Volkswagen to hold press conference on VW brand overhaul on Friday

Volkswagen will hold a press conference on Friday attended by Chief Executive Matthias Mueller, among others, to discuss the revamp of its core VW brand, the German carmaker said on Thursday.

Management and labor leaders have been in talks for months over cost cuts and strategy which analysts say will be critical to Volkswagen's ability to recover from its emissions test cheating scandal.

The press conference will take place at Volkswagen's headquarters in Wolfsburg on Friday at 0930 CET (0830 GMT).

"Volkswagen is facing big challenges: E-mobility and digitalization need to be financed, new business models and mobility concepts must be promoted. In short: the Volkswagen brand is repositioning itself," Volkswagen said in an invitation sent to journalists.

"A significant step to meet these challenges is the future pact jointly negotiated by the company and the works council in the past months."

VW brand chief Herbert Diess will also participate, as will human resources chief Karlheinz Blessing, labor boss Bernd Osterloh and Stephan Weil, premier of the state of Lower Saxony, the group's second largest shareholder.

VW's supervisory board is due to meet on Friday to approve spending on plants, equipment and models across the multi-brand group until the end of the decade, but needs prior agreement with the works council on restructuring and jobs.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Mark Potter and Alexandra Hudson)