Drama at Volkswagen After CEO Suggests 30,000 Job Cuts

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess has been facing off with the company’s German workforce for weeks over the changing nature of the business. VW vowed to transition itself toward an all-electric lineup following the 2015 diesel emissions scandal. But the necessary steps to get there haven’t been universally appreciated.

The general assumption has always been that electric vehicles would result in massive layoffs across the industry by nature of their needing fewer parts than internal combustion vehicles. But Volkswagen seems worried that it’s falling behind smaller rivals and needs to take decisive action to make sure it’s not outdone by firms operating in the United States and China. The proposed solution is an industrial overhaul designed to fast-track VW’s electrification goals. Unfortunately, German labor unions are convinced that this plan would incorporate massive layoffs and have become disinclined to offer their support. The issue worsened in September when Diess told the supervisory board that a slower-than-desired transition to EVs could result in 30,000 fewer jobs.

Considering the size of most legacy automakers, there’s really no way around these prospective layoffs. Batteries, which represent the most labor-intensive aspect of an EV, are often outsourced to other companies and the residual work simply doesn’t require the same number of hands. Companies are seeing the table set before them. Fewer workers mean diminished payroll expenses and, since EVs have been heavily subsidized by governments, they can afford to sell more expensive products without consumers getting up in arms.

However, the capital expended just to get to this point has been nothing short of massive. Volkswagen has said it intends to spend around 16 billion euros ($19 billion USD) on developing “e-mobility, hybridization and digitalization” by 2025. Additional funds have been set aside for charging subsidiaries and its autonomous vehicle program — the latter of which is finally supposed to yield fruit by 2030.

Those with reliable memories will recall that the automotive industry was previously promising self-driving passenger vehicles would be on sale by 2019. The timeline for electrification has been similarly pushed back, albeit not nearly as much. EVs are still presumed to reach financial parity with combustion vehicles by 2025. Though their adoption rate is not on pace to supplant them as the dominant mode of transportation for at least another decade, even with aggressive mandates designed to discourage gasoline/diesel use cropping up across the Western world.

This means companies are spending more to make EVs work for them and it’s looking like Volkswagen is getting tired of waiting. It wants to be the next Tesla, only much bigger, and leadership believes it should free up more money to expedite the process. But labor unions are starting to wonder what’s actually in this for them besides a few thousand fewer jobs and the current conflict is only widening the existing rifts with management.

“I’m being frequently asked why I keep comparing us with Tesla. I know this is annoying to some,” Diess told workers this week. “Even if I no longer talk about Elon Musk: he’ll still be there and revolutionises our industry and keeps getting more competitive quickly.”

According to Reuters, Diess has actually been having a series of meetings with German labor groups who have been expressing their growing dismay with electrification strategies over the last couple of years.

“Only as a team can we make Volkswagen future-proof,” The CEO pleaded in one such meeting attended by VW works council boss Daniela Cavallo, Lower Saxony state premier Stephan Weil, and head of IG Metall Joerg Hofmann.

From Reuters:

The conflict highlights the limitations Diess faces in steering the behemoth that employs 675,000 staff and navigating a complex stakeholder structure, where labour representatives and the state of Lower Saxony have a majority on the supervisory board.

Sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday a specially convened committee would discuss the future of Diess in an attempt to solve the dispute.

Works council boss Cavallo criticised Diess for his communication style in recent weeks, which she said fuelled concerns the transformation he was proposing will result in tens of thousands of job cuts.

“We’re tired of hearing time and again that the works council is apparently only concerned with preserving the status quo,” she said, adding workers and labour representatives were all backing the needed overhaul.

Diess, in a supervisory board meeting in September, warned that as many as 30,000 jobs could be lost if Volkswagen was not fast enough in transforming itself, sources have said. He has said Tesla is much more efficient with its much smaller workforce.

That may be true. But Elon Musk has said that Tesla’s smaller size has also made it harder to get favorable treatment from Western governments, citing the Biden administration’s decision to prioritize union-backed EVs in its tax credit scheme and Germany’s fierce pushback against the Berlin-Brandenburg Gigafactory.

Tesla being barred from the White House EV summit has also become a point of contention. “Yeah, seems odd Tesla wasn’t invited,” Musk said in August, adding that his company produced more electric cars than any other company in the world.

When White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked why Tesla had been excluded from the event she said that the press was welcome to draw its own conclusions.

Diess has said Mr. Musk has been in contact with Volkswagen leadership and even spoke with them for over an hour during an October phone call. Though Volkswagen’s works council reportedly wasn’t all that impressed by the supervisory board’s alleged closeness with Tesla.

“The fascination that you apparently feel for Mr. Musk and the effort you’re making in staying in contact with him — we would welcome if it was the same for the huge challenges the company currently faces,” Cavallo said in response.

[Image: Volkswagen Group]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Hreardon Hreardon on Nov 06, 2021

    Germans are known for being atonal, direct, to the point, and overall...blunt. Fortunately for Volkswagen, he's trying to speak truth. Diess is not wrong in what he's saying, it's an absolute reality that the number of German jobs will decline as Volkswagen adopts electrification and looks for every which way to increase efficiency as they try to recoup their investment (and Dieselgate expenses....). Time is short and people tend to move slowly. People in large bureaucracies move even more slowly. Diess knows that Volkswagen is going to get outflanked if they don't move faster. Unfortunately for Diess, he's exhibiting the German inability to speak softly and work quietly behind the scenes to get where he needs to be.

  • Ravenuer Ravenuer on Nov 06, 2021

    ..."When White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked why Tesla had been excluded from the event she said that the press was welcome to draw its own conclusions."... And what conclusions would that have been?

    • See 5 previous
    • Dantes_inferno Dantes_inferno on Nov 09, 2021

      @wolfwagen Why would you throw such compliments at Peppermint Patty like that? ;)

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
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  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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