There could be more pain to come Volkswagen Groupwith executives reportedly announcing major cuts along the highway.
Accordingly Manager Magazine (above The mirror And Reuters), In mid-January, Oliver Blume, CEO of the Volkswagen Group, and Arno Antlitz, the group’s chief financial officer, met with 120 executives from all of the company’s brands and divisions and asked them to prepare for a comprehensive cost-cutting program.
The German business newspaper believes that the automaker’s “goal” is to reduce costs by 60 billion euros (100 billion Australian dollars), or 20 percent, by the end of 2028. Participants were not told where savings could be made, but the company reportedly did not order any plant closures.
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Mr. Blume is expected to publicly disclose details of the latest cost-cutting measures at the company’s earnings press conference on March 10.
As part of an earlier round of austerity at the end of 2024, the car manufacturer and its unions agreed to lay off up to 35,000 people by 2030. In addition, Volkswagen managed for the first time to close a factory on home soil, the Transparent Factory in Dresden, which had been opened at the beginning of the century to produce the Phaeton luxury sedan.
A company spokesman said this Reuters that this program has resulted in tens of billions of euros in savings and helped the automaker weather geopolitical headwinds, including tariff uncertainty in the United States.
These latest drastic cuts are believed to be necessary due to the company’s weakening position in China, fluctuating US tariff policies and intense competition. The company is also investing heavily in software development, electric drives and improved combustion engines.
Although Volkswagen Group’s global sales remained largely stable at 8.96 million in 2025 and the company ranked second in global sales charts behind a growing Toyota, things aren’t looking quite so rosy in China.
Both the Volkswagen and Audi brands entered the Chinese market when it opened to foreign automakers in the 1980s, and the German automaker was number one there from 1986 until it was overtaken by BYD in 2023.
Sales in China peaked in 2019 when the German automaker sold 4.23 million vehicles. In 2025, Volkswagen Group sold just 2.69 million cars in China, a decline of 8.0 percent from 2024 and 36.4 percent or 1.54 million units fewer than the company’s peak.
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