VW may close four factories to adapt to the future, report says

报道称大众汽车为适应未来可能关闭四家工厂

Volkswagen Group is considering what was previously unthinkable: closing up to four factories in Germany and instituting layoffs that would shrink the workforce by 15 percent. 大众汽车集团正在考虑一项此前被认为不可思议的举措：关闭在德国的多达四家工厂，并进行裁员，这将使员工总数减少 15%。

2025 was a bad year for Europe’s largest automaker. Its sales were essentially flat, but profits were anything but, dropping 44 percent to just 6.9 billion euros ($7.9 billion) as operating margins more than halved. The red ink looks set to continue bleeding through 2026, and in March, the company announced it would cut 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030 as part of a plan to adapt. Now, according to a report in Manager Magazin, those job losses may double. 2025 年对这家欧洲最大的汽车制造商来说是糟糕的一年。其销量基本持平，但利润却大幅下滑，下降了 44%，仅为 69 亿欧元（约合 79 亿美元），营业利润率缩水了一半以上。亏损局面似乎将持续到 2026 年。今年 3 月，该公司宣布作为适应计划的一部分，到 2030 年将在德国裁员 5 万人。而据《经理人杂志》（Manager Magazin）报道，这一裁员规模可能会翻倍。

The automaker did well selling EVs in Europe last year, but sales in North America and China fell and continue to fall, and tariffs have had a significant effect. In April, VW Group CFO and COO Arno Arnitz told investors that the company’s operating margin was “far too low” and that it would have to fundamentally transform its business model to cut costs and increase efficiency without tanking quality. That would require “significantly reducing complexity—in our product portfolio and technology platforms, as well as in the number of entities and decision-making layers,” Arnitz said. 尽管该车企去年在欧洲的电动汽车销售表现良好，但在北美和中国的销量却出现下滑并持续走低，关税也产生了重大影响。今年 4 月，大众集团首席财务官兼首席运营官 Arno Arnitz 告诉投资者，公司的营业利润率“太低了”，必须从根本上转型商业模式，在不牺牲质量的前提下削减成本并提高效率。Arnitz 表示，这将需要“显著降低复杂性——包括我们的产品组合、技术平台，以及实体数量和决策层级。”

Now we have some idea what that reduction in complexity might look like. The report, confirmed by Reuters, says that another 45,000 jobs would go. That would reduce VW’s total workforce by around 15 percent; currently, the automaker employs more than 650,000 people across the group’s 10 car brands and other divisions. 现在我们对这种“降低复杂性”的具体含义有了一些了解。路透社证实了该报道，称还将有 4.5 万个工作岗位被裁减。这将使大众汽车的员工总数减少约 15%；目前，该公司在旗下 10 个汽车品牌及其他部门共拥有超过 65 万名员工。

VW Group is part-owned by the state of Lower Saxony, which, together with strong unions, has always made the thought of factory closures in Germany anathema. But VW Group CEO Oliver Blume will present a plan to the company’s board next month that outlines just such a thing, according to the report. Volkswagen plants in Hannover, Zwickau, and Emden, as well as Audi’s factory in Neckarsulm, are all in the crosshairs. 大众汽车集团的部分股权由下萨克森州政府持有，该州政府与强大的工会一直以来都将“关闭德国工厂”视为禁忌。但据报道，大众集团首席执行官奥利弗·布鲁姆（Oliver Blume）将于下个月向公司董事会提交一份计划，其中就概述了这一举措。大众位于汉诺威、茨维考和埃姆登的工厂，以及奥迪在内卡苏尔姆的工厂，均在裁撤名单的考虑范围内。

“Please understand that we do not comment on internal, confidential documents. The underlying matters will be discussed and approved in the respective committees. We will not pre-empt this process,” a VW spokesperson told Ars. “The Executive Board has repeatedly stated that our current business model no longer works across all brands: developing cars in Germany, producing them in Europe and exporting them to the world… The entire Group has to become significantly more competitive,” it said. “请理解我们不对内部机密文件发表评论。相关事项将在各自的委员会中进行讨论和批准。我们不会预先干预这一流程，”大众汽车发言人告诉 Ars。“执行董事会已多次表示，我们目前的商业模式在所有品牌中已不再适用：即在德国研发汽车、在欧洲生产并出口到全球……整个集团必须显著提高竞争力，”该发言人表示。