Volkswagen’s Supervisory Board unanimously approved the Future Plan 2030 to restructure the group, in a move that could end car production at four German plants after their current allocations expire between 2031 and 2034. The plan includes eliminating around 50,000 additional jobs worldwide, raising total planned reductions at Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and the software arm Cariad to nearly 100,000 jobs.
The decision does not represent an official announcement that the four plants—Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Audi’s Neckarsulm plant—will close. However, the company said it currently cannot secure competitive future production for these sites after the vehicle programs assigned to them end. It intends to examine other uses for the plants and prepare a new production strategy for its European plants by the end of June 2027.
Electric-car plants at the heart of the plan
The decision is particularly significant for the electric-car sector. Zwickau became Volkswagen’s first major plant to switch completely from producing vehicles with combustion engines to electric cars. The Emden plant produces the ID.4 and ID.7, while the Hanover plant makes the ID. Buzz and ID. Buzz Cargo. Neckarsulm produces the Audi e-tron GT alongside vehicles with combustion engines and plug-in hybrids.
Volkswagen acknowledges that its European plants are capable of producing more than 500,000 vehicles annually beyond the volume customers currently purchase. The company links the need to reduce labor and production capacity to tougher global competition, changing demand and the emergence of new technologies in the automotive industry, while pointing to pressure from Chinese competitors.
Reducing models and options
The plan is not limited to jobs and plants. Volkswagen wants to reduce the number of global models by around 50% by 2035 and cut equipment options and different versions by around 75%. It will also simplify vehicle platforms, software, electronic architectures and driver-assistance systems, and reduce its business and investment portfolio by around one-third by selling non-core activities or reorganizing them.
At the same time, the group expects to spend €135 billion on capital investment and research and development between 2027 and 2031. It is targeting annual sales of 9 million vehicles and an operating margin of 9% in 2030, equivalent to an operating profit of approximately €31 billion.
Why does this news matter?
The plan reflects a shift from expanding models and capacity toward focusing on a smaller number of products and platforms. In practice, this could lead to a redistribution of electric-car production within the group, but it does not yet determine which plants will continue operating or what alternatives will be assigned to them. The timing and locations of the job cuts have also not been announced, leaving the scale of the impact on employees and plants unresolved.
Daniela Cavallo, Volkswagen’s chief employee representative, supported the plan after previously opposing plant closures, but stressed that employees must not bear the cost of the transition alone. Open questions remain about the company’s ability to turn its major investments into competitive production and whether reducing the number of models will lower complexity and costs without weakening its ability to meet changing demand.