Gernot Döllner says that a "fundamental upheaval" is now needed to cope with competition from China, among other things.
"I believe we will have a car industry in Europe, but only if we fundamentally change our industry in terms of efficiency, costs, labour costs and in some areas we have to regain the technical lead," he told the newspaper.
Last week, the Volkswagen Group announced that tens of thousands more jobs would be cut. This means that around 100,000 jobs will be lost within the group, which includes Audi, in the coming years.
On Monday, it was also announced that British Jaguar Land Rover will cut 4,000 jobs.
