Volkswagen’s supervisory board is meeting to decide a sweeping restructuring that could close four German plants and cut up to 100K jobs worldwide as management seeks to restore competitiveness.Company officials cite about €5B a year in US tariffs, weak electric-vehicle margins, intense Chinese competition and overcapacity, and propose €10B in annual savings through model consolidation, asset sales and cuts to development and purchasing.IG Metall is staging protests at multiple sites including Osnabrück, the supervisory board’s labor majority and
Lower Saxony’s blocking stake complicate approval, and Moody’s,
S&P and
Fitch warn that worsening results could trigger credit downgrades.