Audi Severance Programme 2026: Severance Pay & Your Rights

Is there a severance programme at Audi?

No, there’s no group-wide severance programme at Audi AG. The cut of up to 7,500 jobs by 2029 is being carried out through partial retirement and early retirement, and dismissals for operational reasons are ruled out until the end of 2033. If you receive an offer, you negotiate it individually: there’s no programme figure to measure it against, and no published formula.

That actually works in your favour, not against you. With a programme, the multiplier acts as a ceiling. Without one, the amount is open, and because Audi can’t dismiss you, it needs your signature. What that’s worth in your case depends on your length of service, age, and year group.

Job cuts at Audi: what’s happening right now?

In March 2025, Audi signed a “Future Agreement” (Zukunftsvereinbarung) with the works council: by 2029, up to 7,500 jobs are set to go in Germany, mainly in indirect areas such as administration and development at the Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm sites (Audi press release; autohaus.de). The cuts are meant to happen in a socially responsible way, through partial retirement and early retirement rather than forced dismissals. Audi hasn’t set up its own severance programme, unlike some other car makers.

Your rights: social plan, termination agreement, protection against dismissal

For a change of this scale, the employer must negotiate a social plan (Sozialplan) with the works council (§§ 111, 112 BetrVG). It sets out compensation for economic disadvantages, such as severance pay, partial retirement, and transfer arrangements. A social plan only sets a framework, though: an individually offered termination agreement can fall below or above it and is negotiable.

If a dismissal for operational reasons does happen later, the strict three-week deadline applies: an unfair dismissal claim (Kündigungsschutzklage) must reach the labour court within three weeks of receiving the notice (§ 4 KSchG), after which the dismissal counts as valid, however questionable it was. With a large employer like Audi, this claim is often exactly the lever that gets a severance payment negotiated in the first place.

Ingolstadt, Neckarsulm, and Audi’s subsidiaries

The Future Agreement applies to Audi AG’s German sites, that is Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm. Protection against dismissal until the end of 2033 and the cuts through partial and early retirement apply equally to both plants. Any site-specific differences come from which department you’re in, not from different rules.

What matters more is which legal entity your contract is with. Audi AG’s employment guarantee doesn’t automatically apply to its subsidiaries. Audi subsidiary PSW is closing its Neckarsulm site, and jobs are also being cut at development services provider IAV (Heilbronner Stimme, 27 January 2026). If you’re employed by a subsidiary, you’re in a completely different position from an Audi AG employee: there, dismissals for operational reasons are possible, compensation runs through a reconciliation of interests and social plan, and the three-week deadline for an unfair dismissal claim applies (§ 4 KSchG). So check the employer named in your contract first, before relying on Audi’s protection against dismissal.

Early-career staff and those with short service are a separate case: the tools used for the cuts, partial and early retirement, are tied to age groups you likely don’t belong to yet. A severance payment under the rule of thumb would be small after two or three years of service. Your real advantage lies in the protection against dismissal until the end of 2033 and in whether a transfer is possible instead of a termination. A fixed-term contract still ends when its term runs out, regardless of any of this.

Protection against dismissal until the end of 2033: what it means for you

As part of the Future Agreement, Audi extended its employment guarantee from the end of 2029 to the end of 2033: dismissals for operational reasons at the German sites are ruled out until then (Audi press release).

For those affected, that means you’re not under threat of dismissal, and you don’t have to accept a termination offer. There’s still no severance programme setting a fixed amount. If you’re handed a termination agreement anyway, you’re negotiating freely, so get it checked first. An offer that looks “generous” isn’t automatically the best you could get.

Got an offer from Audi? Check it before you sign

The things to check: the amount relative to your age, length of service and chances in court, the benefit suspension period risk for unemployment benefit (§§ 158, 159 SGB III), waiver and settlement clauses (bonuses, variable pay, company pension), and tax, since on larger packages the payout timing determines the one-fifth rule (Fünftelregelung) outcome. Upload your document and we’ll flag the critical points, at no cost.

If you’ve been with Audi for around two decades, our page on severance pay after 20 years with an employer walks through the calculation.

How it works with us

An initial consultation at no cost, assessment of your offer by our specialised partner law firm, and, if you instruct us, negotiation funded through litigation financing, with no upfront financial risk to you. Here’s how the cost model works.

Note: Team Abfindung is an independent provider and has no connection to AUDI AG.