Volkswagen's 10 billion euro ($10.9 billion) savings programme will include staff reductions, managers told staff on Monday as brand chief Thomas Schaefer warned that high costs and low productivity were making its cars uncompetitive.
The German carmaker is in the midst of negotiations with its works council over a cost-cutting scheme at its VW brand, the first step in a group-wide drive to boost efficiency in the transition to electric cars.
"With many of our pre-existing structures, processes and high costs, we are no longer competitive as the Volkswagen brand," Schaefer told a staff meeting at the carmaker's headquarters in Wolfsburg, according to a post on the company's intranet site and seen by Reuters.
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