Volvo Cars and its peers have faced lingering chip shortages over the past year that have periodically hit manufacturing, with the Sweden-based company forced at times to halt production at some factories temporarily. Other supply chain issues, the energy crisis and red-hot inflation have also made life tougher for the company. "While 2023 looks to be another challenging year, we are hopeful that the COVID-related supply shortages from China are behind us and that we continue to see steady improvement in the supply of semiconductors," it said in a statement. "Despite the global turbulence, uncertainty and our recent price increases, we continue to see healthy demand for our cars," Volvo Cars said, adding it expected a "solid" double-digit growth in retail sales during 2023. However, Volvo Cars reaffirmed its mid-decade targets, which include selling cars at an annual run-rate of 1.2 million, with half of them electric. Some analysts had said ahead of the report that target was too ambitious.