The Volkswagen Group plans to cut up to 30,000 jobs in Germany as it scrabbles to improve its profitability.
The job cuts, affecting around 10% of the firm's workforce in the nation, would hit its research and development division the hardest, according to German trade publication Manager Magazin.
Some 4000-6000 of its roughly 13,000 R&D staff would be made redundant, it reported.
The Volkswagen Group has also reneged on a union agreement guaranteeing job security at six German factories until 2020, as it considers shuttering two of them.
Autocar previously reported that Dresden and Osnabrück, which collectively build the Volkswagen ID 3, Volkswagen T-Roc Cabriolet, Porsche 718 Boxster and Porsche 718 Cayman, were being studied for closure.
It comes as the Volkswagen Group aims to rapidly “reduce costs in Germany to a competitive level”, with demand for its cars yet to recover since the Covid pandemic.
“We are short of around 500,000 car sales a year, the equivalent of around two plants,” financial chief Arno Antlitz said in a recent speech to staff at Volkswagen's Wolfsburg headquarters.
A spokesperson for Volkswagen yesterday declined to confirm the figure of 30,000 job cuts.
They told German media agency the DPA: “One thing is clear: Volkswagen has to reduce its costs at its German sites. This is the only way the brand can offer attractively priced vehicles and still make enough money for future investments.
“How we will achieve this goal together with the employee representatives is part of upcoming talks.”
Add your comment