Subaru’s North American division has been hit hard with CΟΩΙΔ and semiconductor supply issues, and getting back on track is taking longer than anticipated.

That’s the news from Subaru CEO Tommi Nakamura, who says the company is likely to register fewer than 600,000 U.S. sales this year. That kind of volume would make 2021 even more of a disaster than 2020, when Subaru sold 611,842 vehicles, down almost 13 per cent from 2019’s total.

Though there are still a few weeks left in 2021 to bump up the numbers, including the potential to benefit from a Thanksgiving boost, it looks like Subaru is getting ready to post its first back-to-back sales decline since the mid 1990s.

“We’ll have to consider orders after the Thanksgiving holiday, but we’re looking at a little more difficult situation than in previous months,” Nakamura told Automotive News.

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COVID and chip supply problems have affected almost every manufacturer to some extent, of course. But Subaru seems to be suffering far more severely than some of its rivals.

Automotive News highlights successful bouncebacks from Toyota, Mazda and Honda, which all posted double-digit percentage gains for the first 10 months of 2021, and references the stellar achievements of Hyundai-Kia, which watched sales climb 29 per cent in the period through to October.

Nakumura told the title he is convinced sales would recover in 2022 as the microchip shortage disappears, though it was unlikely to be a record breaking year.

“There is still uncertainty surrounding the semiconductor situation,” he said. “So, we don’t really have a firm target at this point. But industry demand will be around 15.5 million or 16 million. Considering that, we are looking at a number in the region around 650,000 units.”

While that kind of figure would be welcome, and brings some comfort to Subaru dealers who will be looking forward to getting their hands on new product, including WRX, BRZ and Solterrra EV, it would still be well down on the 700,117 units Subaru shifted in the U.S. in 2019 before the pandemic threw a spanner in the works.