Text\Blue Cham
SAIC Skoda's current performance in the domestic market can be described as a step by step.
Sales statistics from the Association show that the cumulative sales of SAIC Volkswagen Skoda in February this year were only 4270 vehicles, and the cumulative sales in January this year were only 5800 vehicles, and the cumulative sales in January and February just exceeded 10,000. In 2021, Skoda's annual sales were only 71,200 vehicles, down 58.8% year-on-year, which not only weakened SAIC Volkswagen's overall sales performance, but also made people worry about the future of Skoda.
In terms of specific products, several of Skoda's main sales models are not optimistic. The Skoda Octavia, which has high hopes, sold only more than 1,700 units in February, and the new car was originally the most popular competitor of the same level such as Civic, Xuanyi, Corolla, And Leiling, and now even the mainstream competitors can't compare with the fact that the sales of mainstream competitors are obviously unreasonable.
The Komic, a small SUV that competes with Binzhi and XR-V, sold only 895 units in February, not even a thousand units, but it was Skoda's sales responsibility. In addition, the sales of kodiak, speed pai, xinrui and other models in February are hundreds of units, which is evident in the dismal sales.
In fact, the dilemma doesn't stop there. In addition to the decline in sales, Skoda has also reported problems such as internal executives being investigated, which also exposes many deficiencies in the internal management of the Skoda brand and even SAIC Volkswagen manufacturers. According to the official notice, including Ren Yun, the former manager of the marketing department of the Skoda brand, and Xie Jinhui, the former executive director of the marketing business of the SAIC Volkswagen Skoda brand, have successively fallen, all of which have cast a shadow over the internal management of SAIC Volkswagen Skoda.
Jumping out of Skoda itself, it must be pointed out that under the stock competition, the rise of independent brands has also eaten the original market of Skoda to a certain extent, with higher cost performance and better product strength, independent brands are gaining more and more consumer recognition, which in turn has led to the improvement of market share, and Skoda, which is backed by the "public" name, has rarely done anything, which is also an important reason for its sales decline.
In fact, as the auto market enters the stock competition, the elimination of some car companies and brands will be inevitable, including Changan Suzuki, Dongfeng Renault and other brands or delisted or transformed, the first step into the "drastic change" period, in addition, such as FAW Mazda has also merged with Changan Mazda, Dongfeng has also withdrawn from Dongfeng Yueda Kia, as for GAC FCA, Dongfeng Dongfeng, Dongfeng, etc. have also begun to transfer or close factories.
The tide is overwhelming, and the future of Skoda has become less optimistic.
Write at the end:
As a once prominent car that was enough to sit on an equal footing with Japanese cars, and even known as "those who understand the public buy Skoda", it is obviously regrettable that Skoda has gone to the field today. Although ŠKODA also proposed the goal of transitioning to "electrification", the launch of the model was too slow, or ŠKODA missed the key "window period" of revival. In any case, there is really not much time left for Skoda.
(This article is originally produced by the editorial department of [Auto Industry] New Media, the author of this article is Lan Zhan, and the source should be indicated when reprinting)