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Volkswagen is going to eliminate 50,000 jobs by 2030: it is the price it pays for having fallen asleep

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The German giant closed 2025 with the worst result in almost a decade. It is no wonder, because right now Volkswagen is in the middle of several open fronts, among them China’s pressure and USAwave transition to electricwhere it is putting special focus. But the context has not been the only reason. The blow in figures. The Group had a profit of 6.4 billion euros in 2025, 44% less than the previous year. In fact, it is the lowest since 2016, the year of the diesel scandal. Total revenue remained stable at around €322 billion, but operating profit fell almost by half to €8.9 billion. On the other hand, the group’s operating margin stood at 2.8%. Why is this happening? Context doesn’t help, but it’s not just context either. Volkswagen has had structural problems for years that the current crisis has amplified: your internal software it is expensive and slow; China, its largest market, it slips out of your hands; The Trump administration’s tariffs hit its sales in the US and Europe is buying fewer cars than before the pandemic, specifically some two million fewer vehicles per year than in pre-pandemic. In Xataka The electric car revolution has an absolute winner: the Chinese battery giant is becoming more and more giant The adjustment plan. Oliver Blume, CEO of the group, communicated in his annual letter to shareholders that “in total, around 50,000 jobs will be eliminated before 2030 in the Volkswagen Group in Germany.” The cut exceeds 35,000 positions that had already been agreed with the unions at the end of 2024 within the restructuring pact ‘Zukunft Volkswagen’ (The future of Volkswagen). This agreement, signed with the IG Metall union and the works council, prohibits the reduction of staff and guarantees employment until the end of the decade, but in exchange it freezes salaries in 2025 and 2026 and reduces productive capacity by 734,000 units per year. The company estimates that these measures can generate up to €15 billion in annual savings by 2030. The additional 15,000 positions now announced come from brands such as Audi and Porsche, and software subsidiary CARIAD. What’s wrong with China. Volkswagen was the best-selling manufacturer in China for decades. In 2024 lost that position to BYD; in 2025 it fell to third place, also surpassed by Geely. The group’s total sales in the country fell 8% in 2025, and those of electric vehicles plummeted more than 44%. To answer, the group works with XPeng on a specific electrical architecture for the Chinese market, the CEA platform, which is now ready for series production. Blume described the process as transforming “an idea into cutting-edge architecture in just 18 months.” {“videoId”:”x9tnvi4″,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Why YOUR NEXT CAR WILL SURELY BE CHINESE”, “tag”:”Webedia-prod”, “duration”:”614″} The software problem. One of the group’s most expensive burdens has been CARIAD, its internal software division in which it invested around 12 billion euros without the expected results. The group has pivoted, with CARIAD now primarily managing external alliances. The most important is the one it maintains with Rivian, the American manufacturer of electric vehicles, in which Volkswagen has committed 5.8 billion dollars. Rivian’s technology, its zonal architecture and its software, will debut in the VW ID.1scheduled for 2027. Last week, Rivian CFO Claire McDonough told investors that the relationship is “very strong” and that work is progressing faster than VW could have done alone. In Xataka Renault has encountered a problem: it does not know how to grow. And he believes that his solution is to become premium Porsche, the other source of tension. The Stuttgart brand, usually the most profitable of the group, has also been affected. Its commitment to electric power has cost it nearly 4.7 billion euros, a figure that has practically absorbed its entire operating profit. Sales in China have also suffered. What’s coming now? “We can only achieve this if we continue to rigorously reduce costs. That is what we will focus on in the coming months,” counted the group’s CFO, Arno Antlitz. The group also is studying cuts of 20% in the costs of all its brands before the end of 2028. However, there are signs of improvement: the fourth quarter of 2025 was better than the previous ones, and the group foresees an operating margin of between 4% and 5.5% for 2026. Cover image | Volkswagen In Xataka |Renault wants to become bigger than ever before 2030. And to achieve this they are going to copy the philosophy of the Chinese brands (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news Volkswagen is going to eliminate 50,000 jobs by 2030: it is the price it pays for having fallen asleep was originally published in Xataka by Antonio Vallejo .

We had been talking about the most lethal Russian weapon that seemed like Ukraine fallen asleep. His answer is called Liutyi

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If drones have become The protagonists From the Ukraine War, the model that has marked Russia’s offensive offers no doubts: The Shaheds of Iranian origin, then converted into different versions assembled in MoscowThey are the basis of Russia’s offensives. And in Ukraine? There they also have been perfecting a device that has become key to attacks on critical objectives of the enemy. The strategic weapon of Ukraine. Yes, kyiv, aware of its lower industrial and resources capacity, has opted for a different approach: Use surgical attacks with drones of own manufacture against strategic objectives deeply located in Russian territory. The jewel of this strategy is the AN-196 Liutyia lodging ammunition system designed to achieve precision Critical facilities of military logistics, oil refineries, air bases and essential industrial centers for the Russian war effort. Development and technical characteristics. Dron Liutyi began to develop In 2022 by Antonov in collaboration with Ukroboronpromconceived as a long -range unidirectional attack vehicle. The first version weighed between 250 and 300 kilosmeasured 4.4 meters long with a wingspan of 6.7, and was promoted with a gasoline engine that moved a rear propeller. It incorporated a V -tail design to improve stability and aerodynamics, and initially carried 50 kilos of explosives at a range of 1,000 km. The most recent versions have practically doubled their benefits: increased load capacity to 75 kilos and a range of up to 2,000 km, for an estimated unit cost In 200,000 dollarsfigure greater than that of the Shahed but still much lower than that of a cruise missile. And more. Your navigation combines inertial and satellite systems In the initial phase, while in the final approach it resorts to artificial vision to execute evasive trajectories, dodge defenses and hit with precision. First operational deployments. The use of Liutyi was made visible in 2024 With deep attacks in Russian territory. In January, an attack against An oil tank In St. Petersburg, he was attributed to drone, as was the March attack against the Ryazan refinery that caused a great fire. In June, the Mozdok Air Basein Norte Osetia, which houses bombers Tu-22m3 and fighters MIG-31it was also beaten. These incidents showed that Ukraine was in a position to project power hundreds of kilometers from the front line. Expansion of your role. The improved Liutyi versions began to be used massively this year. On March 13, an attack reached a Gas pipeline control center In Sátov, affecting the Russian energy sector. In April, several waves of Liutyi impacted the base of the 112.ª missile brigade in Shuya, destroying facilities of command and barracks. In July, two Liutyi penetrated 1,400 kilometers to Izhevsk, where They hit the Kupol plantproducer of anti -aircraft Tor-m and Harpiya drones, causing significant damage. That same month, different videos They documented attacks against objectives in the Leningrad region, in the city of Pensa and at the Sochi airport, where a fuel tank was reached. These blows have had a double effect: disorganizing Russian logistics and forcing Kremlin to allocate resources to the defense of the rear. International response. Despite his successes, Ukraine faces the disadvantage of not being able to manufacture Liutyi in quantities comparable to Shahed’s mass production by Russia. External support is, therefore, crucial: Germany has committed investments to produce 500 additional unitswhich will allow the pace of operations. Thus, the Ukrainian strategy will continue based on the selective use of these drones, with emphasis on precision attacks and not saturation. To maintain its effectiveness, Liutyi must adapt continuously, incorporating advances in artificial intelligence, computer vision and electronic countermeasures resistance. Strategic role in war. In short, although less known than The ShahedLiutyi has become a symbol of Ukrainian capacity to innovate and hit in depth, eroding the perception of security in the interior of Russia. Their attacks have affected energy facilities, refineries, industrial plants and air bases, weakening critical infrastructures and forcing Moscow to disperse their defenses. In this way, the drone not only compensates (in part) the Ukrainian material inferiority in front of the Russian military industry, but also opens a new psychological and strategic front by demonstrating that no Russian area is out of reach. Thus, everything indicates that its role will continue to expand in the coming months, consolidating itself as one of the key weapons in the Strategy of Resistance and Counteroffensive of Ukraine. Image | Open Source In Xataka | Not that war in Ukraine has become a laboratory of the future, is that there are drones saving lives with bicycles In Xataka | If you want to learn to handle a combat drone, the best school is Ukraine. And there have been infiltrated Mexican narcos

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