Skoda finding its feet

Skoda's start in Australia since the Volkswagen-owned brand relaunched here in 2007 has been slow but steady.

As a largely unknown quantity it faced a serious uphill challenge anyway, but the onset of the global financial crisis less than 12 months later introduced a further variable that weighed against the importer's plans.

There are signs that Skoda is moving in the right direction however. According to Michael Irmer, the director of Skoda Australia, the brand's sales as at the end of 2015 had risen to 4750 cars – an increase of 23 per cent on the sales volume for 2014.

Based on that achievement Skoda sits in third place behind Volkswagen and Renault among mainstream European brands operating in Australia. And as Irmer pointed out, Renault has commercial vehicles to supplement its passenger car range.

Subtract Renault's commercial vehicle sales from the French brand's total for 2015 and the figure remaining is 7768 passenger cars and SUVs. In contrast Skoda is still a long way behind, at 4750 for the year.

The launch here of the new Superb may inject some incremental sales into the total for 2016, but Irmer is saying little about sales projections for the large passenger car.

"I'm not making statements on what predicted sales figures [will be] in general terms, but obviously we are aiming to increase the footprint in the market," he told motoring.com.au during the launch of the latest Superb earlier this week.

"But there are a number of influencing factors, such as the passenger segment – the way it develops – which has grown 11 per cent over last year. We don't know yet how the total market is going to develop… we obviously aim to grow our footprint further and further. We've been able to do that in the last couple of years and we aim to continue so."

Irmer says that over the next few years, the SUV class in the Australian market will inflate Skoda's sales. There's a new Yeti due two years from now, and the seven-seat SUV that is expected to be named Kodiak or Kodiaq, depending on whom you believe, will arrive in 2017. Irmer won't confirm either name for the seven-seat model.

"Especially when the new seven-seater comes, next year, we'll expect [it to] enable us to enter another big slice in the market with a competitive product. [And] on the back of that we would be able to increase our overall sales footprint as well."

"The naming of that has not yet been decided. It will be announced not long from now…"

Backing away slightly from his previous pronouncement Irmer says that it's "very likely" the seven-seat SUV, pictured here as a pre-production mule, will come to Australia, but the importer is "still working on the business case" for the vehicle.

A smaller crossover based on the Fabia – the Fabia Scoutline – is not ruled out for Australia, Irmer says.

"I had a look at it when I was in Europe last weekend… and I'm not yet 100 per cent sure. We might clinic it one day to find out exactly what would be the demand [locally]…"

According to the Skoda exec the Fabia wagon is generating a lot more demand from Australian customers than originally expected, so the brand will be working hard to fill existing orders here before contemplating derivatives like the Scoutline.

Rumour of a low-roof 'coupe' SUV larger than the current Yeti is "not yet confirmed", Irmer says.

On the retail side of the fence, Skoda's dealers around the country are adopting a new corporate identity that is also being rolled out around the world. To date eight local dealers have adopted the new corporate look (with one still in the works) and a further eight dealers out of the 34 total also plan to migrate to the new CI.

It may come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with rebranding along these lines, but Irmer says that retail sales can improve by 60 per cent on average, due to the new CI alone. And it also results in substantially better customer satisfaction, the Skoda boss says.

It's why the dealer experience is as important an element in Skoda expanding its sales volumes in Australia as the other two pillars, product and brand.