Volkswagen weighs doubling job cuts to 100,000 and closing four German plants

The plan: doubling job cuts and plant closures

Volkswagen's management board has discussed a proposal to nearly double planned job cuts to 100,000 worldwide, German business magazine Manager Magazin reported on Friday. The existing reduction plan, agreed with unions in late 2024, already targets 50,000 job losses by 2030 across the VW, Audi, Porsche and Cariad brands. Under the new scenario, an additional 50,000 positions would be eliminated.

Four German sites are at risk of medium-term closure: VW's plants in Hanover, Zwickau and Emden, as well as Audi's factory in Neckarsulm. Together these plants employ more than 45,000 people, adding to the pressure on the workforce. A Volkswagen spokesman declined to comment on confidential matters but said the group needed to improve competitiveness.

The board has repeatedly emphasised that our current business model no longer works for all our brands in its current form. The entire group must significantly improve its competitiveness. This requires a sharper focus and even more rigorous cost and investment discipline.

Why Volkswagen is acting

The carmaker wrestles with high manufacturing costs, new US tariffs and fierce competition from Chinese electric vehicle makers, which have eroded its market share. The group aims to cut overall costs by €11 billion by 2030 and to reduce capital expenditure by 15% to just over €130 billion over the next five years, according to Manager Magazin.

A spokesman reiterated that the company must strengthen its financial position. The possible job cuts would be the largest in the Western auto industry since General Motors eliminated 74,000 positions in the 1990s and IBM shed 60,000 in 1993, as noted by il Giornale.

Union and political pushback

The IG Metall union and Volkswagen's works council have vowed to fight the closures. Christiane Benner, head of IG Metall, and works council chief Daniela Cavallo said in a joint statement that they would block the plans "with all our might". They argued that the board should focus on delivering competitive products.

If these plans come to fruition we would stop them with all our might. The board should get on with its job and focus on its core work: competitive products.

Current labour agreements rule out compulsory layoffs at VW until 2030 and at Audi until 2033, which limits the company's room for manoeuvre. The supervisory board, where worker representatives hold half the seats, is expected to vote on the proposal on July 9.

A look at the threatened plants

VW's Emden plant, which switched exclusively to electric vehicle production at the end of 2024, employs more than 7,700 workers and produced 147,000 vehicles in 2025. Hanover, where the iconic 'Bulli' van series is built, has around 14,000 employees. Zwickau, the group's first all-electric factory after a €1.2 billion conversion, employs 8,000 and turns out models for several brands. Audi's Neckarsulm site, with 15,509 workers, builds combustion, hybrid and electric vehicles, including the e-tron GT.

Timeline and next steps

The new cost-cutting plans were discussed by the management board on Wednesday, June 24, according to Italian news agency ANSA. After the supervisory board's meeting on July 9, the final shape of the restructuring could become clearer. Employment guarantees, however, mean that forced redundancies would not start until at least 2030 for VW's German plants and 2033 for Audi.