German car maker Audi announced it is planning to cut  9,500 jobs in Germany by 2025 as part of a transformation plan to save billions of dollars.

The job cuts will be achieved through an early retirement program, and the company said it will create another 2,000 jobs in its electric cars and digital technology division.

Audi's plan will contribute to the "optimization of production capacities at the two German plants" in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, while also offering the remaining workforce job guarantees up to the end of 2029, it said in a statement.

"The $6.6 billion thus generated will secure the strategic targeted return corridor of 9 to 11 percent and will flow into future projects such as electrification and digitization," it added. 

Audi, part of the Volkswagen group, employs 90,000 people around the world, 60,000 of them in Germany, but in the past year it has been struggling with its competitors BMW and Daimler. It suffered more than the other German brands from the introduction of the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) emission testing standards last year.

The German car maker is also still suffering from the diesel emissions scandal that engulfed Volkswagen in 2015. The company was found to have intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection diesel engines to activate their emissions controls only during laboratory testing conditions, meaning the cars' emissions in "real-world" driving conditions were much higher.