Volkswagen to Cut 100,000 Jobs by 2030 in Record Restructure

Volkswagen has announced it will cut 100,000 jobs by 2030, shedding about 15% of its workforce and halving its product line in the largest restructuring ever carried out in the global automotive industry. The German manufacturer said management and unions had agreed to cut a further 50,000 positions by 2030, bringing total job losses in the pipeline to 100,000, after being hit by US tariffs and fierce competition from Chinese rivals. The number of car models the Volkswagen group produces, which includes the Bentley and Audi brands, will be slashed by half, while four production plants in Germany could also be shuttered within the next eight years.

"It is essential to systematically align workforce levels with economic realities, VW said in a statement. The company said it had approved a plan that involved "the reduction of about 50,000 jobs, on top of another 50,000 already agreed. Volkswagen's chief executive, Oliver Blume, was booed last month by staff during a tour of the company's headquarters in Wolfsburg, northern Germany, as part of a company dialogue about the need to address its financial challenges.

At the time, Blume's restructuring plans, which were rumoured to envisage increasing the reduction in headcount from 50,000 to 100,000, were yet to be approved by VW's powerful supervisory board, which represents the labour force and shareholders. However, on Thursday, the company, Europe's largest carmaker, said the board had signed off on the proposals. "The supervisory board has unanimously approved the executive board's future plan presented today, Blume said.

"This is a strong signal for the future of the Volkswagen group. Volkswagen employs more than 650,000 people across all its brands, which also includes Skoda, Seat, Porsche, Cupra and Lamborghini. On Thursday, Volkswagen also said that management and unions agreed that the future of four German plants – in Hanover, Emden, Zwickau and Neckarsulm – could not be guaranteed into the 2030s. Analysts at Deutsche Bank said that the approval of the restructuring plan was a "fundamental breakthrough" and proved investors who believed the carmaker to be "unfixable" were wrong.

"The unanimous approval is, in our view, a fundamental breakthrough and a much-better-than feared outcome, the bank's analyst said in a note to investors on Friday. "To be clear [the] agreement does not solve Volkswagen's challenges overnight. Execution remains key.

The market debate was never about whether Volkswagen had challenges. It was about whether those challenges could realistically be addressed within Volkswagen's complex governance structure. [The] agreement does not end that debate, but it provides the strongest evidence yet that the answer may be yes.

VW has faced increasing pressure from rampant Chinese competition in Europe, decreasing sales in China and hefty US tariffs. Even before that, it was struggling for years with falling profits and overproduction in Europe. Analysts at Citi called the deal a "brave and rational plan".

The bank's analysts said: This is a brave plan and a realistic decision for all concerned. Given VW's German plant competitiveness and lack of global revenue opportunities, VW simply had no other choice. Given VW's supervisory board structure, this illustrates also the responsibility the workers council has taken for ensuring the long-term survivability of the VW core business in Europe.

Shares in VW rose 8% in early trading on Friday. The tough market in China has also hit other carmakers, with BMW cutting its profit guidance for this year because of the disruption caused by the Iran war and the company's struggles in the Chinese market.