Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 21, 2026
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleVolkswagen plans to cut board roles and jobs to save €1 billion. The core brand group will reduce board members and focus on production efficiencies.
BERLIN, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The core brand group of German carmaker Volkswagen plans to cut back management positions and consolidate the production platform in a bid to save 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) by 2030, it said on Wednesday.
The plan is to reduce the number of board members in Volkswagen's core brand group by about a third by summer 2026, the company said in a statement.
This would mean board roles will be reduced from 29 to 19, Automobilwoche industry publication had reported earlier in the day, citing sources.
Thus, brands like VW passenger cars, Skoda and Seat/Cupra will in future each have just four board members - a CEO, plus executives for finance, sales and human resources - with development, procurement and production being handled at the carmaker's headquarters in Wolfsburg, the company added.
It said it will gradually streamline the management structures within the Brand Group Core even further in the medium term.
The core brand group's more than 20 globally operating plants will be organized into five production regions, it said, with the regional managers assuming cross-brand and cross-country responsibility.
Volkswagen is in the process of cutting 35,000 jobs in Germany by 2030 as it battles with an industrial slowdown, stiff competition from China and costly tariffs.
Automobilwoche had reported that the expected savings under Volkswagen core brand group CEO Thomas Schaefer were made up of 600 million euros in personnel costs and 400 million euros from production efficiencies.
($1 = 0.8535 euros)
(Reporting by Rachel More and Linda Pasquini, Editing by Louise Heavens)
Cost-cutting refers to strategies implemented by companies to reduce their expenses and improve profitability. This can involve reducing staff, consolidating operations, or optimizing processes.
A board member is an individual who serves on a company's board of directors, responsible for overseeing the company's management and making decisions on major company issues.
Job reduction is the process of decreasing the number of employees in a company, often due to financial constraints or restructuring efforts aimed at improving efficiency.
A management structure defines the hierarchy within an organization, outlining the roles and responsibilities of different levels of management and how they interact with each other.
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