Chinese-owned Volvo Cars to chop 3,000 white collar jobs | EUROtoday

Sweden-based automobile maker Volvo Cars says it is going to minimize round 3,000 jobs as a part of its cost-cutting measures.

The agency says the layoffs will primarily impression office-based positions in Sweden, representing about 15% of its white collar workforce.

Last month, Volvo Cars, which is owned by Chinese group Geely Holding, introduced an 18 billion Swedish kronor ($1.9bn; £1.4bn) “action plan” shake-up of the enterprise.

The world motor business is going through quite a lot of main challenges together with US President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported automobiles, increased value of supplies and slower gross sales in Europe.

The chief govt of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson, pointed to the “challenging period” confronted by the business as a cause for the layoffs.

“The actions announced today have been difficult decisions, but they are important steps as we build a stronger and even more resilient Volvo Cars,” he stated.

Earlier this month, the agency stated its world gross sales for April fell by 11% in comparison with the identical interval final yr.

Volvo Cars has its most important headquarters and growth workplaces in Gothenburg, Sweden. It has main manufacturing vegetation in Sweden, Belgium, China and the US.

The firm was offered by US motor business large Ford to China’s Geely in 2010.

In 2021, Volvo stated all of its automobiles would go electrical by 2030. Last yr it scaled again that ambition as a result of quite a lot of points together with “additional uncertainties created by recent tariffs on EVs in various markets”.

In an instance of the cutthroat rivalry between carmakers, Chinese electrical automobile large BYD introduced on the weekend that it will minimize the costs of greater than 20 of its fashions.

The transfer brings the value of its least expensive automobile, the Seagull EV, to as little as 55,800 yuan ($7,745; £5,700).

In response Chinese government-owned Changan and Leapmotor, which is backed by Chrysler proprietor Stellantis, introduced their very own worth cuts.

In April, BYD outsold Elon Musk’s Tesla in Europe for the primary time, in accordance with automobile business analysis agency Jato Dynamics.