A few days ago, according to overseas media, Volkswagen may lay off 30,000 employees in the German region in a quest to become more competitive in Europe's shrinking auto market. One of the largest Volkswagen layoffs is in the R&D department; and 4-6,000 of Volkswagen's 13,000 R&D staff in Germany will lose their jobs. As of now, Volkswagen is in the process of “annulling” a number of labor agreements it has signed with six German factories, which means that this agreement will only last until the middle of next year, and not until 2029, as previously announced. The conglomerate also said that the Volkswagen passenger car brand needs to realize cost savings of 10 billion euros by 2026.

According to some insiders, another meeting has been held within the VW Group, which may completely shut down the Audi plant in Belgium as well as the VW plant in Osnabrück. In addition the Audi plant in Brussels has also confirmed the official shutdown. At the same time, Volkswagen has also reached a cooperation with Xiaopeng Automobile, and some of the research and development work will be transferred to the domestic market in the later stage.