The crisis continues unabated in the German car industry, with Audi now making cuts. A total of 7,500 employees are to be laid off.
Audi is the latest car brand to feel the crisis in the German car industry. Now 7,500 of its employees are to be laid off. The last one will be fired within four years.
The decision is a response to declining sales and economic challenges. It is expected that the majority of employees affected will be engineers and white-collar workers.
The brand announced this in a press release .
Audi has experienced a significant decline in sales, especially in 2024, when total sales fell by 12 percent.
In the German domestic market, the decline was even more significant, at over 20 percent, and in the important Chinese market, sales fell by 11 percent.
The massive decline has forced Audi to implement a comprehensive savings plan that will shave annual expenses down by 7.5 billion kroner.
Audi originally wanted to lay off 12,000 of its employees, but after negotiations with the employees' unions, they have reached a compromise of 7,500 people.
According to CEO Gernot Döllner, there will be no immediate layoffs. Instead, people will be laid off on an ongoing basis.
– Audi must become faster, more agile and more efficient. One thing is clear: This cannot be achieved without personnel adjustments.
"There will be no layoffs by the end of 2033," Döllner said in an official statement.
Audi believes that it can slim down through 'natural attrition among staff, early retirements and voluntary resignations.
To strengthen its position in the market, Audi will invest 61 billion kroner in its factories in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm.
As part of this investment, production of the Audi Q3 will be moved from Hungary to Ingolstadt. The works council at Audi has expressed that they have worked to minimize the consequences for employees.
Audi currently has 87,000 employees, of which 55,000 are employed in Germany.
– We were able to avert many of the company's demands on employees.
But we also had to make compromises to allow for financial flexibility for further investments, said Council President Jörg Schlagbauer in a press release.
The Ingolstadt brand is the latest in a long line of carmakers to tighten their budgets. Porsche is to cut 4,500 jobs, and Skoda is to find 8,000 people in an even bigger round of cuts. Read more about it here .
