Volkswagen’s supervisory board on Thursday unanimously approved a comprehensive transformation plan that could include cutting the group’s workforce by a further 50,000 jobs, including management positions, as the carmaker seeks to improve competitiveness.Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, is undergoing its largest-ever restructuring, and the planned job cuts bring expected total workforce reductions to 100,000. The “Future Plan”, presented by Volkswagen’s management board and approved at a supervisory board meeting, is designed to make the Volkswagen Group and its brands, including Audi, Bentley, Porsche and Skoda, more efficient, more competitive and better positioned for the future, the company said.Volkswagen said a further fundamental adjustment to global workforce levels was necessary, in addition to existing programmes, to achieve the goals of the transformation initiative and safeguard the group’s competitiveness.The company did not provide further details on the timing of the workforce reduction or how the cuts would be distributed across its brands and regions.It cited increasing global competitive pressure, changing demand patterns and technological change in the automotive industry as reasons for the planned measures.The agreement stops short of immediately closing factories, according to Bloomberg.VW acknowledged about 500,000 vehicles of excess annual capacity in Europe and said its Emden, Hanover, Neckarsulm and Zwickau plants currently lack competitive follow-on production once existing models run out between 2031 and 2034. Alternative uses for these plants are being assessed, the company said.The Volkswagen Group is expecting to sell only 8.5-million cars worldwide in the current year, German business outlet WirtschaftsWoche reported on Tuesday, citing a supervisory board document.The group sold 8.9-million vehicles globally in 2025, a slight decrease of 0.5% compared with the 9-million vehicles of the previous year. With Reuters