Volkswagen Group Chief Monetary Officer Arno Antlitz mentioned he expects subsequent yr to be “much more difficult” than 2022 as inflation and a worsening financial outlook lower into demand.

Antlitz, talking Thursday in a Bloomberg TV interview, mentioned VW might want to enhance productiveness and decrease mounted prices because the automaker can’t totally go on hovering uncooked materials and power prices to customers.

Whereas he expects the business to proceed to develop, Antlitz mentioned he mentioned it will be within the single digits: “We count on small development within the business” for 2023, he mentioned.

Automakers, battling ongoing extreme chip shortages and hovering enter prices this yr, are banking on provide bottlenecks easing subsequent yr to assist increase deliveries at the same time as demand is weakening.

Antlitz mentioned VW nonetheless has full order books that may assist gross sales by means of the primary half of subsequent yr. As extra vehicles go on sale, the automaker expects it is going to be more durable to go on elevated prices from greater enter costs, Antlitz mentioned.

VW can be underneath stress to show round its EV push, which has been suffering from inner discord and software program delays that pushed again the launch of key Audi and Porsche fashions.

CEO Oliver Blume has been reevaluating a few of the methods set out by his predecessor, Herbert Diess, who pushed for initiatives at an bold pace in a bid to meet up with Tesla.

Among the many most urgent duties is fixing issues in its software program unit Cariad, the place setbacks brought about VW to delay the important thing Trinity electric-car projectby at the least two years.

Blume is scheduled to current a standing replace on his plans to the supervisory board later Thursday.

The pace with which VW’s Cariad unit can develop completely different software program platforms will decide which EVs might be constructed wherein factories, folks acquainted with the matter have mentioned.

Antlitz mentioned Cariad continues to be an integral a part of VW’s technique. He added that one of the crucial difficult monetary hurdles for the automaker is its battery enterprise with a considerable amount of upfront funding.

Dubbed PowerCo, the division is about to span six factories in Europe alone and could possibly be the subsequent space for VW to hunt outdoors financing.

Like different automakers together with Tesla and Mercedes-Benz, VW has been contending with a worsening outlook in China, the world’s greatest EV market.

VW final month lower its gross sales goal there by roughly 14 %, whereas Mercedes slashed costs and Tesla halted manufacturing of its Mannequin Y in Shanghai.