- Toyota sells more vehicles despite employing almost 240,000 fewer workers than VW Group.
- VW employs 629,000 and made 4.13 million cars in 2025; Toyota’s 391,000 made 5.39 million.
- BMW is also reducing its headcount as it deals with US tariffs and a slower Chinese market.
Volkswagen’s vast workforce was once worn like a badge of honor. Today, it looks more like an oversized bill that’s finally landed on management’s desk. The company employs around 60 percent more people than Toyota, yet the Japanese automaker is still building and selling more vehicles.
The numbers don’t make for comfortable reading in Wolfsburg. Volkswagen Group employs roughly 629,000 people worldwide, while Toyota gets by with about 391,000. Despite that huge difference, Toyota delivered 5.39 million vehicles during the first half of the year, far ahead of VW‘s 4.13 million. That’s an unwelcome reminder that having more people doesn’t automatically mean getting more done.
Related: Audi’s A8 Plant Is On The Chopping Block And Workers Are Furious
To be fair, the comparison, highlighted in a report by Germany’s DW, isn’t completely black and white. Volkswagen still does far more work in-house than many rivals, from manufacturing components to engineering and development. That helped make it one of the world’s industrial giants, but it also saddled the company with a cost base that’s become increasingly difficult to defend.
The truth is that almost every legacy automaker is being forced to rethink the way it operates. Chinese manufacturers have become genuine global rivals instead of low-cost imitators, profits have come under pressure in China, electric vehicle demand hasn’t always matched expectations, and tariffs, high energy prices, and geopolitical turmoil haven’t exactly helped matters.
Thousands Of VW Jobs To Go
VW has responded by dramatically expanding its restructuring plans, with as many as 140,000 jobs now expected to disappear as the company hunts for billions in savings. It isn’t alone either. BMW recently announced plans to reduce its workforce by around 8,000 employees after slowing Chinese demand battered sales and profits.
Also: 140,000 Jobs Are At Now Risk At The VW Group
Mercedes-Benz is taking a different approach, but it’s chasing the same goal. Alongside voluntary job reductions, it’s cutting costs by shifting production of some of its best-selling models from Germany to Hungary, where labor costs are a fraction of those at home.
None of this means Germany’s auto industry is finished. It does mean, as BMW’s CEO Milan Nedeljković told workers last week, per Reuters, “the rules dictating the industry have substantially changed.” Right now, Toyota’s leaner approach is making Volkswagen’s old formula look increasingly expensive.
