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According to media reports, Daimler officially announced on November 29th that it plans to cut at least 10000 jobs worldwide by the end of 2022, accounting for at least 3.3% of the global workforce. The company hopes to cut costs through layoffs to deal with sluggish sales and boost and increase the investment rate of electric vehicles and self-driving technology.

Daimler said in a statement that its management had reached an agreement with the union to take various measures to cut costs and jobs, including expanding part-time retirement and separation plans offered in Germany.

Perth, Daimler's head of personnel, said Daimler had about 300000 employees worldwide as of the third quarter, with layoffs of less than five figures, at least 10, 000, including 10 per cent of management positions.

Not long ago, Daimler revealed plans for layoffs. Daimler CEO Kang Songlin said at the third-quarter earnings meeting that personnel expenses would be reduced by 1.4 billion euros by the end of 2022, of which Mercedes-Benz personnel costs would be reduced by 1 billion euros, involving 1100 management positions. Kang Songlin said: "in order to transform control in the next few years, greater efforts are needed, so costs must be significantly reduced and cash flow must be continuously increased."

It is worth noting that while Daimler plans to cut at least 10000 jobs by 2022, it will not cut jobs through mandatory layoffs, but may reduce jobs through early retirement, reduced working hours or voluntary turnover.

Daimler lost $1.3 billion in the second quarter of the year, its first loss since 2009, after a poor start to the year, especially as a result of recalls and fines from the emissions gate scandal. By the third quarter, Daimler had cut its profit forecast three times and said pre-tax profit in 2019 was roughly the same as in 2018.

Fortunately, Daimler has improved in the third quarter. According to the financial report, revenue in the third quarter of this year was 43.27 billion euros (333.44 billion yuan), up 8 percent from a year earlier, while the group's net profit was 1.813 billion euros (14.3 billion yuan), up 3 percent from a year earlier.

In fact, as early as April this year, German "managers" reported that Kang Songlin was preparing to promote a cost-saving plan.

In May this year, Daimler Group officially announced that Kang Songlin formally took over the position of chairman of the board of directors and global president of Daimler AG for a term of five years.

At present, the global automobile market is in a cold winter. according to the data released by the German Automobile Industry Federation, car sales have declined in 2019 in the world's major automobile markets, including China, the United States, India, Europe and other markets.

It is worth noting that Daimler is not the only car company planning layoffs in the cold winter of the car market. Within a week, all three BBA companies announced layoffs to weather the downturn.

On November 26th Audi officially announced that it would cut 9500 jobs, or about 10 per cent of its workforce, by 2025. This will save Audi 6 billion euros in costs over the next decade to support companies to accelerate the transition to electrification and digitization.

In March, Audi announced that it would cut costs by $17 billion over the next few years and cut 10 per cent of its management positions, boosting its development in electrification. In addition, Audi will cut gearboxes, engine combinations and certain models for specific markets, resulting in a 27% reduction in the product portfolio and further cuts, eventually cutting the number of models by 45%.

Audi's revenue in the first three quarters of this year was 41.3 billion euros (325.01 billion yuan), down 6.8 percent from 44.3 billion euros in the same period last year, while operating profit was 3.239 billion euros (25.45 billion yuan), up 12.8 percent from 2.871 billion euros in the same period last year.

Another German carmaker, BMW, said on Nov. 27 that it aims to save more than 12 billion euros ($13.23 billion) by 2022 to cope with the cost of electrified transformation and self-driving technology. Under the agreement, BMW will slash bonuses and extend the working hours of some employees. The measure will come into effect in 2020.

Although BMW did not propose specific layoffs, BMW plans to cut 6000 jobs by 2022 as part of cost savings, the Manager reported in September. But instead of forcing layoffs until 2020, cost savings will be achieved by reducing the working hours of 5700 employees.

Within a week, all three German car companies have announced cost-saving plans, which is a testament to the cold of the current car market. In addition to BBA, Nissan, Ford, Hyundai and other auto companies have also announced layoffs in order to save costs.

Car sales have been affected as the global economy slows. Major automobile companies have achieved the purpose of cost savings through layoffs. At present, this may be the most direct and effective way for automobile enterprises to deal with the severe market environment and increase electrification investment.

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