“Costs, prices, prices” are what Oliver Blume, the boss of Volkswagen (vw), lately mentioned the automobile large should handle most urgently. His prognosis of vw’s longstanding drawback is nothing new, however his method to coping with it undoubtedly is. On September third Mr Blume introduced that, for the primary time, vw was contemplating closing factories in Germany to deal with the “demanding and severe state of affairs” confronting Europe’s carmakers. Even when he succeeds in doing so, nevertheless, shutting factories won’t be enough to reverse VW’s dwindling gross sales and keep forward of the looming onslaught of low cost Chinese language electrical automobiles (EVs).