BMW Sets Aside €1 Billion for Job Cuts as VW Targets 50,000 Reduction by 2030
Published on 06/19/2026 at 04:38 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
BMW has stashed nearly a billion euros to finance voluntary staff departures, preparing for a significant downsizing of its administrative workforce. The move deepens a broader crisis in Germany’s auto industry that is also driving Volkswagen toward a planned reduction of 50,000 jobs by 2030.
CEO Milan Nedeljkovi? is steering the Munich-based carmaker toward a leaner overhead structure. While a company-level job guarantee rules out compulsory redundancies, the roughly €1 billion in provisions could still translate into several thousand lost positions. The tightening comes amid a heavy slide in Chinese demand: BMW sales in the country fell around 20 percent in the first five months of this year. The Middle East conflict is further straining operations, and the group warns that pre-tax profit in 2026 will drop by at least 10 percent.
Volkswagen’s board used the annual general meeting on 18 June to defend even deeper cuts. CEO Oliver Blume pointed to trade barriers, tariffs and geopolitical risks as justifications for a workforce reduction of 50,000 by 2030, of which 35,000 are to come from the core VW brand alone. Already agreed are 28,000 voluntary exits. By the end of this year, the core brand’s headcount is expected to shrink by 19,000. Blume’s target is an operating return on sales of 8 to 10 percent by the end of the decade.
First results are emerging: factory costs at VW sites in Germany fell by more than 20 percent last year. But critics argue that cost-cutting cannot substitute for a missing product strategy. Analysts at Union Investment and Deka say the company urgently needs more attractive models. IG Metall and the works council have threatened to resist any plant closures, and the OsnabrĂĽck facility in particular is seen as having no future beyond 2027.
Ford is also feeling the heat, announcing a dramatic downsizing at its Cologne operations. From roughly 20,000 employees at the end of the 2010s, the workforce will fall to about 7,600 by June 2026. Some 3,500 positions in development, administration and the Niehl plant are being eliminated, a direct consequence of weak demand for electric vehicles.
Suppliers and mid-sized firms freeze spending
The pain is spreading deep into the supply chain, as shown by a VDA survey of 116 German mid-sized auto companies. More than two-thirds have postponed or cancelled planned investments in Germany. Over half – 54 percent – are cutting domestic jobs, and of those, 44 percent are simultaneously building up abroad. The biggest complaints: excessive bureaucracy, high taxes and charges, and elevated electricity prices.
VDA president Hildegard Müller called the situation a manifest location crisis. “It threatens the industrial core of Germany,” she said. With Volkswagen, BMW and Ford already wielding the knife, and the Mittelstand under pressure, the country’s flagship industry faces a restructuring that shows no sign of letting up.
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