BERLIN -- Volkswagen Group warned that ongoing chip shortages means 2023 will remain volatile and challenging, but it expects supplies to improve as it reported a 6.8 percent drop in sales by the brand to 4.56 million in 2022.
Order books in Europe, where the war in Ukraine has caused extensive supply chain problems, were up 18 percent from the same time to 640,000 vehicles, and the automaker was working to deliver faster this year, VW in a statement.
"We are working intensively to further reduce delivery times for customers and to work off the high order backlog as quickly as possible," said chief sales officer Imelda Labbe.
Sales of full-electric vehicles were up 24 percent on the year, at roughly 330,000 units, VW said.
Sales in China, where the automaker lags far behind domestic electric vehicle makers, more than doubled to 143,100.
SUVs are the fastest-growing market segment, VW said, up 4 percent and representing 80 percent of all sales in the U.S.
