BERLIN — Volkswagen Group warned that ongoing chip shortages means 2023 will stay risky and difficult, nevertheless it expects provides to enhance because it reported a 6.8 p.c drop in gross sales by the model to 4.56 million in 2022.

Order books in Europe, the place the conflict in Ukraine has prompted intensive provide chain issues, have been up 18 p.c from the identical time to 640,000 autos, and the automaker was working to ship sooner this yr, VW in a press release.

“We’re working intensively to additional scale back supply instances for purchasers and to work off the excessive order backlog as rapidly as doable,” mentioned chief gross sales officer Imelda Labbe.

Gross sales of full-electric autos have been up 24 p.c on the yr, at roughly 330,000 items, VW mentioned.

Gross sales in China, the place the automaker lags far behind home electrical car makers, greater than doubled to 143,100.

SUVs are the fastest-growing market phase, VW mentioned, up 4 p.c and representing 80 p.c of all gross sales within the U.S.