100,000. That’s the job cut number. Globally. By 2030.
Half of them, 50,00 souls, vanish in Germany alone.
Oliver Blume, the chief executive, doesn’t mince words. He says it’s a necessity. The car giant is shrinking. Hard.
The model count is dropping by fifty percent. Complexity inside the machines? Down seventy-five. They’re stripping out the noise.
Remember the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo? Gone. The Jetta? Axed in many places. Audi already killed the A1 and Q2. Poof.
The goal isn’t just fewer cars. It’s fewer factories running at half-empty capacity.
The Production Cut
They want nine million cars a year by 2030. Not twelve. Not even ten. Nine.
That’s down from the post-Covid high. German plants are sitting at roughly 75% capacity. They’re not busy. Not nearly as busy as the books would have you believe.
Closing factories in Germany isn’t just a business decision. It’s political warfare. The unions hold all the power. They are tough. They are loud. Public officials hate the optics of shutting down a plant in their district.
But Blume has four names in his head that won’t come out right now. Zwickau. Emden. Hanover. Neckarsulm.
We are unable to find alternative uses for these four sites. They cost too much.
Too expensive. That’s the only reason that matters to a spreadsheet.
The Chinese Angle
Here’s the twist.
Volkswagen isn’t just cutting. It’s looking east. Specifically, it’s looking at building Chinese cars in Europe.
Yes, you read that right.
The ID. ERA 9X might be rolling out of German or European lines. Why? Because the margin on Chinese EVs is better than their traditional internal combustion engines. They want to use those expensive empty plants for something that actually prints money.
Blume talked to Auto Express about partnering with Chinese brands in Europe. Maybe not a joint venture, just yet. He said there are “no talks” officially. He’s focusing on his own products.
For now.
He also brags about cutting a billion dollars in costs compared to last year. He points to agreements from two years ago as the reason. But the real meat of the savings? Layoffs. 18,00 jobs slashed in the VW brand alone by the end of this year.
Smoldering Ash
This is called a “realignment.” Corporate speak for we were wrong.
They want to focus on core products. Things that benefit the customer. A nice phrase. But what it really means is harmonizing everything. Fewer platforms. One software architecture. Stop developing parallel systems for Audi, Porsche, and VW. Just pick one and run with it.
Why now? Tariffs in the US are hurting. Chinese brands are flooding the market with cheaper, better tech. Geopolitics is unstable.
In 2023. Thomas Schaffer said the roof was on fire.
Now? He says the worst is past. The fire is just smoldering.
But the fire isn’t contained to one brand anymore. It’s spreading. From VW to Audi to Porsche. The flames are back.
You wonder if cutting jobs is the same as putting out a fire. Or just rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship.
Maybe the Chinese cars save it.
Maybe not.
Who knows?
