{"id":796199,"date":"2026-07-12T21:15:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796199\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T21:15:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:15:48","slug":"german-car-industry-warns-of-job-collapse-unless-bold-decisions-made-to-address-chinese-threat-volkswagen-vw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796199\/","title":{"rendered":"German car industry warns of job collapse unless \u2018bold decisions\u2019 made to address Chinese threat | Volkswagen (VW)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The German car industry has warned of a potential collapse of employment in the sector in Europe<\/a> unless society and workers accept that \u201cbold decisions\u201d are needed to address competition from the Chinese and other rivals.<\/p>\n

Volkswagen is preparing to formally propose up to 100,000 job losses<\/a>, a move that has triggered a wave of protests.<\/p>\n

The statement from the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), which appears timed to coincide with this meeting, went as far as to say that handing some of the country\u2019s car plants over to foreign ownership could be a way to save jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cReality has overtaken political goals and approaches, increasingly jeopardising jobs,\u201d said Hildegard M\u00fcller, the president of the VDA. \u201cThe economic crisis is affecting the entire European industry; the consequences are visible and tangible every day \u2013 and they are becoming increasingly dramatic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not be able to keep all the factories and suppliers open this way. We should therefore open these locations to foreign manufacturers, for example. Every location we can keep here secures jobs.<\/p>\n

Munich, Germany. A report has found that Europe\u2019s car production capacity now exceeded demand by \u2018more than 5m vehicles a year\u2019. Photograph: Michael Nguyen\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cThe options for action have become fewer, but all the more necessary. Germany<\/a> and Europe are in a situation that demands bold decisions. This will also involve significant changes for people, the end of habits and entitlements that our country, regrettably, can no longer afford in some respects.<\/p>\n

The automotive sector is the backbone of the German economy, with an estimated 3 million people directly and indirectly employed by household names including Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW, and emblematic of the industrial health of economies across Europe.<\/p>\n

A report published by Boston Consulting last month said that for decades Europe\u2019s car industry had underpinned the continent\u2019s \u201cmost powerful manufacturing networks\u201d with \u201cdeep supplier systems, highly skilled labour and scale-driven efficiency\u201d but that stability had been turned upside down.<\/p>\n

It found that Europe\u2019s production capacity now exceeded demand by \u201cmore than 5m vehicles a year\u201d, or the equivalent of \u201c35 production sites\u201d across the continent.<\/p>\n

In the last two years much of the car industry\u2019s focus has been on Chinese overcapacity, but the VDA\u2019s statement is drawing attention to deeper changes in Europe with fewer cars being bought by the public.<\/a><\/p>\n

Volkswagen is trying to implement a comprehensive cost-cutting programme with up to 100,000 job losses, double the amount previously planned,<\/a> by 2030 and the potential contraction or closure of several plants.<\/p>\n

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The previous plans were considered seismic<\/a>, \u201can earthquake\u201d for the car industry and the wider economy. The plans will be put to the VW supervisory board at the headquarters in Wolfsburg on Thursday with the trade union IG Metall calling for a day of action at all VW locations with events already announced at Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Kassel.<\/p>\n

According to Die Zeit, more events are planned<\/a> at Porsche, Audi<\/a>, and the truck and bus manufacturer MAN.<\/p>\n

The VDA warned that political leaders needed to take on board that neither Berlin or Brussels could insulate factories from change in business models going into the future.<\/p>\n

To remain blind to this would have profound \u201canti society\u201d consequences, it said. \u201cThese decisions are difficult and must be developed in dialogue with all stakeholders. They will require a willingness to change from all of us,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The German car industry has warned of a potential collapse of employment in the sector in Europe unless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-796199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}