For all its talk of radical change, Volkswagen's cost-cutting deal in Germany relies heavily on the automaker's tradition of cooperation between managers and workers, according to details disclosed by company sources.

Chinese officials and automakers are eyeing German factories slated for closure and are particularly interested in Volkswagen's sites , a person with knowledge of Chinese government thinking told Reuters.

Car giant VW to wind down production at 2 factories; China could buy factories for foothold in Germany. Read more at straitstimes.com.

A new report claims Chinese carmakers are interested in buying Volkswagen's factories in Germany, but this could be only a pipe dream of a company in distress

That’s most evident in its neighbor to the east: the Czech Republic. Within the giant $348 billion Volkswagen group lies Skoda, a quiet success story for the Czech Republic that says as much about the country’s post-Cold War ascension as it does about its long-term risks.

CFO Arno Antlitz, speaking to investors in New York on Tuesday, said that the cost-cutting deal struck with unions last December tackled the carmaker's problems of high labour costs and capacity underutilisation.

The ailing German brand, facing plant closures at home and declining sales of its once vaunted EVs, hopes the ID. Buzz can revitalize consumer interest.

VW produces and sells vehicles around the world. Its Germanness is an important selling point, but the company is equally at home in China, Brazil and the US. Its dependence on foreign markets may soon come to bite.

Volkswagen's deliveries fell last year, the German carmaker said Tuesday, underlining fierce Chinese competition and faltering demand for electric vehicles.

Volkswagen is exploring alternative uses for its Dresden and Osnabrueck factories under a cost-cutting drive to pare back its German operations. Europe's biggest automaker, which owns brands including Porsche, Audi and Skoda, has seen sales fall amid rising competition from Chinese companies.

Auto industry jobs have long been the lifeblood of the German town of Luedenscheid but now, a trade union official says, the sector's woes have sparked fears it will turn into an "open-air industrial museum".

LUDENSCHEID: Auto industry jobs have long been the lifeblood of the German town of Luedenscheid but now, a trade union official says, the sector's woes have sparked fears it will turn into an "open-air industrial museum.