Business

Volkswagen considers around 50,000 additional job cuts

Herz — Business Desk · 25 August 2026 at 14:33 · 30s summary · 4 min read

The essentials

Volkswagen is considering around 50,000 additional job cuts across roughly 170 companies, split about evenly between Germany and other countries. CEO Oliver Blume presented the theoretical requirement on Tuesday. The group intends to rely as much as possible on voluntary departures and restrictive hiring, with specific measures still to be negotiated with employee representatives. Unions are demanding guarantees on investment, future models and workloads at German plants. Four sites—Emden, Hanover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm—still lack a viable or competitive production assignment for the 2030s.

Around 50,000 additional jobs are under consideration across roughly 170 companies.
About half of the affected positions are in Germany and half elsewhere.
Volkswagen favours voluntary departures and a restrictive hiring policy.
Four German plants still need a viable production assignment for the 2030s.
Unions no longer rule out industrial action, including strikes.

What we know

Volkswagen is considering around 50,000 additional job cuts, split approximately evenly between Germany and other countries. CEO Oliver Blume said on Tuesday that the theoretical requirement covers roughly 170 companies, according to Le Temps and Handelsblatt.

Management intends to rely as much as possible on voluntary departures, including retirement and mutually agreed termination packages. It also plans to maintain a restrictive hiring policy.

The specific measures still have to be determined with employee representatives.

This would be the second restructuring plan after the one agreed in 2024. It accompanies the tougher cost-cutting measures announced in spring as part of the group’s new strategic vision for 2030.

An existing plan already covers 50,000 jobs

Volkswagen had already announced plans to eliminate 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030. That figure includes 35,000 positions at its core brand, with the remainder at subsidiaries such as Audi and Porsche.

More than 37,000 employees have already signed agreements under the first plan.

50,000

jobs already targeted in Germany by 2030

35,000

jobs affected at the core Volkswagen brand

More than 37,000

employee agreements already signed

Four plants still need a production assignment

The plants in Emden, Hanover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm do not yet have a viable or competitive production assignment for the 2030s.

Blume has described closing them as a last resort that he wants to avoid. He aims to establish solid prospects for the threatened sites within the next six to twelve months.

Volkswagen has made substantial investments in recent years to convert the Emden and Zwickau plants to electric-vehicle production.

Volkswagen seeks to lower costs

Blume attributes the pressure on the automotive industry to US tariffs, changes in the Chinese market and several political crises.

He says Volkswagen must reduce complexity, streamline its structures and lower costs. An operating margin of 3.8% would not allow the group to finance its future from its own resources.

The management board plans to review more than 2,000 holdings as well as the model range. It believes a smaller product line-up would reduce complexity and the resources required for development and production.