Škoda biggest winner as record Czech car sales registered
March saw the highest ever number of new car sales in one month in the Czech Republic, according to figures just issued by the country’s Car Importers Association. Almost 23,000 new vehicles were registered last month, a rise of 8 percent on the same period in 2015.
The biggest winner in this boom has been traditional domestic market leader Škoda. Its sales shot up by no less than 21 percent to almost 20,500 in the first quarter.
Škoda representative Luboš Vlček told the Czech News Agency that the Mladá Boleslav-based company had achieved local sales of 7,100 in March, making it the marque’s best month ever.
Mr. Vlček said the first three months of 2016 said a lot about situation on the market and how it was developing, as well as being confirmation of the positive reception for Škoda’s upgraded model range.
The brand’s most popular model is the third-generation Octavia. It is followed by the Fabia, which has seen a marked increase in sales, and the Rapid, which overtook the Superb in March.
Škoda’s domestic sales growth in the first quarter was heading for double that achieved by the entire market and naturally increased the Czech make’s lead on its closest competitors.
The most significant of them is Volkswagen (which owns Škoda, incidentally). Though it finished second, it still saw a decline in sales of 15 percent in the first three months of the year, recording sales of just below 4,300.
This can be considered a very poor result for the German marque as no other major manufacturer on the Czech market saw such a steep fall.
However, third-placed Hyundai also recorded a fall in sales, of 7 percent. The South Korean firm (which has a large plant in north Moravia) was followed by Ford, Dacia and Kia on the sales league table.
The overall upswing has been driven by corporate clients, with company cars accounting for over 75 percent of all purchases in the first quarter.
As for segments, small cars accounted for a fifth of total sales. They were closely followed by compact cars with 19.8 percent and, again not far behind, SUV and off-road vehicles with 19.3 percent.
If the overall trend were to continue, domestic new car sales for 2016 could smash the quarter-million barrier, Autoforum.cz wrote.
Indeed, analysts PwC are predicting sales of up 266,000 for this year. That would be 15 percent more than in 2015, which itself was a record year.
The Car Importers Association is more cautious but still expects growth of 5 to 10 percent over 2015.
