This was grim news out of Germany's flagship auto manufacturer, Volkswagen.
How the mighty are falling.
10 yıl sonra wolkwagen olmayacak ism olarak olacak o kadar
— Erol Zalma (@babununtreni) June 26, 2026
In 10 years, Volkswagen won't exist as a name, it'll be that much.
Golly. It's inconceivable.
To Germans who have looked at that brand as lifetime employment and the unions who have a stranglehold on the industry, they have to hear the death knell of their way of living ringing somewhere, and it's not so deep underground anymore.
The company had a deal with those unions not to do anything hasty until 2030. Not sure how this will impact the 2024 arrangement.
Auto giant Volkswagen is planning to cut 100,000 jobs and end production at four German plants over the coming years, according to a report from Manager Magazin, in a move that would represent the most radical overhaul in the firm’s 89-year history.
The plan, reported on Friday, would see Europe’s largest automobile manufacturer shed roughly 15% of its workforce as it seeks to counter intensifying competition from Chinese car brands.
It would also see the Wolfsburg-headquartered company reduce planned investment in the company by about 15% to just over 130 billion euros ($148.2 billion) over the next five years and cease production at plants in Hanover, Zwickau, Emden, alongside Audi’s Neckarsulm site.
Volkswagen had already laid out plans to implement sweeping job cuts and launched a major product offensive as it seeks to boost profitability.
The figures cited by Manager Magazin, however, represent a stark acceleration of those planned job cuts, given that around 50,000 jobs had been expected across the company in Germany by 2030.
The unions are already signaling they are not going to be cooperative.
...Volkswagen’s General Works Council and German industrial union IG Metall pledged to push back against the reported job cuts and plant closures.
“If such plans were to be pushed forward, we would prevent them with all our might,” they said in a joint statement, according to a translation.
It's a major problem when every and any move made to try to shore up the company's bottom line can be vetoed at several different levels by people outside the company.
It's the German way.
...Blume has been trying to slim down Volkswagen as it grapples with US tariffs, persistent weakness in China and mounting competition in Europe from rivals including BYD Co. and Stellantis NV. His new strategy will be presented to the supervisory board next month, and likely marks the opening position in what could be months of tense negotiations.
At VW, restructuring often gets watered down by labor leaders and state politicians that together have a blocking majority in the body.
At the rate the company vs interested protagonists are going, there may not be a VW to fight over for too much longer.
Volkswagen's also been holding a fire sale of sorts, dumping off what assets it has to beef up its cash on hand. That's a great strategy in the short run, but it always bites you in the butt when reliable money streams are suddenly no longer available in a volatile world.
They just announced their marine engine business was being sold off, too.
Under Siege From Chinese Automakers, Volkswagen Sells Engine Business
Volkswagen VOW3 -3.91%decrease; down pointing triangle agreed to sell a majority stake in its heavy-engine division, a step in its campaign to reorder an unwieldy automotive empire that is coming under mounting pressure from China.
The world’s second-largest automaker said late Wednesday it would sell 51% of its Everllence business to U.S. private-equity firm Bain Capital for the equivalent of about $8.4 billion.
With more than 16,000 employees, Everllence makes big engines used to operate ships and power plants. It also develops large-scale heat pumps that can help cities and industrial facilities to decarbonize their heat supply. Previously known as Man Energy Solutions, the business first came under Volkswagen’s control in 2011 as part of a deal to buy a truck maker.
The sale comes as Volkswagen’s stock trades close to 16-year lows, amid increasing alarm among investors that the intense Chinese competition that has sapped the German company’s profit in China is now coming to its European heartlands.
After a strong 2025, Volkswagen has lost ground in Europe this year, while Chinese brands such as BYD, Chery and Leapmotor have made rapid gains. Tesla sales have also rebounded.
The Germans are calling it a 'fire sale,' too.
Der Ausverkauf geht los. Wer sich wundert, warum VW noch schwarze Zahlen schreibt: Hier seht ihr den Grund.
— TeslaXander (@teslaxander) June 26, 2026
Das Tafelbesteck wird versilbert. Eine Beteiligung nach der anderen wird jetzt verkauft. Mit den Einnahmen werden Managergehälter und Dividenden gestemmt. Aus eigener… https://t.co/z6Xts12wMM pic.twitter.com/KQY3G4k7xs
The fire sale is starting. For those wondering why VW is still posting black numbers: Here you can see the reason. The silverware is being pawned.
One stake after another is now being sold off. The proceeds are being used to cover executive salaries and dividends. The corporation could no longer manage that under its own steam.
The battery electric vehicle (BEV) mandates, the ability of the Chinese to undercut any price point and deliver so much quicker, and consequent disastrous sales slump across much of the world, while the European Union insists on sticking to Draconian penalties for not meeting artificially set sales goals, has nearly done the European automakers in.
Chasing the unicorn fart fever dreams has also led them into risky ventures out of desperation. They are forced by Brussels into trying to make EV sales work in a world that doesn't want to buy EVs and are going to be bleeding even more cash in fines if they can't close the sales gap.
...In June 2024, Volkswagen invested $1 billion into Rivian, giving it 8.6% stake in the company. Naturally, if Volkswagen didn’t like what it was seeing, that would have been that. However, the partnership has grown and grown. When Rivian made back-to-back gross profit in two quarters in 2025, Volkswagen invested another $1 billion. Last month, the German automaker invested yet another $1 billion (by buying 62,889,522 Class A shares at $15.90 a pop) after Rivian achieved certain testing milestones. In total, assuming all goes well, Volkswagen is supposed to commit $5.8 billion to Rivian through 2027.
Once upon a time, Volkswagen looked like it had super ambitious plans for EV sales. This followed the company getting busted in a massive diesel vehicle emissions scandal. It looked like Volkswagen wanted to turn things around and become a leader in the EV transition globally. And it’s done alright in that regard, but not superbly. For example, it’s the #1 automaker for EV sales in Europe, but it’s 4th globally.
Also, it’s still selling a lot of non-electric cars. In fact, the share of its sales that are electric doesn’t seem to be adequate even in Europe compared to its overall vehicle sales. The company hasn’t been selling enough electric vehicles to meet its overall fleet emissions requirements. It may have to pay €1.5 billion (~$1.75 billion) in fines if it can’t turn that around for the 2025–2027 period.
#NoLiesDetected
VW will vier Werke in Deutschland schließen und den Stellenabbau massiv beschleunigen. Die deutsche Automobilindustrie verschwindet. Der grüne Irrsinn, Atomkraftwerke abzureißen, fossile Energieträger unbezahlbar zu machen und Verbrenner-Motoren zu verbieten, wirkt. Selbstmord.
— Gerhard Papke (@PapkeGerhard) June 26, 2026
VW will close four plants in Germany and massively accelerate job cuts. The German automotive industry is disappearing. The green madness of demolishing nuclear power plants, making fossil fuels unaffordable, and banning combustion engines is taking effect. Suicide.
And suddenly, all the green-hued government chickens who squawk climate cultisms constantly have nothing to say, either.
Isn't that the most peculiar thing?
German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action says it will not comment on VW-related media reports
— Sterlish Eraan 💕 (@Eraansterlish) June 26, 2026
Arbeitsplätze weg = the jobs are gone
And the 'green house of cards' is collapsing on itself.
Hannover, Zwickau, Emden, Neckarsulm: Vier Städte werden vom „grünen Wirtschaftswunder“ begraben
— Marc Bernhard, MdB (@MarcBernhardAfD) June 26, 2026
Es ist ein Verrat an Hunderttausenden Arbeitnehmern. Noch auf der Hauptversammlung vor einer Woche sprach @VW-Chef Blume von „geordnetem Wandel“ und 50.000 sozialverträglichen… pic.twitter.com/LzFCu72WlS
...It is a betrayal of hundreds of thousands of workers. Just a week ago at the annual general meeting, @VW-CEO Blume spoke of "orderly transformation" and 50,000 socially responsible job cuts. Six days later, he apparently signed an internal strategy paper with the double objective:
100,000 jobs worldwide will likely be eliminated, four German plants are facing complete shutdown: Hannover, Zwickau, Emden, and Neckarsulm. But that's not all: This will also wipe out hundreds of thousands more jobs in the supply chain. Tens of thousands of families and entire regions are massively affected. Because the forced electric strategy is generating hardly any demand, the oh-so-wonderful "green" house of cards is now collapsing in on itself.
This is not some corporate crisis; rather, we are seeing the first signs of the massive bill that awaits us after decades of "climate" madness. If we don't quickly reverse course by 180 degrees now, that's it for Germany as an industrial nation!
The parent company of Porsche and Audi has very little meat left on the bones to ride this out with.
Its sas to see all those german companies failing :/
— BavarianGuy (@BavarianGuy17) June 26, 2026
Germany used to produce the best cars in the world and now they have to close factories and seem to not have a clear strategy for the future
And there is little hope from either Berlin or Brussels that any of it will change.
In Germany, the decline of the automotive industry and the gradual deindustrialization are not slowing down but accelerating. Five to ten years ago, the heads of carmakers in Germany were afraid to voice any criticism of interventions in the automotive sector, and some of them called the forced "green" transformation an opportunity.
The situation today: Volkswagen Group reportedly wants to lay off up to 100,000 employees (15% of the workforce), i.e., twice as many as originally planned, and close additional plants just to maintain positive margins at all. The VW Group's largest brand now practically generates no operating profit, and without Škoda and Porsche, the group would earn nothing. BMW and Mercedes are also planning significant cuts in response to the deep drop in margins. BMW is expected to have an operating margin of 1% this year after a drastic downgrade of its outlook.
This is the direct consequence of brutal regulatory pressure and interventions by the EU and national governments into production, into the models a company is allowed to sell, into electricity prices, labor costs, international trade, etc. The private sector can withstand a lot of interventions, but not this deadly cocktail.
Existential threats are facts of everyday life now.
Hello from Germany, where the auto crisis just deepened. BMW has issued a major profit warning, implying a profit drop of >60%. Its EBIT margin is now expected at just 1–3%; a shocking level for a premium automaker that once stood for double-digit profitability. This comes only a… pic.twitter.com/oMQ1Vv3mft
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) June 17, 2026
...This comes only a day after VW executives reportedly described their own company as facing an existential threat, according to Manager Magazin. BMW is now worth less <€40bn.
MOST GERMANS DON'T YET UNDERSTAND WHAT'S COMING
Volkswagen has just announced a whopping 100,000 jobs cut. Each job eliminated at a major company wipes out up to 5 jobs at suppliers.
— Michael A. Arouet (@MichaelAArouet) June 26, 2026
More cuts are coming in other sectors, and this during good times. Most Germans don’t yet understand what’s coming their way. It will be brutal. https://t.co/EKfmv6IwYJ
Every single day, there is some little snippet of news that reminds me, no matter how chaotic things appear at any given moment, how grateful I am for November 5, 2024.
This could have so easily been us.
