Volkswagen said Thursday that it would cut the number of models it offers by as much as half to reduce costs and better compete with Chinese companies. But the German carmaker did not say what those changes would mean for workers who have been bracing for large job cuts and factory closures.

大众汽车周四表示，将把旗下车型阵容最多削减一半，以降低成本并更好地与中国车企竞争。但这家德国汽车制造商并未说明这些调整对一直在准备应对大规模裁员和工厂关闭的员工意味着什么。

The plan, released after a board meeting, seemed to be a tacit acknowledgment that the company had gotten too big and complicated and needed to slim down to survive the global shift from fossil fuel cars to electric vehicles. That transition has upended many established carmakers and enabled the rise of Chinese automakers.

这项计划是在监事会会议结束后对外公布的，似乎是对公司规模过于庞大、运营过于复杂的一种默认，也意味着公司需要瘦身，才能在全球汽车业从燃油车向电动车转型的过程中存活下来。这一转型令许多老牌汽车制造商阵脚大乱，同时也推动了中国车企的崛起。

In recent days, German press reports had suggested that the company was preparing to lay off 100,000 workers by the end of the decade and close four factories in Europe.

近日，德国媒体报道称，大众汽车准备在2030年前裁员10万人，并在欧洲关闭四座工厂。

Such drastic cuts would be out of character for Volkswagen and German industry, which tend to prefer gradual changes. Labor representatives and political leaders from the German state of Lower Saxony have a majority on the company’s 20-person supervisory board and had signaled they did not support deep cuts.

对大众汽车及德国工业界而言，如此大刀阔斧的裁员实属罕见。德国企业通常更倾向于循序渐进地进行调整。大众汽车的20人监事会中，劳工代表和下萨克森州的政治领导人占据了多数席位，此前他们已表示不支持大规模裁员。

Still, some pain seems inevitable. The company said it would aim to produce nine million cars a year, compared with a goal of 12 million before the pandemic and 10 million more recently. In a video statement, Oliver Blume, Volkswagen’s chief executive, said there was a need to “get rid of excess capacity,” implying that the company could still close factories.

尽管如此，一些阵痛似乎不可避免。大众表示，将把年产量目标定为900万辆，而疫情前的目标曾高达1200万辆，近期目标也有1000万辆。大众汽车首席执行官奥利弗·布鲁姆在一段视频声明中表示，有必要“去除过剩产能”，言下之意是公司仍有可能关闭部分工厂。

“The geopolitical situation has become more critical in the last 12 months,” Mr. Blume said, adding, “The next few years will decide who will play a decisive role in the automotive industry.”

“过去12个月，地缘政治局势愈发严峻，”布鲁姆说。他还表示，“未来几年将决定谁能在汽车行业占据举足轻重的地位。”

But he provided few specifics, including whether or how the company would aim to remain the world’s second-largest automaker after Toyota, as measured by cars sold.

不过，他并未透露更多具体细节，包括大众是否以及如何维持仅次于丰田的全球第二大汽车制造商地位（以销量计）。

“The urgent questions were not answered by the supervisory board today,” Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center Automotive Research in Bochum, Germany, said in an email. “The insecurity remains.”

位于德国波鸿的汽车研究中心主任费迪南德·杜登霍夫在电子邮件中表示：“监事会今天没有回答那些最迫切的问题，不确定性依然存在。”

Volkswagen has 111 production facilities on every continent except Australia and Antarctica, according to the company’s website. Its brands include Audi, Porsche, Skoda, Lamborghini and Bentley. Volkswagen also owns 88 percent of Traton, which makes MAN, Scania and International trucks.

根据公司官网，大众汽车在全球除澳大利亚和南极洲外的各大洲拥有111处生产设施。旗下品牌包括奥迪、保时捷、斯柯达、兰博基尼和宾利。大众还持有传拓集团88%的股份，后者生产MAN、斯堪尼亚和International品牌的卡车。

Some of Volkswagen’s brands offer very similar cars with slightly different designs and features, a practice that can increase costs and complexity. General Motors and Ford Motor retired brands like Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn and Mercury years ago to simplify production and marketing.

大众汽车旗下部分品牌提供的车型设计和配置极为相近，这一做法会增加成本和运营复杂度。通用汽车和福特多年前已相继停产庞蒂亚克、奥兹莫比尔、土星和水星等品牌，以简化生产和营销体系。

In Neckarsulm, in southwestern Germany, where some 15,000 workers assemble models for Audi, residents fear a plant closure would devastate a local economy built around the rhythms of factory shifts.

在德国西南部的内卡苏尔姆，约有1.5万名工人从事奥迪车型的组装工作。当地居民忧心忡忡，如果工厂关闭，围绕工厂班次节奏建立的本地经济将遭受毁灭性打击。

“If Audi dies, everything here dies,” said Cayli Halin, 54, who works in the plant’s testing center.

“如果奥迪倒下了，这里的一切都会跟着完蛋，”54岁的凯利·哈林说，她在工厂的测试中心工作。

Left unclear by Thursday’s announcement was how many of Volkswagen’s 657,000 employees worldwide could lose their jobs as the company reduces production. The company’s profit fell 28 percent in the first quarter to 1.6 billion euros, or $1.8 billion, and its sales were down 2 percent.

周四的公告并未厘清一个关键问题：随着大众减产，其全球65.7万名员工中，究竟有多少人可能面临失业。该公司一季度利润下降28%至16亿欧元（约合18亿美元），销量亦下降2%。

Porsche, which has usually provided a large share of Volkswagen’s profits, has suffered from President Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on imported cars. Porsche sports cars and sport utility vehicles are manufactured in Germany and exported to the United States, one of the brand’s most important markets.

保时捷一直以来都是大众利润的重要来源，但由于特朗普总统对进口汽车征收25%的关税，保时捷也遭受了冲击。保时捷的跑车和SUV都在德国生产，再出口到美国——该品牌最重要的市场之一。

Volkswagen’s troubles are an ominous sign for established Western and Japanese carmakers. To varying degrees, all of them are grappling with changing technology and competition from Chinese manufacturers like BYD and Geely that are selling cars packed with luxury features for relatively low prices.

大众汽车的困境对西方和日本的传统汽车制造商而言是一个不祥之兆。它们或多或少都在应对技术变革，以及来自比亚迪、吉利等中国车企的竞争——这些中国品牌正以相对低廉的价格出售豪华配置的汽车。

In the European Union and Britain, Chinese automakers collectively sold more vehicles in May than Japanese carmakers, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

根据欧洲汽车制造商协会的数据，在欧盟和英国，中国汽车制造商5月份的总销量已超过日本车企。

Encouraged by government subsidies, Chinese carmakers began focusing on electric vehicles years ago, investments that have given them a strong advantage as more Europeans buy such models. About one in five new vehicles sold in Europe is electric and sales have surged this year because of the increase in fuel prices caused by the war with Iran.

在政府补贴的推动下，中国车企多年前便开始专注发展电动车，在越来越多欧洲消费者购买电动车的背景下，这些投资如今让它们占据了明显优势。目前，欧洲每售出五辆新车，就约有一辆是电动车。今年，由于伊朗战争推高油价，电动车销量大幅增长。

Volkswagen is particularly vulnerable because for many years a lot of its profit came from selling cars in China, where it was once the top automaker. The company’s sales in China plunged 20 percent in the first quarter after falling significantly for several years.

大众汽车尤为脆弱，因为多年来中国市场一直是其利润的重要来源——大众曾经长期是中国销量最高的汽车品牌。然而在连续数年销量大幅下滑后，今年一季度大众在华销量再度骤降20%。

Fears of plant closures have rattled Germany, where the automobile industry — and Volkswagen in particular — occupy hallowed spaces in the national consciousness and are a pillar of the national economy.

工厂关闭的担忧震动了德国，汽车工业——尤其是大众汽车——在德国民众的心中占据着神圣地位，该行业也是德国经济的重要支柱。

Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his government have attempted to boost the industry with new subsidies and by pushing European Union officials in Brussels to relax some automotive regulations, among other steps, in hopes of helping German automakers compete better with Chinese rivals.

德国总理默茨及其政府一直试图通过新的补贴政策，以及推动布鲁塞尔的欧盟官员放宽部分汽车行业监管等措施，希望帮助德国汽车制造商更好地与中国竞争对手竞争。

Mr. Merz did not address the rumored Volkswagen layoffs ahead of Thursday’s board meeting, but a spokesman, Stefan Kornelius, told reporters last week that “our goal is to prevent plant closures in Germany.”

在周四的大众汽车监事会会议前，默茨未就传闻中的大众裁员消息表态，但政府发言人斯特凡·科内利乌斯上周对记者表示，“我们的目标是避免德国境内出现工厂关闭。”

Ali Alp Cagan, 31, has worked as an information technology professional at Audi for almost two years and isn’t personally worried about layoffs, because he considers his job prospects to be strong.

31岁的阿里·阿尔普·贾根在奥迪从事信息技术工作已近两年，他本人并不担心裁员，因为他认为自己就业前景依然乐观。

“Overall, however, the situation is already nervous,” he said.

“但总体而言，气氛已经很紧张了，”他说。

Mr. Cagan and other workers leaving the plant for a recent shift change blamed the company, saying it had failed to innovate and that China now builds cheaper and better cars.

在最近一次换班时，与其他离开工厂的员工一样，贾根也将问题归咎于公司自身，认为大众未能保持创新，而中国现在能制造更便宜、更好的汽车。

The plight of the German auto industry has empowered far-right and far-left political parties in the country. At the Audi plant in Neckarsulm, members of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany were recently passing out fliers urging workers to participate in an unauthorized pre-emptive strike against any closures.

德国汽车产业的困境也为国内的极右翼和极左翼政党提供了可乘之机。在内卡苏尔姆的奥迪工厂外，德国马列主义党的成员最近一直在向工人发传单，呼吁他们针对关闭计划发起未经工会批准的先发制人罢工。

Civic leaders and business owners in the city worry for their community. Pauline Spies, 56, said the company’s troubles were already hurting business at her travel agency, Michigan Tours.

当地的社区领袖和商界人士对社区的前途深感忧虑。56岁的波琳·斯派斯说，公司的困境已经开始影响她的旅行社“密歇根旅游”的生意。

Harry Leinmüller, 67, has similarly noticed a drop in spending at his wife’s tea shop, Teecultur, which is positioned to catch workers on the side of the street they usually take when walking home from the plant. He worries layoffs will hurt even more.

67岁的哈里·莱因米勒也注意到，他妻子经营的茶叶店Teecultur生意越来越冷清。这家店正好位于工厂员工下班回家常走的那一侧街道。他担心，一旦裁员，生意还会进一步恶化。

“There are so many young people here; some have bought building plots in the countryside. Many won’t be able to pay for their houses anymore,” he said. “The Chinese are faster than us and have more know-how.”

“这里有这么多年轻人；有些人已经在乡下买了地准备盖房。很多人以后可能连房贷都还不起了，”他说。“中国人比我们动作更快，技术也更领先。”

The mayor, Steffen Hertwig, 56, said a plant closure would be “fatal” for the area. But he was adamant that Volkswagen wouldn’t close this Audi factory because it was too innovative. The situation, he said, “is in no way comparable to Detroit in the 1980s.”

56岁的市长斯特芬·赫特维希表示，工厂关闭对该地区将是“致命”打击。但他坚称大众不会关闭这家奥迪工厂，因为它太具创新性。他说，现在的局面“跟80年代的底特律根本不是一回事”。