Skoda on track for a record year in Australia

Skoda appears to have finally turned the corner in Australia and is on-track to double last year’s sales tally.

Four years after the Volkswagen-owned brand was established locally, Skoda has posted its best month to date and is on track to post its best annual result.

Sales of Skoda cars so far this year are up by 41 per cent – despite only having two models in the line-up: the Octavia mid-size car and Superb large sedan and wagon.

But the addition of the Fabia small car and Yeti SUV (pictured) – which compete in the top-two segments in Australia – are expected to give Skoda an unprecedented surge in the remaining months of this year, and into next.

“With the arrival of our new models we’ll end up [having sold] around 3000 units this year,” said head of Skoda Australia, Matthew Wiesner. “That’ll be not far off double what we did last year [1652].”

“We’ve just come off the back of a record month, with 250 deliveries in August, and we reckon we’ll do 300 to 400 next month.”

Skoda says next year will be even stronger once automatic versions of the Fabia become available, and supply of Yeti improves.

“If we can do the sales that we’ve been doing with only Octavia and Superb … then I think next year, without mentioning any numbers, is looking pretty good. We’re looking for another spurt of growth next year.”

Wiesner said Skoda’s sales growth in Australia was delayed by the Global Financial Crisis. “A lot of plans were pushed back by head office as a precautionary measure, and so many of the new models we wanted weren’t homologated [modified for Australian regulations].

“But we’ve been keeping the dealers informed, been very transparent, and showed them in quite some detail our future model plans. And not only did they all stay with us, we’ve expanded the network.”

Skoda has increased the number of dealers from 21 to 33 in the past eight months in key metro and rural areas across Australia. But it plans to bring the national tally to 45 in the next 12 months.

However, one area left vacant for the time being is Sydney’s bustling inner west. Skoda says it has no plans to appoint a new dealer in that prime market area despite the closure of Rick Damelian’s high profile Parramatta Road sites by receivers earlier this month.

Skoda Australia will also benefit from a global sales push by head office, Wiesner said: “They’re very focused on the international markets right now.”

Skoda plans to increase its global sales to 1.8 million vehicles by 2018 – the same year its parent company Volkswagen wants to become the world’s biggest car maker.

That target would make Skoda bigger than German brand Opel, which wants to sell 1.5 million vehicles by 2015 (up from 1.3 million).
So far this year Skoda sales globally are up by 20 per cent and the Czech car maker has delivered more than 500,000 vehicles for the first time in the first seven months of the year.
A statement by the chairman of the board of Skoda, Prof. Dr. Winfried Vahland said: “In order to accomplish this goal [1.8 million sales by 2018], the company wants to expand its position in the international markets as well as its model range at a rapid speed.”

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