BERLIN – The Volkswagen Group expects to produce fewer cars in 2022 than this year due to delivery difficulties in the semiconductor supply, reported a German business magazine.

The automaker, which last week lowered its forecast for vehicle deliveries in 2021 from 9.3 million to 9 million, is preparing for the possibility that the current chip shortage could last at least until early 2023, the report said.

In the worst case, deliveries could drop to 8 million cars next year – but even if things go relatively well, deliveries could be slightly below this year’s, it said. Manager magazine reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The VW group, which includes brands like Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Skoda, declined to comment on the report, saying it expected the supply situation to ease slightly in 2022, but the first half of the year would remain very volatile.

The deliveries of the VW group rose in the first nine months by 6.9 percent to almost 7 million vehicles, announced the automaker in an income statement from October 28th.

The sales of the VW group collapsed in 2020 by 16 percent to 9.2 million vehicles.

VW head of labor Daniela Cavallo also expects the chips crisis to worsen. “Next year there will be bottlenecks all year round. And even 2023 it won’t suddenly get better. We still have the worst ahead of us,” said Cavallo.

Due to the delivery bottlenecks, Audi and Skoda are extending their Christmas holidays until January 10th.

Audi said it assumes the situation will last “months in the end”.

“We assume that we will deal with this crisis for months in the coming year,” said a spokesman. “The shortage could last longer.”

Porsche said in November that the crisis had shown that automakers need to take production into their own hands. “Anyone who thinks that the chip crisis will calm down next year is wrong,” said CEO Oliver Blume Stock exchanges newspaper.

Car manufacturers such as BMW and Daimler expect the chip problems to persist well into 2022.

Whether buying computer chips direct from manufacturers, reconfiguring cars, or producing with missing parts, many automakers are getting creative to cope with global scarcity that some expected to wane early next year.