Volkswagen’s top management has signalled that cost reductions will remain a core focus, as the German carmaker responds to intensifying competition and a challenging market environment.
Chief executive Oliver Blume used a two-day management gathering in Berlin to underline that leadership, focus and finances will be the group’s three main priorities in the coming year, reported Reuters, citing a company spokesperson.
Blume told executives: “The task now is to continue to consistently reduce our costs in order to remain competitive in the long term,” adding that the company sees its brands and products as central to its longer-term prospects.
The renewed cost emphasis comes as Volkswagen moves ahead with a large investment programme.
Reports earlier this month indicated the group plans to deploy €160bn ($186bn) up to 2030.
That figure stems from Volkswagen’s rolling five-year capital expenditure framework, which is updated annually.
The latest plan marks a reduction from previous cycles, which had earmarked €165bn for 2025–2029 and €180bn for 2024–2028.
Chief financial officer Arno Antlitz said the company must extract more value from a leaner resource base if it is to thrive.
“This requires even stricter cost management and investment discipline,” he said, outlining intentions to lift profitability in electric vehicles, cut fixed and manufacturing costs, and direct investment towards selected future technologies.
Antlitz added: “We need more Group synergies, less complexity and a strengthening of our market position in the USA and other regions outside Europe.”
Volkswagen has already set out significant restructuring in its home market.
In December 2024, the group reached a deal with labour representatives to overhaul its German operations, including 35,000 job reductions by 2030.
The measures are aimed at responding to growing pressure from lower-cost Chinese manufacturers and a slower-than-anticipated transition to electric mobility.
According to Antlitz, overhead costs in the current year fell below the previous year’s level for the first time in some years.
The cost drive is unfolding against a weaker profit backdrop.
Volkswagen posted a net loss of €1.07bn for the third quarter of 2025, versus net income of €1.56bn in the same period a year earlier. It was the company’s first quarterly loss since the second quarter of 2020, when its performance was hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Group sales revenue in the quarter edged up to €80.3bn from €78.47bn a year before. However, Volkswagen said the bottom line was weighed down by adverse pricing and product mix effects and by tariffs in the US market.
The company also cited provisions and impairments tied to the overhaul of Porsche’s product strategy and a goodwill write-down at Porsche, which together generated additional charges of about €4.7bn.
