The crisis-ridden Volkswagen Group has suffered a severe slump in profits in the third quarter, the company reported on Wednesday. A weak industrial environment with fewer vehicle sales, as well as Volkswagen’s efforts to reduce capacity by downsizing plants and cutting jobs, resulted in a billion-euro burden on earnings. The figures were weaker than analysts had already feared. Group profit after tax fell by 64% to €1.58 billion ($1.71 billion) – partly because VW is also doing badly in the important Chinese market. Turnover, on the other hand, fell by only 0.5% to €78.5 billion. In addition …