Overview
- Volkswagen’s supervisory board unanimously approved the Future Plan 2030 on Thursday, Sept. 3, giving executives a mandate to plan about 50,000 additional job reductions on top of earlier cuts.
- The group said it will halve its model portfolio by 2035 and reduce vehicle complexity by roughly 75% to raise volumes per model and lower unit costs.
- Company documents say future production for Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Neckarsulm cannot be guaranteed when current allocations end between 2031 and 2034 and that alternative uses for those sites will be explored.
- The plan ties cost cuts to investment goals with a target of nine million annual vehicle sales, a 9% operating margin by 2030, and about €135 billion for capital spending and R&D from 2027–2031.
- Unions and works councils backed the package with safeguards that rule out compulsory redundancies at the Volkswagen passenger‑car brand through end‑2030 and require detailed local planning during the months leading to the mid‑2027 implementation milestones; communities and suppliers face long lead times to prepare for possible factory repurposing or job losses.