Volkswagen chief executive Oliver Blume is preparing one of the most far-reaching restructurings in the carmaker’s history, with plans reported to include cutting up to 100,000 jobs and ending production at four German plants, as Europe’s biggest automaker confronts a deep structural crisis. The plans, reported by Manager Magazin citing insider sources, were said to have been presented by Blume to the management board earlier this week, and Volkswagen has declined to confirm the specific figures, saying it will not pre-empt a process still to be approved by the company’s governing bodies.
The reported scale of the cuts would mark a dramatic escalation. According to the magazine, the plan would reduce the group’s roughly 657,000-strong global workforce by as many as 100,000 over the next few years — double the around 50,000 reductions VW had already announced for Germany by 2030, a program considered as historic when it was unveiled. The report also said four plants would close over the medium term: VW sites in Hanover, Zwickau and Emden, and a plant of sister brand Audi in Neckarsulm, with production wound down as current models are phased out. Alongside the workforce reductions, the magazine said Blume intends to cut planned investment by around 15% to just over €130 billion over five years, and to restructure the group, including separating the core VW brand and its parts operations into distinct entities.
The financial background explains the urgency. Volkswagen’s net profit fell 28% to €1.56 billion in the first quarter of 2026, with revenue down 2% to €75.7 billion, and chief financial officer Arno Antlitz warned bluntly that the cost savings planned so far were not enough and that failing to act would put the company’s future at risk. The group is also absorbing the impact of US tariffs, which Antlitz has said cost it around €4 billion a year, while in China — its single most important market — first-quarter sales fell 20% as domestic manufacturers including BYD gain ground both at home and increasingly in Europe.
Volkswagen’s official response acknowledged the pressure for change without confirming the detail. A spokesman said the company would not comment on confidential documents and would not pre-empt discussions still to be approved by the relevant bodies, but stated plainly that the entire group, including its brands and subsidiaries, must undergo far-reaching change. That carefully worded position confirms the strategic direction while leaving the specifics to a formal process, and reflects the sensitivity of plans that touch tens of thousands of jobs and long-protected German plants.
The reported plan would test the limits of Volkswagen’s industrial settlement. Closing German plants would collide with a 2024 agreement with unions that guaranteed no plant closures this decade, setting up a confrontation with a powerful workforce and the worker representatives who hold significant influence over the company’s supervisory board. A second insider quoted in the report said the key planning document deliberately avoids a specific headcount figure to preserve room for negotiation — an indication that the final shape of any restructuring will be settled through bargaining rather than imposed, however ambitious Blume’s starting position.
The plan’s fate now rests on a formal timetable. Blume is reported to be presenting his “Group Target Picture” strategy for 2030 to Volkswagen’s supervisory board on July 9, the point at which the direction set out in the reports will meet the scrutiny of a board on which employee representatives sit. Whether Blume can secure agreement for cuts on the reported scale, or is forced to moderate them through negotiation, will determine how far Volkswagen can restructure to meet the competitive and cost pressures bearing down on it — and the July meeting will be the first real measure of how much of this ambitious overhaul the company can actually deliver.
More From CEO Today: Investcorp to Take Majority Stake in UK Facilities Manager Smart Managed Solutions
