Volkswagen to make ‘massive’ investment in US in bid to avoid tariffs

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Volkswagen, Europe’s largest industrial group, has said it will make a “massive” investment in the US.The group, which includes Porsche, revealed it has been in direct talks with Donald Trump’s administration as it faces damaging tariffs.Oliver Blume, who heads the group, said the talks were “constructive” and “fair”, in an interview that suggests the company, whose market capital is £44bn, is not willing to leave tariff negotiations to Brussels alone.Speaking to Süddeutsche Zeitung, Blume said he had been to Washington himself and had a direct line to the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, but had agreed to keep details of the talks confidential.He hoped that plans for substantial investment would help shape Trump’s ultimate decision on the 25% tariffs the US imposed on auto imports in April.

“Our primary contact is the US secretary of commerce, but ultimately, the issues also go through the US president’s desk,” he said.“So far, we’ve experienced absolutely fair, constructive discussions.Of course, many things are complex, and we’ve agreed not to share any content.I will stick to that.”His interview comes ahead of the latest round of talks between the EU and the US, with Maroš Šefčovič, the EU commissioner for trade, expected to meet Lutnick on the sidelines of an OECD council meeting in Paris on Tuesday.

There is a widespread expectation that whatever the outcome of the talks, a baseline tariff of about 10% will probably endure beyond the July expiry date of Trump’s 90-day pause.Blume said he was talking to Washington on behalf of Volkswagen, but always had “an eye on solutions that can be applied universally”.He said the Volkswagen Group “intends to continue investing in the US” and would build on its partnership with the American electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian with “further, massive investments”.In a reference to the tariff talks, he added: “All of this should play a role in decisions”.The past year has already been one of the group’s most challenging, with sales of Chinese electric vehicles in the EU soaring, and Volkswagen not yet in the market with an entry-level rival.

Trump’s tariffs on car imports will hit Porsche particularly hard as – unlike VW models and German counterparts BMW and Mercedes-Benz – Porsche cars sold in the US are almost exclusively manufactured in Germany,The failure of the German auto sector to anticipate the onslaught of competition from China is seen as a symptom of a wider malaise in the sector, with Volkwagen planning to cut 35,000 jobs by 2030,In March, the company revealed a 30% year-on-year drop in net profits owing to high production costs and decreased sales in China,Asked what was the biggest mistake made by German manufacturers, Blume said “we’ve rested on our laurels for too long” and “realised too late that the world is changing extremely rapidly and dynamically”,The German car industry needed to stop spending “endless time … debating”, and instead needed to “decide and act”, he said.

Sales of Chinese electric vehicles in the EU have more than trebled between 2019 and 2023, according to industry figures, with 10% tariffs imposed by Brussels in 2024 slowing growth.However, the EU still believes China is not doing enough to create a level playing field and faces fresh concerns that Chinese goods, originally destined for the US, will be diverted to Europe in the long term.Blume defended the company’s electric vehicle strategy, saying it would be launching VW, Cupra and Skoda EVs for about €25,000, followed by a cheaper entry-evel car tagged the “ID.EVERY1”.He admitted that job cuts were “painful” but said “something has to happen” if the company “wants to survive long term”.

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Town, London WC2: ‘This place is a feeder’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Off to Town this week, on Drury Lane. Yes, a restaurant called Town, one word, so a bit of a challenge to find online. Then again, perhaps by the time you’re as experienced and beloved a restaurateur as Stevie Parle, formerly of Dock Kitchen, Craft, Sardine, Palatino and Joy, your regular clientele will make the effort to find you. Parle’s shtick, roughly speaking, is thoughtful, high-end Mediterranean cooking and warm, professional hospitality, so the longer I thought about him opening a new place in London’s theatre heartland and calling it just Town, the more it made sense.The Guardian’s journalism is independent

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Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for glazed cinnamon focaccia | The sweet spot

If you’ve been anywhere near TikTok, you’re likely to have seen plenty of videos of sweet focaccia doing the rounds. I’m not normally one to jump on to viral trends, but I couldn’t resist trying this one. The dough is pretty easy, with no kneading or stand mixer required – just some stretching, folding and plenty of time to rest. You end up with something that tastes like a cinnamon bun/doughnut hybrid, that’s not too sweet and with a little more chew.Prep 5 min Prove 3 hr+ Cook 1 hr 15 min Serves 12-16For the dough450g bread flour 7g instant yeast 2 tbsp sugar 1 tsp fine sea salt 30ml olive oil, plus extra for greasingFor the cinnamon sugar3½ tsp cinnamon 50g caster sugar 50g unsalted butter, melted For the glaze3 tbsp icing sugar ¼ tsp cinnamon 2 tsp whole milk A pinch of saltPut the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer, and mix to combine

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Rustic no more: let’s drink to Sicilian wine

Now that the third season (OK, discourse treadmill) of The White Lotus is sinking into the horizon, and its many fans flock to Thailand in the hope of catching a whiff of Walton Goggins (who I’m in no doubt smells absolutely lovely), I’m grateful that Sicily, the location of season two, might finally be a little less busy. Not least because of its wines.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more

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Children injured, wildlife slaughtered, forests ravaged: is it time to ban disposable barbecues?

Single-use grills are ‘the worst form of litter’, says the boss of Keep Britain Tidy, whose own young son was badly burned by one left on a beach. They’re also a terrible way to cook. Should shops stop selling them?Toby Tyler can still hear his son William’s scream. “That will never, ever leave us,” he says, speaking on a video call from the family home in Stockport, Greater Manchester. “But we didn’t understand what had happened

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Rachel Roddy’s recipe for spaghetti with prawns, courgettes and gremolata | A kitchen in Rome

While tidying the freezer the other week, I found yet another reminder of my (late) friend and teacher Carla Tomasi in the form of a Tupperware box a bit larger than a matchbox. Unlike the rest of the unmarked boxes with identical sky-blue lids and opaque sides, I knew exactly what this was: a mix of parsley, garlic and lemon zest (otherwise known as gremolata or gremolada) made last June to go with braised chicken, but not finished, so the leftovers were put in the freezer. I exchanged messages with Carla all the time and, knowing how much she loved freezer-talk, I consulted her as to how long she thought the mix would keep in there. She gave two replies: an official one of three to six months, and an unofficial one of a year, which must have sunk into my unconscious like a preset alarm because, almost a year later (and 10 months since she passed away), I find myself in front of my chaotic freezer, holding a tub of finely minced things and thinking, “There you are!” and, “Thanks, Carla!”Gremolata is a typically Milanese mix, and the name means to reduce into grains. And that is precisely what you do to a clove of garlic, a handful of parsley and the zest of a large unwaxed lemon in order to make a fine and fragrant rubble, which can be made by hand or in a food processor

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Tell us: will you continue to buy takeaway coffee as prices rise?

Australians take coffee seriously, so much so that we perfected it through the humble flat white (although New Zealanders may beg to differ). But local coffee culture, admired around the world, may be under threat.A perfect storm of increased wholesale coffee bean prices, supply chain issues and other rising overheads are driving up the price of cafe coffee.One industry figure suggested takeaway coffee prices could reach $10 by the end of the year, though others say increases this steep are highly unlikely. Meanwhile Breville recorded a lift in at-home coffee machine sales earlier this year