Daimler, owner of Mercedes-Benz, has confirmed it will cut at least 10,000 jobs between now and the end of 2022.
The jobs cuts will be achieved via voluntary severance packages, an expended part-time retirement program, and 'very restrictively' extended temporary workers' contracts. It will also offer shorter working weeks in order to rein in employment costs.
Under its current union agreement in Germany, the automaker is prevented from making forced redundancies until 2029.
Daimler has revealed the Smart EQ family, including the Fortwo, Fortwo Cabrio and Forfour, ahead of their public debut at the Frankfurt motor show next week.
The German group's city car division is embracing its all-electric future, with the entire range relying solely on battery power.
Smart has revealed the Final Collector's Edition based on its ForTwo city car, marking the last run of combustion-powered vehicles for the micro car specialist before it switches to full e-mobility.
Just 21 examples of these special editions will be produced, developed in collaboration with industrial designer, Konstantin Grcic.
The Final Collector's Edition commemorates 21 years of the Smart brand, the 21-vehicle final production run, and "21 years always a step ahead".
Smart: 50 per cent stake could be sold to Geely - report
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Three sources have told The Financial Times Daimler, owner of Mercedes-Benz, is close to selling a 50 per cent stake in the Smart brand to Chinese automaker Geely.
A deal could be announced as soon as the Shanghai motor show, which takes place in the middle of April. If the sale goes ahead, it would fit both Smart's future vision for itself and Geely's acquisitive streak.
Thanks to rising development costs, greater market fragmentation, and the need to invest in both electric vehicles and self-driving car technology, automakers are increasingly coming together to share development costs and increase economies of scale.
With that in mind, Harald Krüger, CEO of BMW, and Ola Källenius, CEO-in-waiting at Daimler, are said to be in wide-open collaboration talks between the sometimes bitter rivals.
