# Automaker Volkswagen has approved a sweeping cost-cutting plan that would cut 50-thousand jobs, slim the company’s model line by half and end car production at four German plants. The company says it has excess production capacity of 500-thousand vehicles in Europe, and that a competitive future production allocation cannot be secured for plants in Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Neckarsulm. Volkswagen, which has around 650-thousand employees, reported a 30-percent drop in after-tax earnings for the first half of the year as sales took a hit in China.
VW Germany announces major job cuts and plant closures