An extension of job security until the end of 2025 covers the entire workforce of Audi, the automaker and its worker representatives, announced.
General works council chairman Peter Mosch and CEO Rupert Stadler also said two all electric SUVs would be built at Ingolstadt from 2021.
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"We have long been fighting for a job guarantee up until the end of 2025. Our colleagues need that certainty, and that is something we can now finally give them," Peter Mosch said at the start of a works meeting.
He emphasised the vital importance of these firm decisions, in an age of ongoing digitilisation and new drive technologies, to calm employees' fears of the future. The employee representatives took the decision as firm evidence that Audi would not merely rise to the challenges of digitilisation and electric mobility, but will lead the way in those fields.
They think further investment in future technologies, qualification programmes, domestic locations and employment will take the automaker "in a very promising direction".
"It's clear the electrification of the site and the expected developments in the car market will continue to demand flexibility from the workforce but equally clear the company needs to rise to the challenge to make this future employee-friendly come what may," added Mosch.
Audi plans 20 electrified models by 2025, of which at least 10 will be all electric.
Stadler views plan as a clear commitment to the German sites and to maintaining their competitiveness.
"Building up manufacturing capacity for electric cars in Germany is at the heart of this pact for the future, which we are currently negotiating. It demonstrates our clear commitment to the future of the Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm plants.
"The transition to electric mobility and the general volatility of car markets demand immense flexibility from the company and its workforce."
