Volvo Cars has announced that it will cut 3,000 jobs as part of a restructuring of the company announced last month, driven by a slowdown in demand for electric vehicles and commercial uncertainty.
In a statement revealed by “Reuters”, the Swedish brand announces that the layoffs represent about 15 percent of the company’s administrative staff, with nearly three-quarters of the job losses expected to occur in Sweden and the remainder in Volvo’s global operations.
With most of its production based in Europe and China, Volvo Cars is more exposed to the new U.S. tariffs than many of its European competitors and has indicated that the tariffs imposed by the U.S. may make it impossible to export its more affordable models to the United States.
It should be noted that Volvo Cars is majority-owned by the Chinese company Geely Holding, which revealed at the end of April a program to cut costs by $1.9 billion and halt investments, having warned at the time that layoffs were inevitable.
“The automotive industry is experiencing a period of great challenges. To deal with this, we need to improve our profits and structurally reduce our costs”, said Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson.