Volkswagen Director Dismisses Plant Closure Talk as Blume Threatens Extraordinary Shareholder Meeting

Volkswagen shares rise 2.1% to €74.72 but remain under pressure as CEO Oliver Blume faces board opposition to plans for 100,000 job cuts and plant closures.

Volkswagen shares clawed back some ground on Friday, rising to €74.72 in a 2.1% bounce from the prior close of €73.18, but the modest gain masks a boardroom battle that is escalating by the day. While Vice-Regional Premier Julia Willie Hamburg, a member of the supervisory board, publicly rejected speculation over factory closures as “no future strategy,” Chief Executive Oliver Blume is preparing to call an extraordinary general meeting if the board blocks his sweeping restructuring plan at a crucial vote on July 9.

The stock’s recovery follows a fresh yearly low of €69.20 set on July 1, and it remains 31.51% below the 52-week high of €109.10 reached on December 15, 2025. Another report placed Friday’s trade at €74.64, up 2.0%, underscoring the shallow nature of the rebound. Technical indicators paint a similarly cautious picture: the relative strength index stands at 34.9, close to oversold territory, while the share price trails 12.54% beneath its 50-day moving average of €85.43 and a full 20.70% below the 200-day line of €94.22. Year-to-date, the paper has shed 29.65% of its value.

Alongside the stock’s technical struggles, Volkswagen has quietly raised list prices for its combustion-engine models in Germany by 1.0% to 1.2%, effective July 2. The increases affect the Golf, Tiguan and Passat, and are tied to the upcoming Euro 7 emissions standard, which demands hardware modifications and more rigorous lifetime compliance testing. The fully electric ID range is excluded from the price hike, a deliberate incentive to nudge buyers toward battery-powered vehicles.

The real drama, however, is unfolding in Wolfsburg. Blume is pushing a radical austerity program that would cut up to 100,000 jobs worldwide and shutter four German plants. The supervisory board’s July 9 session will decide whether to give the plan the green light. If it refuses, the CEO—backed by a CNBC report—is prepared to convene an extraordinary shareholder meeting to let investors vote directly on the overhaul. Opposition is stiff: IG Metall and the works council have vowed to block the cuts, and the federal government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz has demanded binding job guarantees. Into this tense arena stepped Julia Willie Hamburg, who sits on the board for the state of Lower Saxony, a major shareholder. She pushed back against the closure narrative, insisting that transformation must build on existing strengths and that radical capacity reductions are misplaced.

The half-year results are due on July 24, and the stock’s trajectory between now and then will hinge largely on the outcome of next week’s board vote and the pace of the efficiency programs. For now, the shares remain trapped between a determined CEO and a powerful coalition of labor and political forces, with neither side showing signs of bending.