Skoda aims to double its sales in China to over 600,000 units per year by 2020, from 310,000 units last year, Skoda CEO Bernhard Maier told reporters at a recent conference in Shanghai.
Maier said the Skoda brand, which entered the Chinese market in 2007, will strengthen its model line-up in China in the next few years, starting with the Karoq compact SUV in the first quarter of 2018.
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Earlier this year, the company launched the larger mid-sized Kodiaq SUV in China and last week it released the new generation Octavia passenger car, which remains the brand’s best-selling model in China with more than 1.35m units sales in the last ten years.
Skoda cars are produced locally by SAIC Volkswagen, a Shanghai-based joint venture with its German parent company.
Mr Maier said five new Skoda SUV models will be launched in China in the next three years to capitalize on fast-growing local demand in this segment. The SUV segment is expected to account for 50% of Skoda’s projected growth in this period.
Sales of SUVs in China increased by 17% to 5.2 million units in the first seven months of 2017, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
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By GlobalDataIn 2020, Skoda plans to launch an electric vehicle in China and it expects to have five new-energy vehicles on the market by 2025.
