Volkswagen Stock Rebounds From 52-Week Low as Boardroom Battle Intensifies Over 100,000 Job Cuts and Price Hikes

VW preference shares bounce 8.38% from 52-week low but remain down 29% YTD. Management pushes job cuts, plant closures, while Lower Saxony and labor block measures. Price hikes on petrol/diesel models begin.

Volkswagen’s preference shares have clawed back some ground after plumbing a 52-week trough of €69.20 on 1 July, closing Friday at €75.00 for a daily gain of 2.6%. That 8.38% bounce, however, does little to mask the stock’s broader agony: the shares are still down 29.31% year-to-date and trade 31.26% below the December 2025 peak of €109.10. A relative strength index of 35.8 points to persistent weakness, while annualised volatility sits at 31.65%.

The fragility reflects a company caught in a three-way squeeze. Management is pushing through an unprecedented cost-cutting drive that envisages the elimination of up to 100,000 jobs globally and the possible closure of four German plants – Hannover, Emden, Zwickau and Neckarsulm. Arrayed against those plans is a powerful bloc in the supervisory board: the state of Lower Saxony, which holds 20% of voting rights, has joined forces with labour representatives to form a blocking majority. Deputy premier Julia Willie Hamburg has publicly branded any factory closures a strategic error.

Complicating the picture, Volkswagen this week raised list prices for its petrol and diesel models by between 1.0% and 1.2%, effective 2 July. The company cites the upcoming Euro-7 emissions standard, which from 29 November 2026 will apply to new vehicle types and from 29 November 2027 to all new registrations in classes M1 and N1. The stricter certification requirements push up development costs, and the price hike is an attempt to recoup part of that expense. Electric vehicles in the ID family are exempt, consistent with Volkswagen’s stated strategy to accelerate the shift to zero-emission mobility.

On the cost side, the management board is exploring additional levers. The current bonus system for executives will be scrapped entirely by 2027 and replaced with a star-rating scheme, a move designed to foster a cultural shift. Meanwhile, the development partnership with Bosch in autonomous driving has been terminated; Volkswagen will instead rely more on external software solutions to keep spending under control.

The boardroom showdown comes to a head on 9 July, when the supervisory board is scheduled to vote on the concrete restructuring measures. Should the labour-and-state coalition block the plans, the management board is reportedly prepared to call an extraordinary general meeting – an extraordinary step for a company where consensus has traditionally prevailed. The coming days will determine whether a compromise can be hammered out or the conflict escalates further.