Recently, Obomou, CEO of Volkswagen Group and Chairman of the Management Board, publicly warned that Volkswagen is currently in a precarious situation and is experiencing the most serious industry turmoil since the brand's development in the past century. The Group has fully launched the cost reduction and self-help program, and intends to stabilize the business fundamentals through multiple measures such as layoffs, capacity optimization, and revitalization of idle factories. In a public interview published on the Group's intranet, Volkswagen Group CEO and Chairman of the Management Board Obomo Obomo bluntly stated that the current development of Volkswagen and the entire German automobile industry is in a deep winter, and the crisis comes from the superposition of multiple internal and external factors. In the external market, the strong rise of China's new energy vehicle companies has continued to squeeze Volkswagen's global market share and become its core source of competitive pressure. At the same time, tariff barriers, fluctuations in supply chain and energy costs, and increasingly stringent auto industry regulatory policies in Europe have further increased the operating burden of enterprises. At the internal level, Volkswagen faces serious overcapacity problems. In the European region alone, the annual redundancy of automobile production capacity is as high as 500,000 units, and the production capacity of traditional fuel vehicles is seriously mismatched with the current market demand. Under the severe business situation, the level of public profitability continues to be under pressure, and the existing revenue and profit can no longer support the Group's long-term new technology research and development, new product iteration, and stable operation of global factories. In order to solve the dilemma, the public has finalized an all-round cost reduction reform plan. The core involves personnel optimization and capacity structure adjustment. It is reported that Volkswagen has made unprecedented efforts to rescue itself. The scale of global layoffs has been greatly expanded from the previously disclosed 50,000 to 100,000, which has become the largest staff reduction plan in the Group's history. At present, about 28,000 employees have voluntarily left their jobs, and the cost reduction work has steadily progressed. In terms of production capacity, the Group significantly reduced the global annual production capacity of complete vehicles from 12 million to 9 million, and cumulatively reduced the production capacity of 3 million vehicles. The core production base in Germany synchronously reduced production lines and compressed production capacity. Factory layout adjustment has become the focus and difficulty of this reform. Obomou confirmed that the Volkswagen Group has not formally made a final decision to close the plant, but issued a clear warning: the three Volkswagen production bases of Emden, Hanover and Zwickau, as well as Audi's Neckarsulm plant, are likely to be unable to achieve profitability after 2030, and all four core plants are at risk of being phased out or transformed. It is worth noting that Volkswagen has closed the "Transparent Factory" in Dresden, Germany in December 2025, which is the first time in the brand's 88-year history that the local vehicle factory has been closed, marking a fundamental change in Volkswagen's traditional manufacturing system. Regarding the disposal of loss-making factories, Obomou stressed that the permanent closure of factories is the last and most costly passive choice for enterprises. The Group prioritizes the exploration of diversified industrial transformation plans to maximize the revitalization of existing assets and ensure industrial stability. At the same time, through fine management and control, the overall production cost in Germany has dropped by more than 20% last year, and the cost reduction effect has initially appeared. (Compiled by Qin Chao, Automobile House).