Volkswagen CEO Blume Ramps Up Cost-Cutting Drive to 100,000 Jobs After Board Blocks Initial Plan — Stock Jumps 3.6%

Oliver Blume is playing hardball. The Volkswagen chief has escalated his restructuring offensive to target 100,000 positions worldwide after the supervisory board rejected his earlier, more modest blueprint. The expanded job cuts, detailed in an internal memo, are driven by overhead costs that the carmaker says run 20 percent above industry benchmarks. Investors gave the plan a tentative thumbs-up, sending the preferred shares up 3.57 percent to €74.34 on the day, a modest bounce from the 52-week low of €69.20 touched just weeks ago.

The boardroom showdown that triggered the escalation came on July 3, when 12 of the 19 supervisory board members voted against Blume’s original “Zukunftsplan”. That plan had called for halving the model lineup, slashing equipment variants by three-quarters, and cutting up to 70,000 jobs through 2030 — with possible plant closures in Emden, Hannover, Neckarsulm and Zwickau. The state of Lower Saxony, which holds a 20 percent voting stake, sided with employee representatives to block the closures. Now Blume is preparing for what insiders call the “maximum escalation stage”, including the possibility of calling an extraordinary general meeting if the board continues to resist when it reconvenes in September.

The threat of plant shutdowns remains on the table. Under the revised scenario, Zwickau and Emden would close by 2031, Hannover by 2032, and the Audi plant in Neckarsulm by 2034. These dates are still considered speculative, but the pressure is mounting. Lower Saxony is also exploring converting the Osnabrück site from automotive to arms manufacturing, a move that would save the location if state funding comes through. Meanwhile, the Porsche subsidiary is reviewing the elimination of several models, including the combustion-engine successor of the 718, the next-generation Taycan and the Cayenne Coupé. Volkswagen is also reportedly considering selling its minority stakes in football clubs FC Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Volkswagen?

The sales picture gives Blume ample ammunition. Second-quarter 2026 deliveries fell 8.6 percent to just under 2.1 million vehicles globally, with the core VW brand down 14 percent. China, the company’s largest single market, saw a brutal 36.6 percent plunge. There was a bright spot in the United States, where Volkswagen of America posted a 24.9 percent gain driven by the Tiguan and the ID. Buzz, but the global trend remains weak. On the electric front, the BEV order book in Europe swelled more than 50 percent in the first half of 2026 compared with the end of 2025, while US BEV deliveries cratered 69 percent. To offset some of the pain, VW raised prices on combustion-engine models by 1.0 to 1.2 percent at the start of July, citing technical upgrades for the Euro 7 emissions standard; the ID electric range was left untouched.

Despite the day’s advance, the stock remains deep in the red. The shares have lost 29.93 percent year-to-date and trade nearly 32 percent below their 52-week high of €109.10 set in mid-December 2025. The 50-day moving average at €83.31 is 10.76 percent above the current price, and the gap to the 200-day average of €93.51 is a yawning 20.5 percent. The relative strength index of 41.9 signals neither oversold nor overbought conditions, though the annualized 30-day volatility of 34.69 percent underscores lingering nervousness. On a weekly basis, the stock is still up 1.92 percent, but the longer-term trend is firmly downward.

All eyes are now on the financial calendar. Volkswagen will release its half-year report on July 23, followed by second-quarter figures the next day. The next supervisory board meeting, where Blume will try to push through a revised restructuring plan, is scheduled for September. The outcome will determine whether the CEO can force through the deepest cuts in the company’s history — or whether the boardroom impasse plunges Volkswagen into a prolonged period of strategic drift.

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