Volkswagen’s premium brand Audi wants to cut costs by €15bn by 2022, Germany’s Manager Magazin business monthly reported, citing Audi executives.
The cost cuts would help finance projects such as a shift to electromobility at Audi, the magazine said. A spokeswoman for Audi said cost-cutting plans had not yet been finalised, but that the scale of cuts reported by the magazine was correct.
Savings are particularly important for VW after an emissions scandal and associated fines. It also faces a big bill to make its combustion engines comply with new anti-pollution rules.
Future job vacancies will not be refilled, Manager Magazin said, citing finance chief Alexander Seitz, adding this would result in a 3% decrease in Audi’s staff per year, or around 14,000 jobs in five years.
“We reject those numbers,” a spokeswoman for Audi said. She said Audi’s management was in talks with labour representatives as the company assesses how many workers it will need at its various sites in the future, considering changes in the automotive sector.
The spokeswoman said workers at Audi’s plants in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm still had union-negotiated job guarantees until 2025. Audi has close to 91,700 employees around the world, of whom 61,500 are based in Germany.
Reuters
