Klaus Zellmer, Škoda Auto CEO said –

From the Czech Republic over to India – one of our top 3 markets worldwide and a linchpin of our internationalisation strategy.

Škoda’s recent development in the country has been a great success story.

We’ve been leading the VW Group’s activities in the market since 2019.

And last year, we outperformed the market, gaining market shares and reaching all-time highs. In total, we delivered 51,900 cars to our customers there. That’s up almost 128%.

India has become one of our most important markets – driven by the success of our locally developed and built Kushaq and Slavia models that cater to the needs of customers in India and beyond.

But who could highlight the importance of – and our performance in – the market better than Piyush Arora himself, Managing Director and CEO of Škoda Auto Volkswagen India.

Škoda has always been green – with its signature colours and deep-rooted passion for sustainability. This is an integral part of our corporate DNA. That’s also why we’re merging our sustainability and financial reports from 2024.

And of course, we’re also supporting this approach with a clear strategy and specific projects at Škoda – for example through Green Production and Green Products.

Our overarching goal is to operate with net-zero carbon emissions by the end of the decade. Because e-mobility needs green energy – not only in the batteries of our EVs but also at our production sites.

And we’re on track. Our Czech plant in Vrchlabí achieved CO2 neutrality back in 2020. Our other two plants in the Czech Republic and our Indian plants will follow suit by the end of the decade.

The share of renewable energies at our Czech sites already increased to around 35% in 2022.

At our plant in Pune, we recently commissioned one of the country’s largest rooftop solar power systems in the automotive industry.

With an output of 26.6 million kWh per year, we’re generating up to 30% of the plant’s total energy consumption in-house.

We use resources carefully across our production. The Škoda Group reduced its environmental impact per car on average by over 43% compared to 2010 – from energy and water consumption, CO2 emissions and waste production to VOC emissions.

And we’ll continue to hone our eco-friendliness in the future.

By 2030, we aim to have reduced our fleet emissions by more than 50% compared to 2020.

How will we do that? By drawing on the best of both worlds – ICEs and EVs – throughout our transformation phase.

We’re consistently optimising our modern and efficient ICE models.

And as I mentioned at the beginning, we’ll be introducing three new all-electric vehicles by 2026. And by 2030, we’re aiming for a share of all-electric models in Europe of over 70%.

With our Next Level – Škoda Strategy 2030, we set ourselves clear targets in 2021 towards sustainable growth, exploring new sales regions and electrification.

In 2022, Škoda made great progress in implementing this strategy – despite the difficult market environment.

Our sales revenue rose to 21 billion euros. We’re successfully strengthening our position in India and Southeast Asia. And there are three exciting new EVs on the way before 2026.

I’m convinced that our brand will attract even more people over the coming years, thanks to our powerful new design language as well as strong and efficient products.

By continuing this path, we’ll provide our customers with genuine added value, surprising Simply Clever features and simple, intuitive operation.

Martin Jahn, Škoda Auto Board Member for Sales and Marketing said –

In keeping with tradition, I’ll begin with the new-car sales figures. Despite the ongoing challenging situation, Škoda Auto delivered 731,300 cars to its customers worldwide.  In absolute terms, this represents a clear decline on previous years, but we have managed to maintain key positions and achieve numerous strong results:

Western Europe

• Germany – Škoda is the number-one import brand here (for 14 years in a row) – a major success!
• Austria – Škoda is number two in this market with an almost 9% market share.
• A very high market share of 2.8% in Spain and the highest-ever market share in France and Italy – almost 2%

Central Europe

• Here, we are number one in the Czech Republic.
• Number one in Slovakia.
• Number two in Poland.
• All-time records: Vehicles delivered to customers in India (51,900) and New Zealand (2,200).

I’d like to go into more detail on the Indian market given our regional responsibility for this within the VW Group.

I’m delighted that we more than doubled our sales result in India last year. An increase of 128% equates to 51,900 cars and ninth position in the market overall. The backbone of our sales success was the already well-established Kushaq SUV and the all-new Slavia launched last March. These two models alone accounted for nearly 50,000 sales. What’s more, the Slavia shot into second place in the competitive A0 NB segment.

Škoda is also rolling out its new corporate identity across the dealer network, where the design of individual elements has been modified. We began this process under the updated Brand Strategy in 2022. One of the most visible changes is the main pillar, which is now a wordmark in place of the traditional logo. It’s a modern look that our contemporary explorers certainly deserve. The new identity is already being rolled out and will arrive across the board early next year. It will be launched at our dealers in Vietnam and India as early as 2023.

Christian Schenk, Škoda Auto CFO said –

Our sales mix improved, as we delivered more high-revenue vehicles. Our two new all-electric vehicles – the Enyaq iV and Enyaq iV Coupé – made great contributions to this.

Secondly, our revenues in India improved significantly due to the success of our India 2.0 strategy. Introducing the Škoda Kushaq and Škoda Slavia led to a staggering 128% increase in deliveries to customers compared to 2021. In collaboration with our colleagues in India, we’ve shown that developing vehicles to meet regional requirements was the right strategy.

Thirdly, as part of taking further responsibilities within the Volkswagen Group, we were also able to increase sales of vehicles for other group brands, particularly in India where more Volkswagen vehicles were produced by Škoda.

We will continue to monitor and adjust our product mix. In order to diversify our revenue streams, we are entering new markets, such as Vietnam and continuing our growth plan in India

Klaus Zellmer, Škoda Auto CEO said –

We’re confident that our success story in India will help us succeed in the equally diverse ASEAN region.

India is a key market in our internationalisation plans. We plan to turn it into an export hub – following a clear strategy.

We began exporting our Škoda Kushaq models from India to the Gulf States last October. This makes the Middle East the first export region for our India-produced models.

As we are anticipating rapid growth there, we’ve recently taken another step towards expanding our global footprint by joining Audi Volkswagen Middle East.

The existing sales structure opens up additional growth opportunities, and I’m sure that our products will be successful there, as well.

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