Škoda Octavia is once again the best-selling car in the Czech Republic after one year. The Hyundai i30 is already the third

While new car sales in the Czech Republic rose slightly in 2021 despite the coronavirus pandemic and chip shortages, the downward trend returned last year. Compared to the previous year, 7.15% fewer cars found owners, which means absolutely 192,087 passenger cars. This follows from statistics released today by the Association of Automobile Importers.

It’s the lowest number since 2013, and also the first time since 2014 that fewer than 200,000 new cars have been sold.

“The number of new car registrations on the Czech market decreased year on year last year, however, these figures do not fully reflect reality. The number of delivered cars is negatively affected by limited production capacities of manufacturers due to the disruption of supply chains due to the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine,” comments the head of the Czech Škoda dealership Car Jiří Maláček. “We expect the situation to continue to stabilize this year,” he adds.

Arnošt Barna, CEO of the Czech representative office of Korean Kia, speaks similarly: “Last year, we experienced strong demand both in the Czech Republic and throughout Europe, but due to limited production capacity, we were not able to meet this increased demand. Therefore, many customers are still waiting for their car, which is why the market has been declining,” he says. “We expect 2023 to see moderate market growth on the back of improved vehicle deliveries from production across all brands,” adds Barna.

Among the brands, Škoda Auto is still the first with a large lead, even though it sold eight thousand fewer cars than in 2021. The second is Hyundai, the third is Volkswagen. Here the ranking has not changed compared to 2020. The names of the top ten best-selling manufacturers have not changed, with the exception of BMW, which replaced Seat in tenth place.

You can see the overall ranking in the table below, the ranking of the 25 best-selling cars (first is the Škoda Octavia, followed by the Škoda Fabia and third is the Hyundai i30 for the first time) can be found in the gallery at the beginning of the article.

Top 10 best-selling car brands in the Czech Republic for 2022

Outside the top ten, the entry of the Chinese car manufacturer MG should be noted. Its SUV only went on sale mid-year, but 410 were eventually sold, most of which were the small petrol-powered ZS model, which is more than models like Mitsubishi or Mini. Another Chinese automaker, Dongfeng, has registered as many as 74 much more modest cars. The Korean SsangYong is also growing steadily, which last year sold more than two thousand cars.

The position of super-luxury brands on the Czech market is remarkable. Porsche recorded 560 cars sold last year, Ferrari 112, Bentley 64 and Rolls-Royce 37, just two fewer than Maserati. 52 Lamborghinis also found a new owner. All of the named automakers have grown year-on-year.

SUVs remain the most popular class of new cars, accounting for almost 45%. The lower middle class, which includes, for example, the Golf or the Octavia, is second, but with half of the SUV sales. Small cars finished third.

The number of electric cars sold increased significantly last year. Overall there were 3,892, which represents an increase of almost a third. Their market share has also increased significantly to the level of 2.03% (although still a very small number for Western European markets). This is almost the same as LPG cars and even more so than plug-in hybrids. Last year “only” 3,560 were sold, while classic hybrids and mild hybrids sold almost 25,000 units and their share of total sales rises to 13%.

Not surprisingly, the best-selling electric car is the Škoda Enyaq iV, which reached nearly 1,300 customers last year. The Škoda Octavia iV is the first among plug-in hybrids, but with a significantly more modest number of 376 cars sold. Hybrids are dominated by the Toyota RAV4 and Corolla, which have barely surpassed 1,500 cars sold.

Used cars decrease, motorcycles increase

Similar to the number of new passenger cars sold, the number of new light commercial vehicles also fell to 16,908 units. This is 14 percent less than in 2021. Among the brands, the leader is Renault, followed by Ford, the Renault Master has become the best-selling model.

By contrast, the number of new trucks rose slightly to 8,988 units, with Mercedes-Benz outselling Volvo, as did buses at 1,215 units. Iveco has become the most popular brand.

Motorcycles sold much better than in 2021. There were 25,561 of them, which means less than fourteen percent more. The first is Honda, followed by the Chinese brand CF Moto. However, only a fraction of the cars have electric drive, 932, which means a share of 3.65%.

If the year before they broke records in used car sales, last year their number returned more or less to the standard level. 161,186 used cars were imported into the Czech Republic, which is 13.2% less than in 2021. Most fell into the category between ten and fifteen years old, followed by used cars between five and ten years old and used cars aged over fifteen years old. Traditionally, Škoda cars were the most imported, followed by Volkswagen and Ford. But last year the Czechs also imported three Zbrojovkas, two Bugattis, four Wartburgs, 39 Trabants, 110 Ferraris or 31 Rolls-Royces.

View in the gallery the top 25 best-selling new cars on the Czech market.