Volkswagen’s largest plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, is struggling to fulfill sturdy demand for the Golf mannequin attributable to shortages of battery cells for hybrid variations and semiconductor elements, the corporate’s labor chief informed a German newspaper.

VW has orders for 93,000 of the Golf hatchback, which interprets into manufacturing quantity of greater than 4 months, in keeping with Bernd Osterloh, who additionally represents staff on VW Group’s supervisory board.

The hybrid variants are proving significantly common amongst clients and account for 60 p.c of orders in Germany and 40 p.c throughout Europe, Osterloh informed the Braunschweiger Zeitung in an interview revealed Saturday.

VW warned in December {that a} scarcity of semiconductor elements will disrupt manufacturing. The difficulty has since unfold throughout your entire business, affecting producers from Common Motors to Renault to Daimler.

VW has stated it anticipates the chip scarcity will persist within the second quarter. Consultancy AlixPartners estimates the difficulty might price automakers $61 billion in misplaced gross sales this yr.