The Volkswagen Group has revealed drastic restructuring plans that could see the company’s brands, including Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Cupra, cull a wide range of models, streamline production efficiency, and cut its workforce by as many as 100,000 employees.

Following a supervisory board meeting, the Volkswagen Group had made the call to trim its line-up of vehicles by half, and switch focus to volume-selling segments, putting incremental and emerging products in limbo, Reuters reports.

Of Volkswagen’s surviving model lines, production complexity is set to be streamlined, with variants cut from the line-up and options and customisations pared back to maintain operating efficiency at Volkswagen factories.

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As with other established automotive manufacturers, Volkswagen is facing mounting pressure from rising low-cost Chinese competition, an increase in the adoption of domestic brands in the Chinese market, slowing sales in Europe, and the financial impact of US tariffs.

Profit margins between 2021 and 2025 have dropped by half, and slowing sales have seen Volkswagen pull back forecast production capacity from 10 million vehicles to 9 million.

“The global situation has continued to deteriorate over the past twelve months,” Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume said. “That is why we are ​acting now.”

In a move that could become Volkswagen’s biggest-ever restructure, four German plants are under consideration for closure, and plans to cut 50,000 jobs initially have been expanded to 100,000 jobs on the line.

Volkswagen has yet to confirm plant closure speculation, but Reuters reports that German factories are currently running at around 80 per cent of production capacity, with those rates expected to decline further towards the end of the decade.

Volkswagen currently owns brands including Audi, Bentley, Cupra, Lamborghini, Skoda, and Seat and has a complex cross-holding partnership with Porsche, which each company holding a stake in the other. Rimac Bugatti, previously under Porsche control, has recently been sold, and industry speculation suggests Volkswagen may be looking to sell the Ducati motorcycle division, currently held by Lamborghini.