{"id":53270,"date":"2026-07-12T18:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/53270\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T18:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:18:12","slug":"volkswagen-ceo-looks-to-avoid-plant-closures-as-automaker-moves-to-cut-costs-butler-eagle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/53270\/","title":{"rendered":"Volkswagen CEO looks to avoid plant closures as automaker moves to cut costs \u2013 Butler Eagle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Megan Krystle Weinraub, left, and Preston Martin, who is the former owner, pose in front of her Volkswagen bus after seeing it for the first time Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Malibu, Calif., after it was restored by VW. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill)<\/p>\n

BERLIN \u2014 Volkswagen’s CEO indicated in comments published Sunday that he’s trying to avoid closing plants as he seeks to turn around the automaker’s performance.<\/p>\n

The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company faces pressure to cut costs at home and increasingly intense competition in the lucrative Chinese market, in particular.<\/p>\n

Last week, Volkswagen said its \u201cfundamental realignment\u201d over the past three years had reached its next phase, announcing plans to streamline the model lineup by up to half.<\/p>\n

It didn’t provide specifics, and questions remain over how else it will cut costs. There has been renewed speculation about the future of several plants in Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are more intelligent solutions than closing plants,\u201d CEO Oliver Blume told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.<\/p>\n

He added that a cost-cutting program in Germany already is producing effects. \u201cWe were able to improve our factory costs in Germany by an average 20% last year alone,\u201d he said, describing that as \u201cstrong progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blume argued that Volkswagen’s products are very popular, but \u201cwe just earn too little<\/p>\n

money with them. So we must continue to reduce our costs. In all kinds of costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

FILE – In this April 13, 2018 file photo, Volkswagen logo is pictured in front of a company building in Wolfsburg, Germany. (AP Photo\/Michael Sohn, File)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Megan Krystle Weinraub, left, and Preston Martin, who is the former owner, pose in front of her Volkswagen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20947],"tags":[8543,8535,8530,8550,8556,8558,8534,8538,8536,23,8537,8542,8533,8555,8549,8532,8553,8541,8531,8544,1304,6481,8547,42,2018,1984,8548,3709,8539,8552,8551,8540,8557,5356,8546,8545,8554],"class_list":["post-53270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-volkswagen","tag-bruin","tag-butler","tag-butler-eagle","tag-cabot","tag-callery","tag-cherry-valley","tag-community-news","tag-connoquenessing","tag-cranberry","tag-crime","tag-east-butler","tag-eau-claire","tag-education-news","tag-evans-city","tag-fairview","tag-government-news","tag-harmony","tag-harrisville","tag-high-school-sports-news","tag-karns-city","tag-local-news","tag-mars","tag-mount-chesnut","tag-news","tag-obituaries","tag-pennsylvania","tag-petrolia","tag-political-news","tag-portersville","tag-sarver","tag-saxonburg","tag-slippery-rock","tag-valencia","tag-volkswagen","tag-west-liberty","tag-west-sunbury","tag-zelienople"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53270","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=53270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}