German car giant Volkswagen is reportedly drawing up plans for a drastic overhaul that could cut 100,000 jobs in the coming years, double previously announced targets.
Senior executives are said to be considering this dramatic workforce reduction to achieve cost savings of €11bn (£9.5bn) by 2030, according to local media.
The proposals include the review of four of the company's car manufacturing plants in Germany, with the possibility of production ceasing, Manager Magazin reported.
This would represent a monumental restructuring for the 89-year-old Wolfsburg-based carmaker, which owns brands such as Audi, Bentley, Skoda and Seat.
The scale of these proposed cuts significantly exceeds previous plans to cut 50,000 jobs across its German operations by 2030.
At the time, chief executive Oliver Blume told shareholders the company was on track to achieve savings of more than six billion euros (£5.2 billion) by 2030.
It has said that some 28,000 agreements have already been signed for staff to leave by 2030, including those at the German headquarters.
“The transformation of the entire company continues to accelerate,” the boss said.
“With these programs we methodically address all cost categories across all brands.”
It also said the group was working to “address the reduction of overcapacity in our production network” by reducing global targets from 12 million vehicles to nine million.
It comes after reporting that vehicle deliveries had fallen by 10% in the US and 8% in China by 2025.
He said this was due to “challenging market conditions”, including tariffs on US imports and increased competition in China, where large electric car makers such as BYD have been grabbing huge market shares.
Despite this, deliveries increased by 4.5% in Europe to almost four million vehicles.
Volkswagen reportedly has around 625,000 employees worldwide, meaning its job cut plans would eliminate around 16% of the total workforce if they go ahead.
Reports said that details of the new plan would be presented to the company's supervisory board on July 9.
A Volkswagen spokeswoman said she had no comment on the speculation.
