Škoda Auto has revealed global build numbers by model for 2012, and announced where and when several new vehicles will be built or assembled.
According to a statement by Winfried Vahland, the chairman of the board of management, Škoda sold a record 939,200 vehicles in 2012, a 6.8% gain over the 879,200 deliveries for 2011. The company will this year launch eight new or revised models in an effort to edge ever closer to the million-unit mark. Last year was the eighth in succession for year-on-year sales gains.
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The firm’s best selling nameplate during 2012 was the Octavia. More than 409,600 units were sold, a YoY gain of 5.8%. The launch of the new hatchback earlier in 2013, and the addition of the new Combi from May, are expected to mean a second year of sales above 400,000 units for the model.
The Fabia, with 240,500 units (2011: 266,800) was the second best seller, while the Superb again attained a six figure number for deliveries: 109,100 units of the brand’s flagship were sold worldwide (2011: 116,800). More than 43,000 Superbs were sold in China. The country is also now the largest market for the Škoda brand.
Yeti sales were up 24.3% last year to 87,400 units (2011: 70,300). In particular, the compact SUV was in great demand in Eastern Europe, with the gain for this region being 98.5%. Sales in Russia more than doubled to just under 17,000 units.
The Roomster also made good progress in 2012. It recorded a YoY rise of 5.4% to 38,000 deliveries (2011: 36,000).
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By GlobalDataThe brand’s smallest model, the Citigo, saw sales of nearly 30,000 units in 2012, helped by the addition of extra variants such as the CNG-fuelled versions which were launched in the final quarter of the year.
The Rapid, newly introduced in Europe during the autumn of 2012, attained deliveries of 24,700 by year-end. This number also includes the model that has been built in India since 2011 and which is a different model to Europe’s car.
As for this year’s new model launches, the Octavia Combi 4×4, Octavia vRS and Octavia CNG versions are all due to be revealed in the coming months. The new shape Octavia is already being built at the Mladá Boleslav plant in the Czech Republic, but assembly will be added in Russia from mid-year and “at the latest in spring of 2014” in China, the firm notes. Rapid assembly for the local market commenced in Ukraine earlier this month. The car “will also be introduced to China in 2013”, and “will then be introduced to the Russian market” in 2014, Škoda’s media release states.
Ukrainian build of the Rapid is at the Eurocar plant in Solomonovo, while Russian production will be alongside its VW Polo sedan twin at Kaluga. The car for China will be built by SVW (Shanghai Volkswagen) from later in 2013. This will be alongside the new VW Santana, production of which commenced in December 2012. Both cars use or will use an update of the A05 or PQ25 platform, known as PQ26.
Škoda says its entire model range will have been renewed by 2015, with the brand’s expansion spread across its chosen regions of Europe, Russia, China, India and South America.
“We continue to gather momentum in all regions – at home and globally,” Winfried Vahland states. “The market share in Western Europe should, for example, increase in the medium term from three to four percent, in Europe overall, from almost four to more than five percent,” the chairman adds.
The company has not named all of the models that it intends to update or replace by 2015, but the Superb is due to have a facelift in the coming months – it will likely debut at the Shanghai motor show; the Roomster and its Praktik van counterpart are now seven years old so due for replacement; the Fabia is about to enter its sixth year of production not having had a facelift so that situation should change very soon; and the Yeti should have a styling update in the second half of this year.
Next year should be a relatively quiet one for the brand, but in 2015 India’s Rapid sedan should gain a mid-life facelift (the Russian-assembled model will likely preview the styling changes when it it launched in 2014).
An SUV for China and Europe is due to appear in 2015. This additional model, which should share engines and other major components with the next VW Tiguan, is said to be under development on the Volkswagen Group’s MQB platform.
Škoda will enter another new segment in 2015. Jia Mingdi, the general manager of Shanghai Volkswagen Automobile Sales, told Chinese media in July 2012 that a new MPV was being engineered especially for the Chinese market. This minivan will be manufactured by SVW. Logic suggests that it will be built in either Shanghai or at SVW’s newest plant, Yizheng in Eastern China.
Author: Glenn Brooks
