Volkswagen weighs up historic cuts

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Volkswagen is weighing up plans to shutter four German factories and axe up to 100,000 jobs, which would represent some of the biggest rounds of cuts in the history of the auto industry. Germany’s carmakers are the backbone of its manufacturing sector and generate roughly a quarter of its industrial revenues, but they have been struggling for years. Weak domestic demand has dampened sales, higher energy bills have driven up costs and they find themselves playing catch-up to Chinese rivals offering affordable EVs. Porsche, BMW and Mercedes have all seen their sales drop, while Volkswagen’s share price has fallen 70% since 2022. Thousands of highly specialised small businesses rely on supplying these carmakers with parts, and their decline is hurting the wider German economy, which grew by just 0.2% last in.