Volkswagen board approves Future Plan 2030 with about 50,000 job cuts and a halved model range
Volkswagen's Supervisory Board unanimously approved Future Plan 2030, a group-wide reduction of about 50,000 positions and a roughly 50 per cent cut to the model range by 2035, targeting a 9 per cent operating margin. Engadget reported the cuts stack on top of about 50,000 positions the company already agreed to shed with unions in 2024, pushing total reductions toward six figures, while decisions on four German plants whose capacity exceeds demand by 500,000 units are due by 2027.
Economics & Markets··Evening
The board's unanimous approval
Volkswagen's Supervisory Board unanimously approved Future Plan 2030. The plan targets a 9 per cent operating margin and an operating result of about 31 billion euros on annual sales of 9 million vehicles, with overhead costs held at 37 billion euros and 135 billion euros earmarked for capital expenditure and research and development between 2027 and 2031. It requires a group-wide workforce adjustment of about 50,000 positions, management roles included, while the model portfolio shrinks by around 50 per cent and offering complexity falls by around 75 per cent by 2035. Volkswagen said European production capacity currently exceeds demand by more than 500,000 units, and the plan streamlines its portfolio of shareholdings and businesses by around one-third.[1]
Cuts stack up, plant decision awaits
Engadget reported that the newly approved reduction of roughly 50,000 positions comes on top of about 50,000 cuts Volkswagen had already agreed with unions in 2024, pushing the group's total workforce reduction toward six figures by 2030. The outlet said Volkswagen is weighing whether to repurpose or close its plants in Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Neckarsulm, and that a decision on their future is due by June 2027, the same month Volkswagen's own release dates its concept for a competitive European production structure. Citing German publication WirtschaftsWoche, Engadget also reported that Volkswagen Group plans to retire the Spanish brand Seat while keeping Cupra, which was spun off from Seat as its own brand, as part of the broader cut to the model range.[2]
What the combined wave adds up to
The two waves of cuts move Volkswagen's total workforce reduction toward six figures ahead of 2030, even as the company presents the newly approved 50,000 as a fresh decision layered onto, rather than replacing, the 2024 deal. The capacity question behind the cuts remains open on two different clocks: Volkswagen's own release sets 27 June 2027 as the date for a concept for a competitive European production structure, while it places the actual allocation decisions for the Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Neckarsulm plants between 2031 and 2034; Engadget, citing the same June 2027 date, described it as when Volkswagen intends to decide the plants' fate. Meanwhile the model-range cut of about 50 per cent by 2035, which Engadget linked to Seat's reported retirement, gives the 2030 margin target its nearer-term lever.[1], [2]
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