Volkswagen is reportedly preparing the most radical overhaul in its history. Up to 100,000 jobs could be cut worldwide, twice as many as thought, and four German plants may close.
The Volkswagen carmaker based in Wolfsburg is bracing for a far-reaching upheaval. According to a report in manager magazin citing insider sources, chief executive Oliver Blume is planning to cut up to 100,000 of the group’s roughly 657,000 jobs worldwide. That would amount to doubling the previous target for job cuts: only a few months ago VW announced plans to axe around 50,000 positions by 2030 – a move already regarded at the time as historically significant.
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Blume is said to have already presented a corresponding restructuring plan to the management board. According to a second insider, the key document deliberately contains no specific figure in order to leave room for how the details are worked out.
Four plants face closure
In addition to job cuts, the manager magazin report says four production sites are also to be shut down in the medium term. The VW plants in Hanover, Zwickau and Emden, as well as the Audi factory in Neckarsulm in the state of Baden-Württemberg, would be affected. Under the plans, production at these locations would be wound up as the models currently built there reach the end of their life cycles. It is still unclear how such a massive reduction in headcount can be pushed through under labour and collective bargaining law: at Volkswagen there is currently a job security agreement in place until the end of 2030, and at Audi even until the end of 2033.
Beyond job reductions, the group is also planning a fundamental overhaul of its structure, according to the report. Both the core Volkswagen brand and the components division are to be spun off from the group and turned into independent companies. On that basis, individual spun-off brands could in future be placed on the capital markets more easily.
A crisis years in the making
The current plans are not a bolt from the blue but the provisional culmination of a deep-rooted structural crisis. In the first quarter of 2026 the group’s net profit slumped by 28 percent to 1.56 billion euros, while revenue fell by 2 percent to 75.7 billion euros.
At the time, chief financial officer Arno Antlitz issued an unusually frank warning: "The cost savings planned so far are not enough. If we fail to do this, we are putting our future at risk." Adding to the pressure are US tariffs which, according to Antlitz, are costing the group around four billion euros a year in additional charges. At the same time, VW lost 20 percent in sales in the first quarter in its most important single market, China – Chinese manufacturers such as BYD are pushing ahead not only on their home turf but increasingly in Europe as well.
