March 2011: Best month ever for Skoda
With 85,000 deliveries (previous year: 74,900 units), the Czech automobile manufacturer Skoda has achieved the best monthly sales result in its history in March 2011 and has continued growing strongly in comparison to the previous year. Never before has the brand sold more cars in a single month than in the third month of this year. The company thus concluded a strong first quarter of 2011, in which total sales rose 21.4% to 217,100 units (January – March 2010: 178,900 units). In the process, Skoda achieved new all-time record sales in India, Russia, and Belgium.
The UK played its part by registering over 6,421 cars in March. This is 300 fewer than March 2010 – when extra registrations were being generated by the scrappage scheme – but it still represents growth in market share compared to this time last year.
“We continue to make very good progress in our markets and remain confident to significantly boost our sales over the entire year of 2011 compared to the previous year,” explained Jürgen Stackmann, the Skodaboard member for sales and marketing. “Basically, our growth takes place in all the markets. The greatest dynamics continue to be recorded in the emerging countries of China, India, and Russia. Based on this premise, we expect that the worldwide automobile market will continue to grow this year. Like all manufacturers, Skoda currently pays particular attention to stable logistics and supply chains in order to be able to satisfy the growing demand.”
In its home market of the Czech Republic, Skoda continued to expand its market leadership in March 2011. Over 5,000 sold vehicles signify a plus of 9.2%, the market share rising to 30.6%. By far the top-selling model of the brand on its home turf was the Octavia Estate. Moreover, the popular station wagon continues to lead its segment in the Czech new vehicle registration statistics.
In the other markets of Central and Eastern Europe, the manufacturer is also keeping up its growth tempo and has achieved high growth rates in March. In Hungary, sales grew 10.8%, in Slovenia 22.1%, and in the Ukraine 54.0%.
On the Western European market, the brand continued to strengthen its position with a total of 41,100 sold vehicles in March 2011. Compared to the previous year, sales rose 8.8%. In doing so, Skoda achieved a new all-time sales record in Belgium with almost 2,500 sold units. The development in the Netherlands was exceedingly dynamic: The sales reached +133.1% here. In Switzerland, too, growth was above-average with a +26.4%.
Sales by the Czech manufacturer continued to develop at an extremely fast rate in the growth markets of Russia, India, and China. In all three markets, Skoda clearly outpaced the development of the respective total market in March. Both in Russia with more that 5,500 sales +88.2% as well as in India with more than 3,000 units +46.3%, sales rose to a new monthly record. The Fabia enjoyed particularly high demand: Its sales grew 82.5%. In China, Skoda continued the positive development as well: 19,500 deliveries in March 2011 mean an increase of 21.4% compared to the previous year (March 2010: 16,000 vehicles). The most popular models on the Chinese market were the Octavia +13.7% and the Fabia 24.1%.
Other individual non-European markets also experienced very positive development in March: Standing out in particular are Skoda’s sales in Turkey +97.4 percent, in Israel +21.8 percent, and in Australia with a 100% growth.
