Volkswagen weighs up to 100,000 job cuts and factory closures

Volkswagen is considering eliminating as many as 100,000 jobs worldwide, out of a workforce of 657,000, and closing four plants. The planned cuts would be about double the scale previously announced only a few months ago, and are intended to be carried out by 2030.

The sites that could shut are in Hanover, Zwickau and Emden, plus an Audi plant in Neckarsulm. Under the plan, production at those locations would be phased out as the models built there reach the end of their life cycles.

The move is not yet straightforward legally, because Volkswagen currently has a job-security agreement running through the end of 2030, while Audi’s agreement lasts until the end of 2033. The group is also studying a major structural overhaul that would split the core Volkswagen brand and its components division out of the group and turn them into independent companies.

The crisis follows a longer period of structural weakness. In the first quarter of 2026, Volkswagen’s net profit fell 28% to 1.56 billion euros and revenue declined 2% to 75.7 billion euros. Finance chief Arno Antlitz warned then that the cost cuts already planned were not enough and that failure to act would endanger the company’s future. He also said US import tariffs are costing the group about 4 billion euros a year, while Volkswagen lost 20% of its sales in China in the first quarter as local rivals such as BYD strengthen at home and in Europe.