025 financial year, the group\u2019s global work force was 667,164, with almost 43 per cent employed in Germany. <\/p>\n

VW\u2019s shares were trading at 16-year lows on Friday morning, down 0.4 per cent, suggesting investors were skeptical the plan would succeed.<\/p>\n

Pressure from rising Chinese rivals<\/p>\n

Blume is under pressure to revive Volkswagen\u2019s fortunes as it battles tariffs, a costly shift to electric vehicles and growing competition from Chinese automakers, perhaps its biggest threat. Major automakers have steadily lost ground to locally produced EVs in China. <\/p>\n

According to AlixPartners, non-Chinese automakers\u2019 market share fell to 32 per cent in 2025 from 57 per cent in 2020. Having been China\u2019s top automaker for years, Volkswagen was knocked into second place by BYD in 2024 and fell to third place in 2025. That decline has now spread to premium automakers like BMW , which issued a shock profit warning last week blamed partly on weak China sales.<\/p>\n

Chinese automakers are also expanding into emerging markets and are growing rapidly on Volkswagen\u2019s home turf in Europe. BYD, Chery, SAIC and Leapmotor doubled their combined European market share through May from a year ago, according to ACEA data, and dozens more Chinese automakers have launched or plan to launch in Europe soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Volkswagen employees work on the assembly line at the company’s plant in Emden,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20947],"tags":[3711,3701,3712,3694,3692,3713,2042,3691,3706,3707,3703,3693,3690,95,1384,1442,3705,3699,3724,3695,3696,1235,3702,96,1304,3714,3698,3719,3720,3722,3717,3721,3715,3718,3697,3709,3710,358,3708,3716,3700,43,537,3704,2469,5356,46,3723],"class_list":["post-44300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-volkswagen","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-volkswagen","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}