Germany’s Volkswagen is drawing up proposals for a major overhaul that will see 100,000 jobs cut in the next few years, double that of previously unveiled plans, reports say.
Top bosses are considering restructuring and dramatically cutting down the size of the workforce in a bid to make cost savings worth 11 billion euro (£9.5 billion) by 2030, according to local media.
The proposals will involve putting four car plants in Germany under review before ending production, Manager Magazin reported.
It would mark a massive overhaul for the 89-year-old Wolfsburg-based carmaker, which owns a roster of brands including Audi, Bentley, Skoda and Seat.
It would also mean cost-cutting on a much greater scale than previously outlined, having said that 50,000 jobs were due to be cut by 2030 across the group in Germany.
At the time, chief executive Oliver Blume told shareholders that the company was on track to make savings of more than six billion euro (£5.2 billion) by 2030.
“The transformation of the entire company is continuing to pick up speed,” the boss had said.
It comes after reporting that vehicle deliveries had dropped by 10% in the US and 8% in China in 2025.
It said this was because of “challenging market conditions” including tariffs on US imports and increased competition in China where big electric carmakers like BYD have been taking huge shares of the market.
Despite this, deliveries rose by 4.5% in Europe to almost four million vehicles.
Volkswagen reportedly has around 625,000 staff around the world, meaning its job-cutting plans would shed about 16% of the total workforce if they went ahead.
Reports said that details of the new plan were set to be presented to the company’s supervisory board on July 9.
Volkswagen has been contacted for comment.
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