Volkswagen aims to raise the profitability of its core VW brand, which lags those of major rivals, to above 6 percent after 2025, VW brand chief Herbert Diess told a news conference on Tuesday.
Diess was spelling out details of his plans after the group announced a compromise with labor unions on Friday that will allow it to cut 30,000 jobs at the VW brand by 2025 in exchange for a commitment to avoid forced redundancies.
"We want to make Volkswagen future-proof," said Diess, who needs to burnish his credentials as a cost-cutter as the company struggles to restore its reputation and make deep savings to pay for the costs of its emissions-cheating scandal.
The operating profitability of the VW brand, which accounts for almost half of group vehicle sales, is expected to reach just 2 percent this year and 4 percent in 2020.
That compares with European rival Peugeot Citroen's target of an operating margin of 6 percent in 2021.
Volkswagen shares were up 0.9 percent to 121.15 euros by 0935 GMT, slightly outperforming the German blue-chip DAX which was up 0.5 percent.
