Volkswagen prepares massive layoffs globally

The Volkswagen Group plans to lay off 100,000 employees globally and close four factories in Germany in an unprecedented reorganization plan, according to an article published on Friday by the German website Manager Magazin and taken over by Euronews.

Volkswagen, which currently has around 657,000 employees worldwide, had previously analyzed the reduction of around 50,000 positions by 2030, a goal already considered historic in its scope. New information from inside the company obtained by the cited source, however, indicates that CEO Oliver Blume wants to double this plan, reaching the elimination of up to 100,000 jobs, in an attempt to return the company to a financially sustainable trajectory. According to the cited sources, Oliver Blume has already presented a comprehensive restructuring plan to the Board of Directors. One of the Volkswagen employees claimed to the cited source that the key document intentionally does not contain an exact number of layoffs, in order to allow for further adjustments depending on the development of negotiations and the economic context.

However, the restructuring is not limited to staff reductions. Volkswagen is expected to close, in the medium term, four major production units in Germany. These are the factories in Hanover, Zwickau and Emden, as well as the Audi plant in Neckarsulm, Baden-Wurttemberg. According to the analyzed plan, production activity at these locations will cease after the end of the manufacturing cycle of the models currently being produced. However, it remains unclear how such measures could be implemented, given that Volkswagen currently has a job guarantee valid until the end of 2030, and at Audi this protection extends until the end of 2033, being provided for in the collective labor agreements.

However, the management's plans go further. The sources cited claim that the group is preparing a deep structural reorganization, by separating the Volkswagen brand and the components division into independent companies. Such a restructuring would facilitate, in the future, the listing of entities or brands separated from the group on the capital markets, offering the company greater financial flexibility and the possibility of attracting additional investments.

However, this radical reorganization does not appear out of the blue, but represents the culmination of a structural crisis that has been affecting the German manufacturer for several years. The financial results for the first quarter of 2026 confirm the difficulties that the group is going through. Net profit collapsed by 28%, to 1.56 billion euros, while revenues fell by 2%, reaching 75.7 billion euros.

The company's CFO, Arno Antlitz, then issued one of the harshest warnings in recent years regarding the situation of Volkswagen. "The cost reductions planned so far are not enough. If we fail to achieve this goal, we are putting our future at risk,” he said.

The pressure on the group is also amplified by external factors. According to Antlitz, the new customs tariffs imposed by the United States are generating additional costs of around four billion euros annually for Volkswagen. At the same time, the German manufacturer is losing ground in its most important individual market, China, where sales fell by 20% in the first quarter of 2026. In parallel, Chinese manufacturers, especially BYD, are consolidating their position in the domestic market and accelerating their expansion in Europe, intensifying competitive pressure on European manufacturers.

In this context, the restructuring plan prepared by Oliver Blume is considered by many analysts as the most radical transformation in Volkswagen's history. If fully implemented, it will profoundly change the structure of one of the world's largest car manufacturers, with major implications for both the German auto industry and the European labor market, at a time when the entire sector is going through one of the most difficult and rapid transformations in recent decades.