BERLIN — Volkswagen said significant cost cuts were urgently needed as it reported a sharp drop in third-quarter revenue on Wednesday and faced employee representatives angry about the possibility of the top automaker. plant closures in Germany.

The company reported net profit of 1.58 billion euros ($1.7 billion) for the July-September period, down 64 percent from the 4.35 billion euros it earned a year earlier earlier. Revenues were only marginally lower, falling 0.5% to €78.49 billion.

The figures came two days after the head of Volkswagen’s works council said management had informed employee representatives it wanted to close at least three plants in Germany. The company has not publicly detailed its plans.

Volkswagen he said in early September that headwinds in the auto industry mean it cannot rule out factory closures in the country of birth, and must abandon a job protection pledge in place since 1994 that would have prevented layoffs until 2029.

It cited factors including new competitors entering European markets and economically stagnant Germany’s deteriorating position as a manufacturing location. European automakers are facing increased competition from the cheap side Chinese electric cars.

The latest results “demonstrate the urgent need for action in a volatile environment characterized by intense competition,” said CFO Arno Antlitz. “That is why we are faced with important and painful decisions that we must make together and bear together.”

“We haven’t forgotten how to build great cars, but the costs — especially in our operations and factories in Germany — are far from competitive,” Antlitz said. “That is why things cannot continue as they are now.”

Citing the confidentiality of discussions with employee and union representatives, he said he would not comment specifically on plans or “speculation.”

A second round of these talks took place on Wednesday at Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg.

Thorsten Gröger, the regional leader of the industrial union IG Metall, said before the meeting that the company must “at least declare its willingness to enter into a negotiation process with us, which aims to develop alternatives to closing factories and to layoffs”.

Otherwise, he noted, a no-strike obligation under the latest wage deal with Volkswagen expires on Dec. 1.

After the talks, Gröger said that at least the negotiations had not broken down immediately, but that demands such as a 10 percent pay cut were unacceptable and that it was not yet said what contribution senior executives and shareholders would make to the savings.

The head of the employees’ council, Daniela Cavallo, said that “we are not prepared to talk about labor cost targets in isolation; we want to work together on a master plan, a future plan for the company in which factory closings and layoffs are excluded.”

Volkswagen employs about 120,000 people in Germany, where it has 10 plants – six of them in the northern state of Lower Saxony, including Wolfsburg.