Car sales fell by quarter in first eight months of 2020

The sales of personal vehicles fell by 25 percent in the first eight months of 2020, the Car Importers Association announced on Friday. In total, 131,410 cars have been sold domestically this year. In August, sales fell by a third in year-on-year terms due to a higher comparable base last year, when there were more benevolent emissions regulations. Car purchases are predominantly down since the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The largest amount of cars, some 38 percent, was sold by the manufacturer Škoda Auto. However Škoda’s sales also fell, namely, by 14 percent to 50,031 cars. Hyunday came in second with 10.586 cars sold, experiencing a 14 percent decrease. The Korean manufacturer was closely trailed by Volkswagen with 9,875 cars sold, but a marked 34 percent decline in sales. Toyota and Peugeot trail in fourth and fifth spots respectively.

Škoda’s Octavia model was the most popular car with 13,615 Octavia’s sold followed by four further Škoda models, the Fabia, Scala, Karoq and Kamiq. Hyundai’s i30 hatchback came in sixth.

Petrol using cars made up two-thirds of overall sales, followed by diesel cars with a 29 percent share. The latter improved its sales performance by 2 percentage points. A whopping 72 percent of personal cars sold were bought by businesses.

The sales of lorries went down even lower than personal cars, experiencing a 39 percent slump during the first eight months of 2020. The most popular manufacturer in this category is Mercedes-Benz, followed by MAN and DAF lorries.

Bus sales actually increased by 9 percent to a total of 869 vehicles. Iveco Bus was the most popular manufacturer, followed by SOR and MAN.

In the motorcycle category sales also rose, this time by 8 percent to 16,508 machines in total. In August the rise was particularly high, going up by nearly one third. The most popular manufacturer in this vehicle category was Honda, with 3,225 vehicles sold, followed by Yamaha and CF Moto.