Up to 100,000 jobs: What the VW clear-cutting means for Austria

Manager Magazin was the first to report on it, citing insiders and internal documents. VW boss Oliver Blume is said to have already presented his plans for this radical restructuring concept to the board. Of the currently around 657,000 employees, almost 300,000 of them in Germany, almost one in six would lose their job. A second insider, however, claims that the internal paper deliberately does not contain a clear number.

Five plants affected

In the medium term, four locations could be completely closed: the VW plants in Hanover, Zwickau and Emden as well as the Audi plant in Neckarsulm. In addition, the VW factory in Osnabrück is also said to be shaking. As soon as the models produced there are phased out, the production lines will come to a standstill. That would be a shock for entire regions. Just a few years ago, VW invested millions in converting Zwickau into an electric car factory. Emden was celebrated as a beacon of hope for electromobility. Now these locations, of all places, are threatened with extinction.

“You can’t say six months in advance that you’re going to cut 50,000 jobs and then suddenly there are 100,000,” criticizes auto expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer in an interview with KURIER. “This looks like a salami tactic, but not a strategy. What should employees and customers think if bad news comes every six months?” According to Dudenhöffer, VW has been saying that component production should be listed on the stock exchange for five years. But it would make sense.

The company spokesman is silent

A VW spokesman did not want to comment on the figures. You do not comment on “internal, confidential documents”. The group’s board of directors has “worked intensively over the past few months on a future plan for the realignment of the company,” said the spokesman.

“It’s about making the company more efficient and leaner overall and consistently using technological synergy potential.” The supervisory board is scheduled to discuss the matter on July 9th. The employee representatives also sit there – and the state of Lower Saxony, which holds 20 percent of the voting rights. The works council and union immediately announced resistance.

Austrian suppliers affected

If VW and Audi close plants, this will also affect the Austrian automotive supply industry. “Around 65 percent of our companies supply the German automotive industry, which is our most important export market,” says Clemens Zinkl from the Automotive Supplier Industry Working Group in the Chamber of Commerce. “If fewer vehicles are built and plants are at a standstill, then our suppliers will also be hit hard. This means that jobs in Austria are also at risk.” In 2024, 5,000 jobs were cut in the Austrian automotive industry; figures for 2025 are not yet available.

China is weakening

The problems at Volkswagen and especially the core brand VW have existed for a long time. The reasons are varied. First and foremost is the weakening business in what was once a major growth market, China. On the one hand, because there are more than a hundred local competitors who offer their vehicles significantly cheaper. On the other hand, there is currently widespread consumer reluctance.

Another reason is electromobility. Blume’s predecessor Herbert Diess pushed this forward massively within the group, but was ahead of his time. High investments had to be written off. Blume is now taking a more pragmatic course by producing many models for more than just one type of drive. Last but not least, production in Germany is too expensive and energy and personnel costs are escalating. It is therefore not surprising that the plants in the home country are to be closed.

BMW and Mercedes

The current bad news is the latest, but probably not the last, in a series of bad news in the German auto industry. The listed VW subsidiary Porsche, where profits fell by 91 percent last year, as well as its competitors BMW and Mercedes are also struggling with similar problems, which are reflected in slumps in sales and profits, and are responding with job cuts and restructuring. The share also reacts accordingly.

Yesterday the price loss was almost four percent, and since the beginning of the year it has already fallen by almost a third.