volkswagen may lay off 30,000 employees, with r&d staff being the first to be affected
2024-09-22
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volkswagen may cut 30,000 jobs in germany as it seeks to become more competitive in europe's shrinking car market, with the biggest cuts coming in research and development as the automaker grapples with high costs at its volkswagen brand, which it hopes to boost to 6.5 percent profit margins by 2026. but in the first half of this year, profit margins at the volkswagen brand fell to 2.3 percent.
blume said that in the long run, it is feasible to lay off 30,000 german employees, accounting for about 10% of the company's total number of employees in germany. antlitz said it hopes to reduce investment from 170 billion euros to 160 billion euros in the next five years.
according to foreign media reports, volkswagen may lay off 30,000 employees in germany in an effort to become more competitive in europe's shrinking auto market, with the largest number of layoffs expected to be in the r&d department. it is reported that 4,000 to 6,000 of volkswagen's 13,000 r&d personnel in germany will lose their jobs.
oliver blume, ceo of volkswagen group, said that in the long run, it is feasible to lay off 30,000 german employees, accounting for about 10% of the company's total german employees. arno antlitz, chief financial officer of volkswagen group, said that he hopes to reduce investment from 170 billion euros to 160 billion euros in the next five years.
volkswagen said this month it needed to significantly cut operating costs for the volkswagen brand, citing high costs, low productivity and fierce market competition. to this end, it will cancel the labor agreement at six factories in germany that "no layoffs before 2029", increasing the possibility of factory closures and forced layoffs.
earlier this month, antlitz told employees at its wolfsburg headquarters that european market demand has not recovered since the outbreak and the company has lost 500,000 vehicle sales, equivalent to the output of about two factories. "sales are not expected to recover, and the volkswagen brand must cut spending and adjust production to survive the transition to electric vehicles."
currently, volkswagen group is struggling to cope with the high costs of the volkswagen brand, hoping to increase the latter's profit margin to 6.5% by 2026. but in the first half of this year, the profit margin of the volkswagen brand fell to 2.3%.
volkswagen's labor-management committee said the rumors of 30,000 layoffs were groundless and pure nonsense. a volkswagen spokesman said volkswagen must reduce costs at its german factories to have enough cash to invest in the future. "how to achieve this goal with employee representatives is part of our upcoming negotiations."
as early as 2021, herbert diess, former ceo of volkswagen group, warned that 30,000 volkswagen jobs in germany could be at risk as the automotive industry transitions to electrification. this damaged diess's relationship with volkswagen's union and was one of the reasons why he lost his job. (china economic net jiang zhiwen/translation)
source: china economic net
