Volkswagen CEO Blume Scrambles After Board Rejects Restructuring Plan and China Sales Tumble
Published on 07/13/2026 at 13:58 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Oliver Blume’s attempt to push through a sweeping overhaul at Volkswagen hit a wall on the supervisory board last week. In a 12-7 vote, the committee rebuffed the CEO’s proposal, forcing him to publicly acknowledge the defeat and search for alternatives. Blume told Bild am Sonntag that “more intelligent solutions” were needed and that plant closures in Germany would be avoided if possible — but the scale of the measures now under discussion suggests the crisis is far from contained.
The chief executive has already warned of an additional 50,000 job cuts on top of the 50,000 positions slated to disappear by 2030, with Audi and other group brands also in the firing line. Rumours circulating inside the company speak of as many as 120,000 job losses worldwide, a figure that remains unconfirmed by management. The intended streamlining would also slash Volkswagen’s model range by half and reduce available trim and option combinations by 75%. Annual production capacity is to be lowered from 10 million to 9 million vehicles. Despite insisting that redundancies should come through natural attrition rather than compulsory layoffs, Blume acknowledged that four German sites — Hanover, Emden, Zwickau and Neckarsulm — remain under particular threat.
The financial justification for such drastic action is laid out in the group’s latest delivery figures. Volkswagen handed over 4.13 million vehicles worldwide in the first half of 2026, a 6.3% decline from the prior year. China, once the group’s most reliable growth engine, recorded a 25.9% plunge to 973,000 units. Analyst Frank Schwope pegged the second-quarter drop in China at an even steeper 37%, with global deliveries falling 9% in the same period. Europe offered a rare bright spot: sales there rose 3.5% to 2.04 million vehicles, while deliveries of battery-electric models in the region jumped 8.4% to 377,000 units. A surge of orders for the new ID. Polo, Skoda Epiq and Cupra Raval — more than 54,000 in total — provided a sliver of hope, as did a 27% increase in plug-in hybrid and range-extender deliveries to 246,000 units.
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The deepening boardroom rift has spilled over into open confrontation with labour. Works council representatives accused Blume of exacerbating uncertainty rather than providing clarity. “He’s only making things worse,” a council insider charged. More than 40,000 employees at five locations — including Osnabrück alongside the four plants already named — face an uncertain future. IG Metall has called for protests at sites such as Sindelfingen, and the union plans further actions after the summer break. A commentary in the taz slammed Blume’s “intelligent solutions” line as audacious, raising the possibility of a shift toward defence production or the assembly of Chinese-developed VW models as alternative paths.
Market participants have priced in the turmoil. Volkswagen’s shares closed Monday at €71.34, a marginal 0.39% gain from Friday, but the stock remains perilously close to its 52-week low of €69.20 set on 1 July. The year-to-date loss stands at roughly 33%, while over the past 30 days the equity has shed nearly 20%. Technical indicators paint a bleak picture: the relative-strength index of 31.2 points to an oversold condition, and 30-day annualised volatility of 32% underlines persistent investor anxiety. The shares trade 14.92% below their 50-day moving average and 23.85% beneath the 200-day line of €93.78, a stark illustration of how far confidence in a quick resolution has eroded. For now, Blume must navigate a triple bind — a divided board, a belligerent workforce and a Chinese market that shows no sign of recovery — with few options left on the table.
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