Manager Magazin reports that German carmaker Volkswagen plans to lay off up to 100,000 employees worldwide.
According to the magazine, this number is double the previously announced plan, which included cutting 50,000 jobs by 2030. It has not yet been decided whether the additional cuts will be implemented before or after this date.
The magazine quoted sources within the company as saying that Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume had already presented the group's board with a new plan to restructure the company.
One of the magazine's sources explained that the document does not include an exact number of jobs that the company plans to eliminate.
In addition to reducing the number of employees in the foreseeable future, the company plans to close four factories in Germany, namely the Volkswagen plants in Hanover, Zwickau and Emden, as well as the Audi plant in Neckarsulm.
According to the magazine, these factories may cease operations after the production of the models currently being manufactured there is completed.
Volkswagen is also discussing changing its business structure, and according to the magazine, the main Volkswagen brand and its component production unit may be separated into two independent companies.
Manager Magazin noted that this will allow, in the future, if needed, for individual units to be offered on the stock market more easily.
In mid-June, Manager Magazin reported, citing the results of an internal survey, that six out of nine members of the group's board of directors considered the company's situation "existentially threatening," while the other three members described it as tense.
All survey participants said that Volkswagen's previous business model was no longer considered sustainable, and that its development strategy in China and North America needed to be reconsidered.
According to the Welt newspaper, the group's net profit in the first quarter of 2026 fell by 28.4%, to 1.56 billion euros.
Against this backdrop, the CEO of Volkswagen announced plans to eliminate about 19,000 jobs in Germany by the end of the year, noting that the company had already managed to reduce production costs in its German factories by more than 20%.
