Supervisory board unanimously backs plan to reduce payroll by a further 50,000 positions in Germany
Shares of Volkswagen rose in Frankfurt on Friday.
The supervisory board of German car giant Volkswagen has backed a plan to slash an additional 50,000 jobs.
The 89-year-old company had said in March that it would be cutting 50,000 positions in Germany by 2030 after profits declined by about 44% in 2025 compared with the previous year. Thursday's announcement, made via press release, brings the total number of roles being eliminated to 100,000.
The stock (XE:VOW) climbed almost 6% in Frankfurt on Friday, with shares down over 22% overall since the beginning of the year. U.S.-listed shares $(VWAGY)$ $(VWAPY)$ are down some 24% in 2026.
According to the release, Volkswagen's supervisory board, consisting of 20 members, unanimously approved CEO Oliver Blume's turnaround proposal, announced in June, to strengthen the automobile maker's competitiveness.
The company, which owns luxury brands Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini in addition to the VW and Audi marques, among others, said a "workforce adjustment of approximately 50,000 positions - including management roles - will be necessary."
Volkswagen announced it will reduce its model offerings by half and cut the complexity of its offerings by 75% by 2035.
It said the board is contemplating alternative uses for manufacturing plants in the German municipalities Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Neckarsulm as current capacity surpasses demand by over 500,000 units.
"We are taking responsibility for our entire team, for our partners and for industrial jobs worldwide," Blume said in a statement.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank, led by Tim Rokossa, wrote in a Friday note that the board's passing of the plan represented "a fundamental breakthrough and a much-better-than-feared outcome."
The analysts said that, while the deal does not fix the company's challenges immediately, it signals the start of a new phase, where execution will be the most important thing.
"It removes the perhaps single biggest investor concern: whether the company is still capable of making the difficult decisions required to address them," the analysts added.
The news follows Volkswagen's profitability tumbling in recent years as it has struggled to compete with low-cost Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturers in both the European and Chinese markets.
The group has also faced blows from President Donald Trump's tariffs, which included a 25% levy on car and car-part imports. Sales in the U.S. declined by about 14% last year.
-Nora Redmond
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