The ailing Volkswagen Group suffered a sharp drop in profits in the third quarter. A weak industry environment with fewer vehicle sales as well as the planned reductions in capacity and jobs within the group resulted in billions in costs. The values ​​were weaker than analysts had already feared. Group profit after taxes fell by 64 percent to 1.58 billion euros – partly because things are also going badly for VW in the important Chinese market. Sales, on the other hand, only fell by half a percent to 78.5 billion euros.

The management around CEO Oliver Blume maintained the annual forecast, which was lowered again in September. Blume has put the red pencil in the group and wants to save billions in order to get the low-profit core brand VW Passenger Cars back on track.

According to the works council, the board wants to close at least three German VW plants and downsize the rest, and tens of thousands of employees will be laid off. Significant salary cuts are also on the cards. Workers have announced fierce resistance and are calling for more comprehensive solutions than just looking at labor and factory costs. This Wednesday, the company and the IG Metall union will meet for the next round of talks on the VW company tariff.