Automotive analyst sees VW's German plants competing to survive

Volkswagen's German plants are competing among themselves to survive following plans to cut a total of 100,000 jobs worldwide by 2030, automotive sector analyst Werner Olle has told dpa.

"The race for survival has begun," Olle said in remarks published on Sunday. He added that the unions and works council could also help to find solutions by reducing labour costs to help secure the future of the plant in Zwickau near the Czech border.

Olle noted that, while a new circular-economy division was currently being developed in Zwickau alongside vehicle production, it offered prospects for only a fraction of the workforce and had far less impact on suppliers.

He also rejected suggestions that production for defence could save Zwickau, which is geared to large-scale manufacturing. The only sensible path, he says, is to continue building cars.

He pointed to VW competitor Stellantis, which is developing new models with Chinese partners. German car factories could also produce Chinese models, he said. For example, a fully electric SUV jointly developed by the Stellantis brand Opel and China's Leapmotor is due to be made in Zaragoza in Spain.

"That would be a new approach for VW and Audi," Olle said, adding that there was still time to pursue this by 2030. The Zwickau plant was well suited, he said. "It has shown that it is capable of taking on completely new challenges."

VW is battling declining demand and Chinese competition. Management recently gave the green light to cut a further 50,000 jobs worldwide, in addition to the previously agreed reduction of 50,000 jobs across the group in Germany by 2030.

At the end of 2025, the company had just under 663,000 employees worldwide, around 284,000 of them in Germany.

Concern is particularly high at the Emden, Hanover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm sites in Germany, which have repeatedly been mentioned as potential closure candidates.