Europe’s biggest carmaker, Volkswagen Group, has presented dismal 2025 annual results.
Today, the company – which includes brands such as VW, Audi, Porsche, Seat and Skoda – announced it will cut 50,000 jobs in Germany until 2030 to regain efficiency.
Sales only went down by 0.8 per cent to €322 billion or 9 million cars. Total profits, though, almost halved compared to 2024, dropping from €12.4 billion to €6.9 billion.
That is the lowest profit since 2016 when the group was embroiled in a scandal over manipulated exhaust data for some of its diesel engines.
The carmaker blamed much of its lacklustre performance on US trade police, specifically the tariffs introduced by the administration of President Donald Trump that cost Volkswagen billions of euros.
Another source of woe was Volkswagen Group’s subsidiary Porsche. The luxury car company had announced in September 2025 that it was revamping its medium-term strategy by cutting back on electrical vehicle (EV) development. Instead it was sticking to internal combustion engines (ICE) for longer. This change in strategy caused extraordinary expenditures of more than €3 billion.
Porsche – and Volkswagen Group as a whole – are also suffering from declining sales in China.
“The year 2025 was shaped by geopolitical tensions, tariffs and intense competitive pressure … We have taken important steps to further boost Volkswagen Group’s resilience. But the operating margin of 4.6 per cent is not sufficient in the long run,” said Volkswagen Group Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz.
The carmaker has taken several steps to boost competitiveness.
In a letter to shareholders Volkswagen Chief Executive Oliver Blume wrote that the it would reduce its headcount in Germany by 50,000 by 2030.
“Our goal for 2030 is an operating margin of eight to 10 per cent. The basis for this is strict cost and investment discipline,” Blume added.
The biggest part of the savings is to come from 35,000 job cuts at Volkswagen which had already been agreed on in 2024, according to a Volkswagen spokesperson. Further cuts are planned at Porsche and at the group’s software subsidiary Cariad.
In 2025, Volkswagen Group employed 287,000 people in Germany.
Today, 2026, Volkswagen shares were trading at €92 – 12 per cent lower than at the start of the year. Over the past five years, the carmaker’s shares have lost more than 60 per cent of their value.
