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They are doing it because they need to cut expenses and not because they care about the situation (having a factory there doesn't necessarily mean they have forced labor from prisoners, just ultra cheap labor from ultra low wage workers)
Shareholders first
I agree in principal with that view, but there was pressure from VW's top investors (Union Investment, Deka) to clarify the situation in Xinjiang. An audit turned out to be extremely flawed which put further pressure on the management. It's hard to tell how much this contributed to the decision, but at least some shareholders weren't indifferent about the situation.
It's also worth noting that the German state of Lower Saxony is holding a significant portion of the group's shares (11.8% - but they have 20% of voting rights, granting them a blocking minority). This means that anything the company is doing is always under additional public scrutiny, at least within Germany.
Except that it was proven that slaves were providing labor to VW, at the very least indirectly through suppliers.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/27/volkswagen-address-uyghur-forced-labor