Vehicle production for the VW brand, the commercial vehicles business, Seat, Cupra and Skoda will be more closely aligned for efficiency, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz posted on LinkedIn on Wednesday.
Optimising production efficiency is key to producing VW’s planned 25,000-euro entry-level electric vehicle set to be made in Spain, Antlitz said.
As part of the plans, VW will pool production across more brands with its main plant in Wolfsburg, potentially lowering capacity, a person familiar with the matter said. The site at one point was on course to build 1 million cars.
With the switch to making electric vehicles requiring fewer workers, VW might cut or reduce some shifts across factories. So far, VW is not planning job cuts with a large number of retiring workers likely to suffice to reduce the workforce.
Pushing through deeper changes at the group have become central in the switch to EVs and increasing competition in China, its biggest market.
The company’s rolling five-year spending plan has ballooned to 180 billion euros due to spending on software, EVs and turning around a market share slide in China.
VW Group is due to present new financial targets and an updated corporate strategy at a capital markets day on June 21.
Reuters and Bloomberg contributed to this report
