Volkswagen Groupthe parent company of car brands, including Porsche, Audi And Skodahas announced plans to reduce its German workforce by 50,000 over the next four years.
The figure is 15,000 higher than the figure Europe’s largest carmaker previously confirmed in 2024, when it announced it would cut 35,000 jobs by 2030 following an agreement with German unions.
Volkswagen announced the significant job cuts while revealing a 53 percent drop in pre-tax profit during the Volkswagen Group’s annual media, analyst and investor conference in Wolfsburg this week.
The additional job losses were due to volatility in global automotive markets, it said.
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“The year 2025 was marked by geopolitical tensions, tariffs and strong competitive pressure,” Volkswagen Group CFO Arno Antlitz said in a statement.
“(But) the operating margin of 4.6 percent adjusted for restructuring is not sufficient in the long term in this challenging environment.”
“We want to keep our combustion engine vehicles technologically competitive, continue to invest in exciting electric vehicles and the latest software solutions for our customers and expand our regional presence, particularly in the USA.”
“We can only achieve this if we continue to consistently reduce costs, use group synergies, reduce complexity and thus sustainably increase profitability. We will concentrate on this in the coming months.”
The company sold nine million vehicles across all its brands in 2025 – a relatively flat number compared to the 9.03 million sales in 2024 – as Audi and Porsche in particular scaled back their electric vehicle (EV) development plans due to slower electric vehicle sales growth.
After closing its factory in Brussels, Belgium, in February 2025, Volkswagen also closed its Dresden factory in December last year – the first closure of a Volkswagen factory in Germany in the automaker’s history.
In Australia, Volkswagen sales fell 20.6 percent in 2025 after falling 16.8 percent the previous year.
While Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume said the automaker was making “tangible progress” after “three intense years of realignment,” the company said the headwinds were not over yet, and Blume added: “We operate in a fundamentally different environment.”
Mr Blume said the company would enter the next phase in 2026, introducing “affordable electric mobility with premium technology”, with a particular focus on China, where Volkswagen will “launch the largest product offensive in our history”.
“Challenges are expected in particular from the macroeconomic environment, uncertainties regarding restrictions in international trade and geopolitical tensions,” the company statement continued. This will increase the “intensity of competition” and volatility in “commodity, energy and foreign exchange markets”.
A host of new Volkswagen models will be arriving in Australian showrooms in the near future, including plug-in hybrid (PHEV) versions of the new-generation Tiguan and Tayron SUVs, as well as the Multivan and Transporter.
A more powerful, Walkinshaw-developed version of the second-generation Amarok Dual-Cab 4×4 ute is also due to launch in the second half of 2026.
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