Volkswagen Braces for Boardroom Showdown Over Reported Plant Closures and Job Cuts

Volkswagen is bracing for a pivotal supervisory board meeting on July 9 following reports that Europe's largest carmaker is weighing the closure of four German factories and as many as 100,000 job cuts, which would be the most radical overhaul in the company's nearly 90-year history. The reported plan would roughly double the 50,000 cuts previously announced and is said to include plants at Hanover, Zwickau, Emden and the Audi facility in Neckarsulm. The proposals face fierce resistance from the powerful IG Metall union and the works council, which vowed to fight them, as well as from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition government, which has stressed its goal of preserving German manufacturing jobs. Volkswagen's management faces a complex negotiation, in part because of the state of Lower Saxony's roughly 20% voting stake and a decades-old law that limits management's ability to close plants. The pressure reflects a deep structural crisis: first-quarter profit fell sharply, US tariffs are adding billions in costs, and the group has lost ground in China to domestic rivals. The company declined to comment ahead of the meeting, saying decisions rest with its governing bodies.