With 100,000 employees laid off, how many European car manufacturers will be able to pay N+6 compensation like Porsche did in the future?

No one in the European auto industry will have an easy time in 2024, including Volkswagen, Audi, Bosch, Continental... Waves of layoffs are coming one after another in various old-brand automakers and supply chains. Some media roughly estimate that in the small country of Europe, more than 100,000 people will be laid off.

In the past two days, Porsche, which is considered to be the last gatekeeper of the European automobile industry, has also become a hot topic. As expected, the theme is still "layoffs", including 10% of regular employees and 30% of outsourced positions, and the compensation is implemented according to the N+6 standard.

In fact, not long ago, Porsche China President and CEO Pan Lizhi revealed that he plans to optimize the dealer scale to about 100 by the end of 2026, which is a reduction of one third.

I believe many people have understood the implication of this: "optimization" and "layoffs" mean exactly the same thing.

Many car companies have actually already predicted the automotive industry market in 2024.

As early as the beginning of 2023, Thomas Schaefer, CEO of the Volkswagen brand, said, "2024 is a difficult year. Many markets are facing heavy pressure and electric vehicle orders are not as expected. For this reason, the Volkswagen brand plans to lay off employees to boost the company's financial prospects."

In the middle of this year, Volkswagen Group announced that in order to boost performance, it would provide a huge severance bonus of 900 million euros (about 6.985 billion yuan) to employees who chose to leave early. FAW-Volkswagen Foshan Factory was soon exposed to layoffs of 556 people, and the official response was that "it had been reported in advance."

On March 23, automotive giant Stellantis Group laid off about 400 employees, citing the reason of improving work efficiency and optimizing cost structure.

Even Tesla, the "pioneer" company of new energy vehicles, announced in April 2024 that it would lay off 10% of its global employees, or about 14,000 people. The layoff rate in some departments of Tesla China exceeded 30%.

GAC Honda, which once dominated the market, also launched large-scale layoffs this year. Insiders said that this was a comprehensive layoff involving multiple lines and the scale was expected to be thousands of people.

Of course, the layoffs are not just affecting overseas companies, but also Chinese independent brands. This year, Ideal Auto, which was once one of the top three new forces, announced that its overall optimization rate exceeded 18%, and it is estimated that more than 5,600 employees will be involved.

The recent "bankruptcy" of Jiyue, which has been at the center of controversy, is far from over, and the news of "failed negotiations among 4,000 employees" is still flooding the Internet.

People in the automotive industry are having a hard time, and suppliers are also in a precarious situation, with their situation even more serious than that of the car companies.

As early as the beginning of this year, Bosch Group announced that due to factors such as reduced job demand in the electric vehicle field, high inflation and economic weakness, it plans to lay off about 1,200 employees in its software and electronics departments by the end of 2026.

At about the same time, Valeo announced that it would lay off 1,150 employees worldwide to enhance organizational competitiveness. In February, French auto parts supplier Freia announced that it planned to cut up to 10,000 jobs in the next five years to cut costs.

It can be seen that although everyone is not having a good time in 2024, in terms of the blow, overseas car companies are still relatively more impacted.

In 2024, nearly 30 companies in the automotive industry were exposed to layoffs, including overseas automobile groups, local traditional automobile companies, and new forces. Among them, the layoffs of overseas automobile companies and parts suppliers were obviously much greater.

In addition, the Japanese auto market is also suffering. In November this year, Nissan officially announced a global layoff of 9,000 people and started emergency self-rescue mode.

Similarly, this year's wave of layoffs also affected joint ventures. In July this year, Honda announced that it would close two joint venture factories in China. Fortunately, the compensation plan was N+2+1, which gave employees a certain degree of protection.

Judging from the layoffs at home and abroad, even the "black" 2024 will have a huge impact on the automotive industry, the supply chain, and even consumers. However, in terms of the intensity of layoffs, Chinese independent brands are obviously having an easier time.

The "explosion" of new forces such as Jiyue and the layoffs of companies such as Ideal have confirmed that the Chinese auto market will still be cold in 2024. Fortunately, in this wave of layoffs, some Chinese brands have given the market a lot of confidence.

In September this year, BYD brand general manager Li Yunfei said on social media: "Today, BYD's total number of employees has exceeded 900,000, making it the company with the largest number of employees among more than 5,300 A-share listed companies, and more than 400,000 more than the second place."

It is always like this in the world, when someone cries, someone else laughs. And this time, it is the Chinese brands that are smiling like flowers. However, when the next wave of layoffs comes, how many car manufacturers can still provide the N+6 guarantee like Porsche?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.