Volkswagen's CEO has warned the company was in a "more than critical" state ahead of meetings with the car giant's staff where he will defend the company's savings plans.
In an interview posted on the company's intranet, Oliver Blume said Volkswagen and the rest of Germany's car industry are facing "the biggest upheaval in their history" from global headwinds and Chinese competition.
The carmaker is weighing up huge job cuts. In the coming days, Blume will meet with employees at Volkswagen's headquarters in Wolfsburg and sites in Zwickau and Emden to give updates on the company's plans.
In the interview, Blume said that no decision had been taken on plant closures but reiterated the company's position that for plants in "Emden, Hannover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm we cannot currently see any way of them remaining profitable in the 2030s."
He said that the company also had to deal with the over-production of 500,000 vehicles per year in Europe.
Closing factories would always be "the last and most expensive solution", Blume said.
He added that at sites where car production may stop, Volkswagen was exploring other "industrial solutions," pointing to advanced talks with companies from the defense industry over using its factory in Osnabrueck.
Blume described the situation facing the company as "more than critical" and said its current level of profits was not sufficient to "ensure we have the means over the long term for new technologies, new products and our locations."
