The once ailing Skoda brand is turning out to be a solid investment for the Volkswagen Group as the Czech automaker is breaking one sales record after the other. In the year that just passed on, Skoda Auto recorded is best-ever sales results delivering 762,000 vehicles, which represents an increase of 11.5% over 2009 when it sold 684,200 units. Furthermore, the company broke the threshold of three quarters of a million vehicles sold in a single year for the first time in its history.
Commenting on the results, Prof. Dr. h.c. Winfried Vahland, Chairman of the Board of Skoda Auto said:
“In 2010, Škoda achieved an outstanding performance. In almost all markets, we have had significant growth and increased our market share. Once again, our sales have risen at a double-digit pace. In the most significant developing markets, our growth rates are above 40%. Within the framework of the Škoda growth strategy, we will shift up a gear in the coming years. By 2018, we want to at least double our worldwide sales. In order to do so, we will clearly expand the Škoda model range and strengthen the activities in international markets."
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14 Comments:
...and this is the motivation for the "industrial censorship" what is happening now in VW group... downgrading of the quality of Skoda interiors, canceling of some parts of baseprice equipment and so on and on... SAD BUT TRUE... Skoda started to be a bit of a problem for VW...
Too true (anonymous #1), they have out VW'd the former folks wagon and they don't seem to like it
"In ALMOST all markets, we have had significant growth and increased our market share."
ALMOST is used deliberately in a way aiming to hide the fact that Skoda in Europe DIDN'T PERFORM THAT WELL last year as implied in the press release. In fact this year Skoda in Europe LOST SALES in a decline of about 5% .
This year's rise in sales of Skoda cars is only due to the longtime ago taken decision of the directorship of the VW group to let Skoda expand in new markets (mainly in Asia i.e. India, Russia and China).
If Skoda had focused its business area in Europe only, then Skoda this year would have marked a decline in sales of about 5% .
This is the truth.
Skoda today faces many problems of shrunk profits by vaporising profit margins in its models range under their tactics to keep low prices and cannibalise other VAG brands, together with the rising costs and the low competitiveness in its plants,
and in a bottom line Skoda has now become a no meaning brand inside the VW group empire:
Skoda from the very first moment was supposed to address itself to a low budget clientele but instead of that, Skoda aimed higher where it shouldn't
and turned lately to steal sales of other VAG brands and at the same time cutting the net income i.e. the profits of the whole VW group.
This is why Skoda has to change radically its course and get back to its roots, i.e. the budget brand of the VW group.
Everybody should sometime realise that each enterprise in the world has a solid business plan. When the strategy derails, there rises an apparent problem which should be resolved asap.
The same goes for the VW group:
Skoda cannot compete against VW the same way for example SEAT cannot compete against VW, Skoda should just compete from the beginning against brands outside the VW group like Dacia, Chevrolet etc.
A lesson for everyone:
whenever you find you have to, please don't put the blame on Skoda, SEAT, Audi, Bentley, Lambo etc for every wrong decision these brands improperly take, just put the blame on the cruel boss VW!
So, if Skoda can shift so many vehicles, stealing potential sales from the likes of VW and Audi, then doesn't that say something perhaps about the pricing of those other marques?
I drive an Octavia Scout - the build quality and fit / finish is excellent and at the price point, VW and Audi had nothing to touch it. Truth is, VW and Audi are way overpriced and see themselves as the premium brands of the group for the overall mass market sector, but in doing so they charge a premium price when in reality the cars are no better than what Skoda can produce. Maybe VW and Audi need to take a long hard look at their own business models before criticising Skoda for producing what people actually want and at a good price.
I like the Škoda! There are no extremes, but there's simplicity and good materials and affordable price. Especially love the Škoda Superb Wagon!
If you had Skoda in the US it would be a decent competitor to the rise and rise of Hyandai/Kia
It's true that Skoda has to go a few levels down.Fabia is very close to VW Polo but should be for people who don't want to give extra money for VW badge.Not only this - the Superb is SUPERior in everything compared to the Passat and most important - the price.
I like the Skodas now.They are good looking and very reliable.4-5 years ago I wouldn't say that.But that makes no sense.I can't believe saying it but Skoda must take their place in the hierarchy and become budget cars for the VW Group.
Mythbusters, clever marketing and few examples concerning Skoda:
'Fabia-Polo comparison'
The Fabia has got a dated platform, not the same with the VW Polo, and its built quality and safety is much inferior compared to the Polo (4-stars euroncap result)!
'Skoda reliabilty'
Another myth busted was the rumoured for a longtime so called reliabilty of its cars compared to other vw group stablemates.
etc etc...
Obviously Skoda can also be trully efficient in marketing tactics, hiding facts and misleading people !
I have repaired as many VW's as I have Fords and GM's taking into account the volume sold. Reliability is covered up by good dealers which is something that VW have now stolen from the Japanese. Skoda was a laughing stock, the butt of jokes in the UK up to 10 years ago. They have, as a company come along way and good luck to them. As far as I can see the current Skoda and Seat range is based on warmed over VW platforms. This is not such a bad thing as all the bugs and gremlins have been or should have been sorted. If the users / choosers of this brand are happy then thats good for them.
How do you double the value of a Skoda >>> fill the tank with fuel.
@ Anonymous No.2: VW foremost bought Škoda in order to conquer markets of Central and Eastern Europe, where saying "Made in Germany" means loosing business. For example VW is now No. 3 in Poland (Škoda No.1), however that was hard to imagine in early 1990s (remember the Kaczyński government living out of anti-German sentiment just a few years ago; Germans killed 15% of Poles in WW2). Initially it meant making low-end cars, as the purchasing power of customers in these countries was very low. However this has changed in the last decade and Škoda's offer has changed accordingly.
When it comes to recent decline in Western Europe remember that 2009 was the year of scrapping scheme, and especially in Germany Škoda has sold unprecedented numbers of cars due to this. That also meant that there were high numbers of cheapest Fabias sold (=low profits), while in non-scrapping years high-end Octavias make most of the sales (=high profits).
In the new markets of India, China, Australia Škoda is marketed as marque atop of VW. It is just a matter of time when this trend will come to Europe. After all Škoda has proud history, while VW started as intelectual property theft of dr. Porsche from other Czech manufacturer, Tatra (VW even paid damages for it after WW2).
Skoda's history - apart from some bicycles assembling - has been all about rebadging models from other car makers like Hispano-Suiza. Not to talk about the communist dictatorship years of Skoda, being just the incarnation of Czechoslovakia's state propaganda in making cars ...
In 1991 when VW bought its shares, Skoda was mostly a domestic brand without any serious penetration in the Eastern or the Central Europe markets: it was annually selling about 172,000 units out of which almost 70% was derived for the internal market (former Czechoslovakia) and only a 30% - i.e. some 50,000 cars - for what you 'd call the rest of Europe, Central and Eastern. So this is the significant share VW would need at the time of its purchase? Certainly not!
There is nothing Skoda should be proud of, other than the fact it was saved in the '90s and transformed from complete trash into a real business by its wealthy owner Volkswagen.
Today the Germans of Volkswagen produce technology and offer capital investments in order to build rebranded cars under the different marques in the whole VW group, Skoda being just one brand of them all. That said, Skoda is only a shell which provides actually nothing when it comes to developing technologies, it is only a receiver of parts, a VW group's conception made up in order to expand market shares. For whatever Skoda stands for today, it is all due to Volkswagen!
And when it comes to the new markets of India and China (we are not talking about Australia and New Zealand, Skoda's presence there is practically still non-existent), it is only Audi that is marketed there over VW. Just take into account that Skoda's offerings there are mainly the same with the brand's European ones i.e. contemporary VW rebranded cars, while VW itself especially in China has deteriorated its image in the past by having launched for years (long before Skoda being even present there, the latter of course made reality thanks to VW) inferior products compared to the European cars bearing the VW badge.
What is next to come is surely not a madness trend of launching Skodas on top of VWs in Europe, it is the opposite with lowering Skoda's position in the hierarchy of the VW group back to what it was meant to serve as a price brand since its beginnings.
Seriously talking, Skoda cannot be proud of anything in its past because all this nonsense about Skoda's pride is all about a marketing trick which VW has helped convincing people in order to bypass the stigma that Skoda carried in their conscience.
Here in the UK, Skoda sales in 2010 were up by 10.7% to 41,240.
But that only equated to a 2% market share, whereas parent company Volkswagen shifted over 170,000 cars and was the third most popular manufacturer.
What's surprising is that Skoda isn't selling more, especially given the similarities between the two brands' cars. Cover up the badges and most people probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
And then there's the price difference. For example, why pay £19,410 for a 5-door Polo GTI, when the Fabia vRS is £16,260?
Yes! Another UK, bloke! Our homeland imports are cool. More of a selection than other countries. Wish Great Britain and France return to manufacturing more cars.
this is all new and interesting to me...
the skoda looks better than the usa's new jetta. are they the same car with minor sheet metal and tweaks?
just leaned about vw owning a spanish company and sharing platforms--saw a minivan--even more beautiful than its vw twin(?)...
how about some honest unbiased clarification for us curious folk in the states?
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