Car dashboards have an array of indicators that illuminate to warn of trouble. If the boardrooms of Europe’s carmakers had similar systems they would be lit up like a Christmas market. Volkswagen (VW), the largest of the lot by sales, is bracing for strikes beginning on December 1st in response to its plan to close three factories in Germany and cut wages. Northvolt, a once-promising Swedish battery startup in which VW and BMW invested, has collapsed into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Donald Trump is threatening to upend supply chains by imposing a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada.
Will the trouble ever end for Volkswagen and its rivals?
