Volkswagen’s board approved another 50,000 job cuts, bringing the group near 100,000 since late 2024 (~15% of staff). EU car sales and EVs are still rising, so the author says demand is not the hole in German halls.

Brussels eased the 2035 combustion ban and is swapping China EV duties for minimum prices; Chinese brands still doubled their EU share. A proposed 70% European-content rule is called paperwork that ignores energy, taxes, and ~60% plant use.

German auto jobs fell 5.8% in a year. Chinese firms are building in Hungary and Spain while VW, Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche slump in China. The piece argues Europe must cut costs at home or watch production move east with Chinese capital and European workers.

Volkswagen’s supervisory board approved a plan on September 4 to remove another 50,000 positions, doubling the reductions announced since late 2024 and bringing the group’s total to around 100,000 jobs, close to 15 percent of its global workforce. Emden, Hannover, Neckarsulm and Zwickau keep their gates open, with existing models phased out between 2031 and 2034 and alternative uses still unnamed. General Motors cut 74,000 posts and closed 21 plants in December 1991, which was the record until last Friday.

The timing deserves more attention than the number. European demand is not collapsing. EU car registrations rose 5.7 percent in the first half of 2026, and battery-electric models took 20.7 percent of the market, 1.22 million cars, against 15.6 percent a year earlier. German battery-electric registrations grew 48 percent. Whatever is emptying assembly halls in Lower Saxony, a shortage of buyers is not it.

For two years the industry argued that Brussels was regulating too fast and Beijing was competing unfairly. Both arguments won. In December 2025 the Commission dropped the full 2035 combustion ban, replacing a 100 percent CO2 cut with 90 percent and letting........

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