Volkswagen is Fighting Rising Costs and Global Competition. Its CEO Says 100,000 People Could Be Laid Off To Reorganize

Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume has warned employees that the German automotive giant may need to eliminate roughly 50,000 additional jobs on top of previously announced workforce reductions, underscoring the scale of the company’s effort to restore profitability as it grapples with mounting costs, global competition and trade pressures. According to an internal memo seen by Reuters, Blume told staff that Volkswagen has identified a cost disadvantage of about 20% compared with rival automakers. To close that gap, management has calculated what it described as a “theoretical deduction” of another 50,000 jobs worldwide, effectively confirming for the first time that the…