CAPTION: Herbert Diess, President of the Volkswagen Group. (picture alliance/Christophe Gateau/dpa/archive)
Digitalization is set to lead to job cuts at Germany's Volkswagen Group, Herbert Diess, the head of the management board, said at its Wolfsburg headquarters on Wednesday.
Modernization in IT would lead to the automation of many routine processes, Diess told 20,000 VW employees, while pledging to implement the cuts through natural shrinkage rather than redundancies.
"What is evident is that jobs will decline in administration in particular," he said. "We have to earn considerably more money with our cars in order to be able to invest in the future."
Strict European Union regulations on emissions meant that VW would have to boost its production of electric cars to 40 per cent by 2030, he said, noting that less labour was needed in their production.
"An electric car is assembled with around 30 per cent less labour than an internal combustion car. It will be hard to deal with this through churn and semi-retirement," he said.
At the same time, more software specialists would be needed, with an additional 2,000 jobs to be created here, Diess said.
VW passenger cars head Ralf Brandstaetter recently announced that between 5,000 and 7,000 jobs would be cut over the next five years at the group's core business.
VW Group includes a string of subsidiaries, notably Audi, Bentley, Porsche, MAN, Scania, SEAT and Skoda.
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