Saic, the largest Chinese car manufacturer, is planning to cut thousands of jobs in its joint ventures with Volkswagen and General Motors. This news comes as domestic demand for cars weakens and the industry faces a tough price war. The company aims to retain ten percent of jobs at Saic-Volkswagen and more than half at its subsidiary, Rising Auto EV. It is reported that 30 percent of jobs will be lost in the joint venture with GM.
The planned cuts reflect the growing adoption of electric vehicles in China, where Saic and its foreign partners have been losing market share to competitors like Tesla and BYD. However, large-scale workforce reductions are uncommon among Chinese state-owned companies. A Saic spokesman denied the speculation about workforce cuts and stated that the company has not set any targets for layoffs.
Despite this, there have been recent hires at Saic to focus on software and new drive vehicles. Both GM and Volkswagen spokespeople in China have stated that there are no plans for significant workforce reductions in their joint ventures with Saic. Despite this news, sales at Saic have recently fallen by 16 percent compared to the same period last year, with the company employing around 207,000 people at the end of 2023, including its main subsidiaries.
