Volkswagen's management board is due to set out its savings plans at several works meetings next week, and Group CEO Oliver Blume has already described the position at Europe's largest carmaker as "more than critical" in advance. The group is "oversized", Blume said in an internal interview. A firm decision on plant closures, however, has not yet been taken, and the reduction of around 50,000 jobs worldwide by 2030 is "not a fixed target".
The works meetings are scheduled at various Volkswagen sites, with Blume answering questions in Wolfsburg on Tuesday and in Emden and Zwickau on Wednesday. According to Blume, VW employs more than 275,000 people in Germany and over 600,000 worldwide.
In the interview published on VW's intranet, Blume repeated his view that there is no VW crisis, but rather a crisis affecting the entire automotive industry. "Everyone is struggling." The sector, he said, is caught up in "the biggest upheaval in its history". Measured against the competition, VW is doing "reasonably well", Blume said, but the absolute figures are "overall too weak". "We cannot be satisfied with earning less than the year before for ten quarters in a row." The money is missing, he added, for "new technologies, new products and our sites".
The so-called future plan for savings is "in full swing", Blume continued. Many measures have been initiated and substantial parts are already being implemented, "without having to obtain the approval of higher-level bodies". The group CEO presented his savings plans to the supervisory board in July, but no decision was taken.
According to media reports, the state of Lower Saxony, a major shareholder with 20 percent of the voting rights, was unwilling to give its consent. The works council subsequently criticised the outcome, saying it was "irresponsible to leave the workforce in the dark", and announced the works meetings for after the summer break.
In the current internal interview, too, Blume gave no concrete figures. The main aim, he said, is to become "simpler": "Over the years we have built up structures, capacities and personnel. We are oversized. That often makes us too slow and too complicated." The figure of 50,000 jobs to be cut worldwide is "not a fixed target", he explained; it is derived "from our cost target compared with the competition and gives an indication of how great our need for action is".
He repeated that, for the Emden, Hanover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm plants, "we cannot today present a competitive utilisation for the 2030s". In addition, VW must reduce overcapacity of more than 500,000 vehicles a year in Europe. A decision on specific plant closures has not, however, been taken.
Plant closures are "always the most expensive and the last resort", the executive said. Where vehicle production has no future, VW wants to "develop new industrial solutions", for the Osnabrück plant, for example, VW is holding advanced talks with companies from the defence industry.
Blume called on the supervisory board for "a clear mandate", giving the management board "trust, responsibility and unrestricted freedom to act, and to support the chosen path across the group". He urged employees to pull together: "We will only be successful if everyone in the company carries this plan together." IG Metall leader Christiane Benner recently told Wirtschaftswoche that the new savings plans had destroyed the culture of trust at Volkswagen.
"The workforce has already had to accept severe and painful cuts and is getting the next slap in the face straight away."
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