Vehicle manufacturer Audi is reducing 7500 jobs to save costs

The car manufacturer Audi will be cutting a total of 7,500 jobs in Germany by the end of 2029. Together with other financial cuts for the employees, the company wants to save more than one billion euros a year in the medium term, as it said.

The group and works council had long and intensively wrestled for the savings plans, but now agreed on a concept. In the meantime, there were also significantly higher figures for job cuts: the chairman of the overall works council, Jörg Schlagbauer, gave an original claim of the company of 12,000 jobs.

“Audi has to become faster, more agile and more efficient. It is clear that this is not possible without personnel adjustments,” said CEO Gernot Döllner. At the same time, he emphasized: “There will be no operational terminations until the end of 2033. This is good news for all employees in difficult times.”

Specifically, the applicable employment securing, which excludes operational dismissals, is extended by the end of 2033. So far, she had applied until the end of 2029.

At the same time, Audi wants to invest eight billion euros in the German locations. For the challenging transition to electromobility, “we set up Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm so robust and flexible”, as Döllner emphasizes.

According to Audi, the job cuts should take place in the “indirect area” – that is, not to make production and bring a reduction in bureaucracy. In addition, the lawn mower should not be shortened. Rather, the “team line -up is focused and consistently based on the requirements of the future,” says HR Manager Xavier Ros.

The first 6,000 jobs should be omitted by 2027, another 1,500 by the end of 2029. How the cuts are divided into the locations in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm is still open.

The Audi employees meet further cuts in the money. Among other things, the participation in results is structurally rebuilt and further shortened for several years. It is quite about relevant sums.

In 2024, the employee participation paid for 2023 had 8,840 euros per employee. The participation for 2024, which will be paid out in the current year, will not yet be affected by the agreed cut. However, it should still be weaker due to the recently worse business.

Audi presents complete figures for the 2024 financial year on Tuesday. In the first nine months, the profit had almost halved. Among other things, Audi suffered from missing parts for important engines, weak demand in China and provisions for closing his work in Brussels.

According to Schlagbauer, the workforce makes a large contribution to making the four rings weatherproof and future -proof again and investing many million euros in its own future.

In return, it was possible to ward off a lot in the “hard, but always in fact and solution-oriented negotiations”. Neither the tariff monthly wire nor allowances and surcharges would be touched and the outstanding tariff increases would not be postponed.

Schlagbauer also increases great importance to the group’s promise to build Q3 in Ingolstadt in the future. A total of 1,000 jobs would also be brought back through so -called insourcing. This means the reintegration of previously outsourced processes or functions.

“Some key points of the future agreement mean cuts for the employees,” says HR board Ros. “We are aware of this. At the same time, they are absolutely necessary to prevent operational terminations. That was and is my goal.”

Members of IG Metall can also look forward to an additional bonus in the future. This should apply from 2026, as the chairwoman of IG Metall near Audi in Ingolstadt, Karola Frank.

Bavaria’s IG Metall district manager Horst Ott praised the measure: “This rewarded the solidarity of the employees who work for each other, ensure strong IG metal and thus enable collective agreements and good negotiation results in the first place.”

In the negotiations on the future agreement, all negotiating parties would have taken responsibility, secured the collective agreement and strengthened the future of Audi in Germany.