Faced with economic challenges, Audi is beginning a vast reorganization. Indirect jobs, particularly in development, are at the forefront of this budgetary review.
Audi plans to cut thousands of jobs in non-production sectors to refocus on profitability. In Germany, around 4,500 indirect jobs could disappear. This is a new blow for the Volkswagen group which has had one series of disappointments.
Audi is scaling up its workforce
It’s a new thunderclap in the automobile sector: Audi is preparing to severely cut its workforce not linked to production, with the aim of a reduction of almost 15%. The figures mentioned are dizzying. According to the revelations of Manager Magazine, around 2,000 development jobs would be at riskin a rationalization effort which could affect up to 4,500 positions in Germany. This news, certainly difficult, is considered necessary to try to restore profitability undermined by a very complex market.
If Audi did not comment on the details of the planned deletions, the German manufacturer confirmed to Reuters that the board of directors was currently carrying out negotiations with worker representatives. However, this controlled communication does not allay employees’ concerns, while the company is going through a delicate period marked by a notable drop in its profits in the third quarter.
The challenges are multiple for Audi. On the one hand, it is about reduce costs associated with indirect employmenton the other, to anticipate the long-term effects of the transition to electric. The closure of the Brussels factory, employing some 3,000 employees, due to low demand for the Q8 e-tron, clearly illustrates this repositioning dynamic. Audi’s current choices reflect the difficulty of finding a balance between adapting to market realities and preserving jobs. Indirect job cuts can allow for rationalization, but the human cost could be felt on the motivation of the teams and on the public perception of the brand. Despite its prestige, Audi, like many European manufacturers, finds itself faced with an injunction for rationalization which leaves little room for maneuver.
Profits falling and factories under threat
With sharply declining results, Audi must face a difficult financial context and decisions that often represent painful compromises. The manufacturer is not alone: this largely affects the entire Volkswagen group, its parent company, which could close three factories in Germany as part of its own cost-cutting campaign.
The transition to electric, unavoidable and imposed by the legislator, requires sacrifices. Indeed, the infrastructures necessary for the development of electric cars, as well as the management of supply chains and innovation, require sizeable investments. But demand for electric models is still struggling to take off as quickly as the group would have liked.
Restructuring appears to be a solution of last resort to preserve financial balance while continuing to invest in promising sectors of the future. While the major manufacturers are betting on accelerated electrification, effective demand remains the Achilles heel of this ambition. Audi is banking on in-depth rationalization to amortize costs and anticipate the market reversal, but the scale of the planned cuts could shake the very foundations of the company. By eliminating thousands of indirect positions, a whole section of Audi’s structure could be reviewed, with real impacts for the teams who have been involved in it for years.
Source: www.autoplus.fr
