Volkswagen Has The Same Problem Toyota Is Trying To Fix

Too Many Choices

Automotive giants like Volkswagen view the whole world as a market; they have to account for each region as a potential market. Since their business model focuses on a global scale, their model lineup is wide and varied, allowing them to cater to each market's demands.

However, over time, that may cause issues for them: production lines become confusing, and there are many failed start-up models that waste R&D money. It seems VW is also feeling the effects and wants to scale down.

Trimming Down The Line

2025 was a very tough year for the Volkswagen brand; it embarked on a series of major spending cuts across the whole business. In fact, most recently, it has come to light that VW plans to cut around 28,000 jobs by 2030, around 19,000 of which are part of the German factories, showing just how bleak things are for German automotive manufacturing. The whole group will be affected, and by the end of the decade, over 50,000 jobs will be cut across VW, Porsche, and Audi.

Part of the cost-saving measures will be reducing the "complexity" of the lineup, much like Toyota's plan under its new boss. Volkswagen's plan is to trim the lineup and build fewer models and variants, with a goal of giving greater importance to high-volume products that sell better. Next is a plan that directly affects the first: an initiative to reduce the platforms of both ICE and EV models to lower costs, which will instead help them focus on quicker, better vehicle development.

How?

If you want to see the full cost-cutting plan, Volkswagen has posted it on its website; the list currently includes eight specific measures the company plans to execute. In doing so, it believes it will achieve its goal of annual net savings of around $7 billion by 2030.

While the plan doesn't highlight what models are getting the axe, it is highly likely that most of the experimental and newer nameplates will be killed off. Sales performance is also a major factor beyond name recognition, so VW will likely be checking which models have global appeal and can be sold elsewhere in the world.

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