Earlier this month, the controlling shareholders of Volkswagen issued a warning about the company’s future. Hans Dieter Pötsch, the chairman of Porsche SE, stated that Volkswagen is at a “historic crossroads” and backed management’s push for a deep operational overhaul and major workforce reductions.
Pötsch’s statement came a few weeks after Europe’s biggest automaker released its second-quarter 2026 results, which were bleak. Operating profit fell 9.5 percent year-over-year, to 3.5 billion euros. And the company scrapped its earlier forecast of 3 percent annual revenue growth for the third quarter, instead predicting a decline of as much as 3 percent.
The main driver was China. Volkswagen’s sales there fell more than 31 percent in the first half of this year, dragging total global deliveries down 6.3 percent. Rising sales in Europe and North America couldn’t offset the company’s flagging numbers in the world’s largest automobile market.
