Europe’s biggest car company Volkswagen has reportedly unanimously approved a sweeping transformation plan that will bring the automaker’s total planned job cuts to 100,000, marking the most extensive restructuring in the company’s 89-year history.
This decision of the carmaker comes as part of sweeping transformation plan approved by the company’s supervisory board, which is aimed at reshaping operations and reducing costs, according to a report by multiple sources and Reuters.
Volkswagen is expected to sell only about 8.5 million vehicles this year, down from 8.9 million in 2025, according to a supervisory board document reported by German outlet WirtschaftsWoche.
Volkswagen said the additional workforce reduction was necessary, beyond its existing cost-cutting programs, to safeguard the group’s competitiveness going forward. The company has not detailed exactly when the cuts will take effect or how they will be distributed across its various brands and regions, though the plan is expected to unfold through the end of the decade. Those headwinds have weighed heavily on sales.