Volkswagen Group’s supervisory board has unanimously approved a restructuring plan that will eliminate roughly 50,000 jobs and cut the company’s global model lineup by about half by 2035, according to the automaker’s own official press release announcing the “Future Plan.”

What VW Confirmed

• Approximately 50,000 positions will be cut globally, including management roles, to bring workforce capacity in line with demand.
• The company’s model portfolio will shrink by roughly 50% and overall product complexity by about 75% by 2035.
• Four European plants — Zwickau, Emden, Hanover, and Audi’s Neckarsulm facility — face production run-outs between 2031 and 2034, putting more than 40,000 jobs at those sites specifically at risk.
• Management has until the end of June 2027 to present a competitive production plan for the affected European factories.

“The supervisory board has unanimously approved the Future Plan presented by the Group management board today. This is a strong signal for the future of the Volkswagen Group,” the company said in its release. CEO Oliver Blume added that the automaker “will invest a three-figure billion sum to make our iconic brands even more attractive, stronger and more competitive,” while Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch said the plan is meant to “secure the long-term viability and competitiveness of the Volkswagen Group.”

Why It’s Happening

The board’s own materials cite European production capacity that now exceeds demand by more than 500,000 units a year, along with high German labor and energy costs that make some domestic manufacturing uncompetitive against rivals building in lower-cost regions. Works Council Chair Daniela Cavallo framed the trade-off directly, saying “job security and economic viability carry equal weight as shared corporate goals” — a sign the labor side extracted commitments in exchange for accepting the scale of the cuts.

Coverage of the vote from CNN confirmed the board’s approval came after months of internal negotiation between management and labor representatives over how deep the cuts would go and which brands would absorb them, with Volkswagen’s core namesake brand, Audi, and Cupra all named as affected.

Why It Matters for U.S. Buyers

• A roughly 50% smaller global model lineup by 2035 means fewer variants and trims reaching American Volkswagen and Audi dealers over the next decade, even if headline nameplates like the Tiguan, Atlas, and ID.4 survive the cuts.
• Consolidated manufacturing footprints in Europe could shift where U.S.-bound models are built, with ripple effects on pricing and availability tied to tariffs and shipping costs.
• Audi, which shares in both the job cuts and the plant uncertainty at Neckarsulm, sells several models in the U.S. that depend on European production lines now facing a 2027 deadline for their long-term future.

Volkswagen has not yet named which specific global models will be discontinued under the 50% lineup reduction, but the automaker’s own numbers make clear this is the opening phase of a decade-long overhaul, not a one-time cost-cutting announcement.