Volkswagen is preparing a sweeping restructuring that could eliminate up to 100,000 jobs worldwide over the next several years and eventually end production at four German plants, according to a report by Manager Magazin.

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The report said Volkswagen Chief Executive Oliver Blume plans to significantly reduce the group's workforce while cutting investment by around 15% over the next five years. Capital spending would fall to just over €130 billion (US$148 billion), reflecting the company's drive to lower costs as it faces mounting competitive pressures.

A Volkswagen spokesperson declined to comment on what the company described as confidential documents.

"The relevant facts of the matter will be discussed and approved by the relevant bodies. We will not pre-empt this process," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The spokesperson added that the entire Volkswagen Group, including its brands and subsidiaries, must undergo "far-reaching change."

Major Restructuring Plans

According to Manager Magazin, Blume and Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz are planning a fundamental overhaul of the company.

The magazine, citing sources, reported that Volkswagen's core VW brand and its parts-manufacturing operations would be separated from the current group structure and reorganised into standalone entities.

The restructuring would also involve a gradual shutdown of production at four German factories. The report said vehicle manufacturing would end at Volkswagen's plants in Hanover, Zwickau and Emden, as well as Audi's facility in Neckarsulm, once the models currently built there reach the end of their production cycles.

Cost-Cutting Drive Intensifies

Blume has previously pledged to deepen Volkswagen's cost-cutting efforts beyond the 50,000 job reductions already under way.

Although Volkswagen reached an agreement with labour unions in 2024 that ruled out plant closures in Germany during the current decade, under-utilised factories have remained under scrutiny as the company seeks to improve efficiency.

Industry Under Pressure

Volkswagen, along with other European automakers, is grappling with a combination of challenges, including tariffs, growing competition from Chinese manufacturers and the costly transition to electric vehicles.

The reported restructuring plans underscore the scale of the changes facing Europe's largest carmaker as it attempts to strengthen its competitiveness in a rapidly evolving global automotive market.

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Adapted by ASEAN Now. Source 26 June 2026

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I find this very hard to believe.

With all the brilliant engineers and designers flooding over borders into EU countries every day prepared to share their subsaharan expertise for the greater good on minimal wages, how could these bigoted homogenous Asian countries possibly compete with our diversity?

Its our greatest strength yet they outperform us without it.

Its a real mystery.

18 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

I find this very hard to believe.

With all the brilliant engineers and designers flooding over borders into EU countries every day prepared to share their subsaharan expertise for the greater good on minimal wages, how could these bigoted homogenous Asian countries possibly compete with our diversity?

Its our greatest strength yet they outperform us without it.

Its a real mystery.

Do you have to bring your bigoted anti-immigrant nonsense into every single topic Jonny???

You are obsessed, I worry about you.

Seems to be mostly about electric vehicles. Maybe VW are going the Japanese route and exploring other sources of energy.

3 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

Seems to be mostly about electric vehicles. Maybe VW are going the Japanese route and exploring other sources of energy.

Or maybe like the Japanese marques they ignored electric for too long hoping it would go away and are now so far behind the Chinese it is almost impossible to catch up. So they spend massive amounts on PR about fictitious new power sources that are always "just around the corner" and "going to kill EVs".

It's a really really long corner it seems.

VW is a large company. In South America the cars run mostly on sugar. So PHEV's are hugely popular.

27 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

Seems to be mostly about electric vehicles. Maybe VW are going the Japanese route and exploring other sources of energy.

Japan, mostly led by Akio Toyoda, thought EV’s would never catch on and pushed Hydrogen.

There’s a place for Hydrogen but not in consumer passenger vehicles.

VE also believes the future is EV, the problem they have is their build cost is too high. To compete they make extremely low margins.

2 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

Do you have to bring your bigoted anti-immigrant nonsense into every single topic Jonny???

You are obsessed, I worry about you.

I realize you can't admit you were wrong at this point. It would be too much to bear.

So good luck defending the carnage over the next couple of decades until you leave your liberal #bekind mess to the younger generations.

My conscience is clear.

WE ARE THE PEOPLE'S CAR YAH

NOT THOSE PEOPLE 🇨🇳

Why you not like our overpriced junk?

Nein Nein Nein!

How can we blame this on Muslim immigrants 🤔

--Germany

Remember dieselgate?

Classic VW beetles are still cool.

No automaker should be transitioning to electric. It's a 1000 percent W-E-F psy op.

💯0% 💥

1 hour ago, Woke to Sounds said:

Remember dieselgate?

Classic VW beetles are still cool.

No automaker should be transitioning to electric. It's a 1000 percent W-E-F psy op.

💯0% 💥

Except customers love them.

Much the same with the first cars, some said horse & cart was better.

If you don’t give customers what they want and good value, you go the way of the dinosaur.

BYD have said they will be bigger than Toyota in 5 years, it wouldn’t surprise me.

9 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

VW is a large company. In South America the cars run mostly on sugar. So PHEV's are hugely popular.

Not exactly sugar is it.

It is Álcool made from sugar cane which was developed in the late 80’s during a gasoline shortage. It is very cheap but also provides poor performance.

The saving grace of this fuel is that cars have been developed to use dual fuel ( Álcool and Gasoline ) separately or mixed together in any ratio, usually determined by the fluctuating price of either fuel.

While very flexible ( the dual fuel cars are called Flex ) they are compromised on performance.

Owners will often choose to have their car set up for one fuel only for economic and performance reasons but if the price of the “ other “ fuel drops significantly can opt to have their cars tuned accordingly.

Very flexible but a very poor efficiency.

Given the effects of AI, and robotics, I fear layoffs worldwide are going to increase dramatically.

52 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Given the effects of AI, and robotics, I fear layoffs worldwide are going to increase dramatically.

52 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Given the effects of AI, and robotics, I fear layoffs worldwide are going to increase dramatically.

52 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Given the effects of AI, and robotics, I fear layoffs worldwide are going to increase dramatically.

Indeed- and very few areas of work will be safe from the growth of AI

3 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Not exactly sugar is it.

It is Álcool made from sugar cane which was developed in the late 80’s during a gasoline shortage. It is very cheap but also provides poor performance.

The saving grace of this fuel is that cars have been developed to use dual fuel ( Álcool and Gasoline ) separately or mixed together in any ratio, usually determined by the fluctuating price of either fuel.

While very flexible ( the dual fuel cars are called Flex ) they are compromised on performance.

Owners will often choose to have their car set up for one fuel only for economic and performance reasons but if the price of the “ other “ fuel drops significantly can opt to have their cars tuned accordingly.

Very flexible but a very poor efficiency.

When I lived in Brazil cars gave more HP running on Alcool than on gasoline not a huge amount more but more non the less. But because energy density of Alcool is less the car uses about 30% more liquid.

Oh BTW Alcool as I said is made from Sugar as the the "alcool" in Thailand made by Mitr Phol use in E10, E20 or E85.

How can we blame this on Muslim immigrants

--Germany

If they blamed it on the real issues, which are high energy prices and competition from China, they may have to admit that Trump was right.

And they scoffed at him.

Oh, and did I mention unfair punitive tariffs from countries like Thailand? He was right about that, too.

They will need those factories and the workers for their upcoming suicidal attack on Russia perhaps they think that

3rd times the charm ?

16 hours ago, JonnyF said:

I find this very hard to believe.

With all the brilliant engineers and designers flooding over borders into EU countries every day prepared to share their subsaharan expertise for the greater good on minimal wages, how could these bigoted homogenous Asian countries possibly compete with our diversity?

Its our greatest strength yet they outperform us without it.

Its a real mystery.

You manage to turn just about every post into rabidly racist screed. You need help. Your anal retentive personality is eating your brain.

TBH, I'm surprised they lasted this long. Lost customer confidence & trust over a decade ago. A few controversies will do that, along with being morally bankrupt, from their early beginning, and onward, IMHO

3 hours ago, thecyclist said:

You manage to turn just about every post into rabidly racist screed. You need help. Your anal retentive personality is eating your brain

got it. its racist to oppose unfettered immigration. open borders, right?

looking at the crime rates and stats, europe needs more anal retentives if they are the ones opposing unfettered migration

1 hour ago, Yagoda said:

got it. its racist to oppose unfettered immigration. open borders, right?

looking at the crime rates and stats, europe needs more anal retentives if they are the ones opposing unfettered migration

No it is not racist to be concerned about immigration levels, but it is at the very least a fixation to attempt to try to ascribe the restructuring of VW directly to immigration.

6 hours ago, impulse said:

If they blamed it on the real issues, which are high energy prices and competition from China, they may have to admit that Trump was right.

And they scoffed at him.

Oh, and did I mention unfair punitive tariffs from countries like Thailand? He was right about that, too.

I agree that high energy prices and increased competition are two of the reasons for the decline in Germany's economic performance but what does this make Trump right about?

A failed company with lousy cars. Shut it all down.

I agree that high energy prices and increased competition are two of the reasons for the decline in Germany's economic performance but what does this make Trump right about?

Trump suggested at a 2018 meeting that tying Germany's energy future to Russian energy probably wasn't a good idea. And they laughed at him. They aren't laughing now.

Back in 2018, President Trump warned Germany in a U.N. speech that it would become completely dependent on Russia for energy if it didn't correct course on their green energy agenda. The German delegation laughed at him at the time, but by 2022, the nation was facing an energy crisis, forced to increase coal usage to save on natural gas.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/amy-curtis/2026/01/16/germany-energy-trump-n2669584

4 minutes ago, RayC said:

what does this make Trump right about?

I think he said they (Germany) were 'mistaken' to shut down the nuclear reactors and instead use cheap abundant Russian oil and gas because low and behold the Nordstream pipelines 'mysteriously' blew up and now they have no cheap and reliable energy to power their country or whats left of the industrial base.

There is some video somewhere of Trump saying this at a meeting and the Germans laughed..I don't think they are laughing so much now.

9 minutes ago, impulse said:

Trump suggested at a 2018 meeting that tying Germany's energy future to Russian energy probably wasn't a good idea. And they laughed at him. They aren't laughing now.

Back in 2018, President Trump warned Germany in a U.N. speech that it would become completely dependent on Russia for energy if it didn't correct course on their green energy agenda. The German delegation laughed at him at the time, but by 2022, the nation was facing an energy crisis, forced to increase coal usage to save on natural gas.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/amy-curtis/2026/01/16/germany-energy-trump-n2669584

Thanks for clarifying matters.

I incorrectly assumed that you were linking this to the tariff issue. My bad. Apologies.

27 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

A failed company with lousy cars. Shut it all down.

The cars were pretty good under the 'original owner' !!!! 😋

https://www.historyhit.com/volkswagen-the-peoples-car-of-nazi-germany/

There is a real problem in the auto industry and its not limited to VW, though they are certainly a major contributor. The automotive industry is facing a worsening crisis centered on soaring costs and declining reliability, affecting not just European imports but also traditional American and Japanese gasoline vehicles. Although the one that surprises me the most is Japanese vehicles.

I'm in the industry and can tell you one horror story after another about over-engineered vehicles that have become prone to pre-mature failures requiring very expensive highly complicated repairs. Its just totally stupid.

• Premature Failures: Modern vehicles are increasingly requiring complex, high-dollar repairs at mileage intervals traditionally considered low.

• Compounded Complexity: Advanced tech integration, tighter emissions engineering, and intricate mechanical systems have made diagnosis and labor significantly more expensive.

• The Reliability Deficit: Brand reputation no longer guarantees longevity, leaving consumers to bear the financial burden of major component failures much earlier in the vehicle's lifespan than expected.

This is the Reality...

19 hours ago, impulse said:

If they blamed it on the real issues, which are high energy prices and competition from China, they may have to admit that Trump was right.

Those aren't the real issues for VW.

1. Cars engineered in anal-retentive German manner which REQUIRES high maintenance, like that's "normal"

2. VW doesn't make it's own batteries, BYD does

3. China has optimized EV only platforms, VW uses legacy platforms

4. VW struggled with software via its CARIAD division and had delays in EV platforms and infotainment systems--buggy software and laggy interfaces is not a German 'strength'

5. China is VW's "most important market" but Germans don't understand why the Chinese hate non-Chinese outsiders, especially Christian ones (Tapei Rebellion, a wackjob Hakka Chinese man thought he was the son of Jesus, left 30 million dead people at the end)

Summary: VW is fighting a 21st-century EV/software battle with a 20th-century industrial structure—while BYD was built for this exact moment.

Absolutely ZERO evidence Trump is "right" about anything, just another cult member babbling about your Great Leader 😂

Those aren't the real issues for VW.

1. Cars engineered in anal-retentive German manner which REQUIRES high maintenance, like that's "normal"

2. VW doesn't make it's own batteries, BYD does

3. China has optimized EV only platforms, VW uses legacy platforms

4. VW struggled with software via its CARIAD division and had delays in EV platforms and infotainment systems--buggy software and laggy interfaces is not a German 'strength'

5. China is VW's "most important market" but Germans don't understand why the Chinese hate non-Chinese outsiders, especially Christian ones (Tapei Rebellion, a wackjob Hakka Chinese man thought he was the son of Jesus, left 30 million dead people at the end)

Summary: VW is fighting a 21st-century EV/software battle with a 20th-century industrial structure—while BYD was built for this exact moment.

Absolutely ZERO evidence Trump is "right" about anything, just another cult member babbling about your Great Leader 😂

You did notice that the factories they're planning to shut down are the ones in Germany, right? Where energy costs have skyrocketed... They may be struggling in China, but I don't see where they're planning to shut down any factories there.