Volkswagen Considering Laying 30,000 Employees Off

The automobile manufacturer Volkswagen may lay off 30,000 people to increase the company’s competitiveness and cut costs for the company’s transition to electrification. On the same day, Elon Musk tweeted informing that Tesla’s market value of USD 808 billion surpasses the combined market value of 11 automobile companies including Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford, Honda etc.

However, Volkswagen spokesperson Michael Manske denied that the company is laying off 30,000 employees. “There is no doubt that considering the new market entrants, we must solve the competitiveness of our factory in Wolfsburg,” said Volkswagen spokesperson Michael Manske. He further mentioned, “There is a debate now, there are already many good ideas, and there is no specific plan.”

Volkswagen’s factory in Wolfsburg, Germany is the world’s largest manufacturing plant, and the factory has not started with its production of electric cars. However, the company did mention that they might cut the working hours of the Wolfburg plant in the first two weeks of October. Volkswagen has slotted the launch of its flagship electric car Trinity sometime in the year 2026.

On the other hand, Tesla’s factory in Berlin, Germany is in full swing. Moreover, Musk also mentioned that the Berlin plant will also manufacture the Model Y cars and that the plant will mass product 5000 or 10,000 EVs every week, and 500,000 electric cars every year.

Volkswagen has made it clear that it wants to surpass Tesla in terms of its sales of electric cars by 2025. As part of its plan, the German automobile company has decided to invest nearly 60 billion euros of which 30 billion euros will be invested in electric vehicles.

Volkswagen expects that the number of its electric vehicles will increase to about 26 million by 2029, and one of the platforms that would help the company is MEB. Additionally, Volkswagen has also started to integrate the supply chain of electric vehicles, and the chief technology officer of Volkswagen also revealed that the company is considering its charging and energy business. But the fact remains that Volkswagen’s electric vehicles sales are not progressing as expected.