Volkswagen said Thursday it was facing production slowdowns due to a “massive" supply bottleneck caused by a shortage of semiconductor components for car electronics as global automobile markets bounce back from the pandemic sales slump.The Wolfsburg-based carmaker said that semiconductor makers had reassigned production to consumer electronics during the worst of the COVID-19 slowdown in sales. “However, automobile markets have now recovered significantly and the industry, including the Volkswagen Group, faces a shortage of the electronic components required," the company said in a statement.The shortage will affect production at Chinese, North American and European plants during the first quarter of 2021, the company said.