VW to Cut 7,000 Jobs in New Savings Drive

[Brian W + 78]

Volkswagen announced that it is planning to cut 5,000 to 7,000 jobs by 2023 to lower operating costs by $6.6 billion.Most of the job cuts are expected to be carried out through retirement offers. It is estimated that 11,000 Volkswagen employees will be eligible for retirement in 2019. As part of this announcement, VW is planning to boost their software engineering department significantly in the coming years, hiring 2,000 new employees in software and electronics. Currently, VW claims that 90% of their engineering is hardware-related, but it wants to shift this to around 50% by 2030.

Just yesterday they claimed they plan to offer 20 more electric models (for a total of 70) and sell 22 million electric vehicles over the next 10 years.  They’re certainly gearing up for some big expansion into a new section of the industry, which doesn’t seem to mesh well with significant layoffs.