Audi to cut 9500 jobs under new worker deal

AUDI has announced it will shed 9500 workers by 2025 to free up €6 billion ($A9.74b) for development of electric vehicles and digitalisation under its Audi Zunkunft (Future) transformation plan.

Workers will be offered early retirement incentives to help achieve the jobs reduction target that will apply to both shop-floor workers and management.

But the German company has promised to create 2000 new jobs for experts in electrification and digitalisation to help drive the development of next-generation products over the next 10 years.

The management and employee representatives have “fundamentally agreed” to the plan that locks in job guarantees for remaining workers in Germany to the end of 2029.

Under the plan, electric vehicles will be built at Audi’s two big German plants, Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, to “future-proof” the factories that between them produce 675,000 vehicles a year.

Neckasulm is gearing up for production of the Audi E-Tron GT next year, while Ingolstadt is preparing for production of “premium electric vehicles”, Audi said.

Audi CEO Bram Schot said the latest moves were designed to tackle structural issues to ensure the future of Audi, with management and the employee works council agreeing on the plan that will come into effect next week.

“Audi Zukunft secures our sustainable growth,” he said. “In times of upheaval, we are making Audi more agile and more efficient. This will increase productivity and sustainably strengthen the competitiveness of our German plants.”

The restructuring plan follows hard on the heels of major management changes at Audi where three key new board of management appointments were recently announced.

Arno Antlitz takes over as chief financial officer from Alexander Seitz who becomes CFO at Volkswagen Cars.

Dirk Grosse-Loheide replaces Bernd Martens as board member for procurement and IT, while Sabine Maassen – formerly head of human resources at steel-maker Thyssenkrupp – replaces Wendelin Goebel as board member for Audi HR.

They will join new Audi CEO Markus Duesmann – a former BMW executive – on the board in the first quarter of next year.