Volkswagen’s board backs CEO Oliver Blume’s plan to cut 50,000 jobs

Volkswagen just got the green light to become a much leaner company. The automaker’s supervisory board unanimously approved CEO Oliver Blume’s “Future Plan 2030” on September 3, authorizing roughly 50,000 additional job cuts and a dramatic simplification of the sprawling German industrial empire. The vote was unanimous, which in the context of German corporate governance, where labor representatives hold half the supervisory board seats, is genuinely remarkable. Even Lower Saxony, the German state that holds a major stake in VW and has historically fought against workforce reductions, signed off. The math behind the cuts These 50,000 positions aren’t the whole story. They’re the second wave. Combined with previously announced reductions, Volkswagen is now targeting the elimination of around 100,000 roles by decade’s end. VW’s current workforce sits between 652,000 and 660,000 employees globally. Cutting 100,000 means roughly one in every six or seven workers will eventually lose their position. The restructuring goes well beyond headcount. VW plans to cut its model portfolio by approximately 50% and reduce what it calls “offering complexity” by about 75%, both targets set for 2035....