The Chinese car manufacturer, Saic, is reportedly planning to cut thousands of jobs in its joint ventures with Volkswagen and General Motors. According to sources, the company aims to retain only ten percent of jobs at Saic-Volkswagen and more than half at its subsidiary, Rising Auto EV. It is said that 30 percent of jobs will be lost in the joint venture with GM.
The reductions are expected to come through stricter performance standards and severance pay for lower-classified employees. However, a Saic spokesman denied the speculation about workforce cuts and stated that the company has not set any targets for layoffs. The company did not respond to questions about strategies for downsizing or encouraging low-performing employees to leave.
The car industry in China is currently experiencing a tough price war as domestic demand weakens, and large-scale workforce reductions are uncommon among Chinese state-owned companies. The planned cuts also reflect the increasing adoption of electric vehicles in China, where Saic and its foreign partners have been losing market share to competitors like Tesla and BYD.
Both GM and Volkswagen spokespeople in China have stated that there are no plans for significant workforce reductions in their joint ventures with Saic. Saic has been China’s largest automobile manufacturer for almost two decades, but sales have recently fallen by 16 percent compared to the same period last year. The company employed around 207,000 people at the end of 2023, including its main subsidiaries.
