So glory! The worst seems to be behind us – after a series of crises, car companies finally have something to sell and now they are competing to see who can sell more (which is supported by the backlog of orders from the crisis period). This confirms the year-on-year increase in sales of new passenger cars in the Czech Republic by 15.3 percent to a total of 221,422 cars. But who made the most of it and who, on the other hand, lost?
Unexpected arrival of premiums
There was no doubt that the domestic car manufacturer Škoda, whose models make up a third of all cars sold, will remain the ruler of the Czech market. The quartet of importers behind it maintained their ranking from last year (they only slightly increased absolute sales figures), but the big surprise is the decline of Dacia (the Lodgy and Logan models have ended, the bestsellers Sandero and Duster, which is already waiting for its successor), have instead of the premium Mercedes (it scored with the new C-class and the derivative GLC SUV, the GLE, GLS and G SUVs and also the EQE and EQS electric cars did well). BMW also improved (thanks to the introduction of the new X1, but also the improvement of the X3, X5 and X7 SUVs), which jumped up two places at the expense of Ford and Peugeot. We would not be surprised if the miraculous improvement of premium brands (Audi, Volvo, Lexus, Porsche or Land Rover also improved) was not affected by the restriction on the purchase of luxury cars for businessmen…
BrandSales 2023 Year-on-year change Ranking 20221.Skoda77,490 units+23.2%1.2.Hyundai20,068 units+7.9%2.3.Volkswagen18,938 units+18.2%3.4.Toyota17,435 units+42.1%4.5.Kia11,424 units+10 ,1%5.6.Mercedes-Benz8,642 pcs+17.9%8.7.Dacia7,830 pcs-15.1%6.8.BMW6,037 pcs+30.6%10.9.Ford5,655 pcs-23.6%7.10.Peugeot4,360 pcs -10.9%9.
Outside the top ten, it is worth mentioning the brands SsangYong (an improvement of almost a third to 3,170 cars), Suzuki (2,960 cars sold is an improvement of half) and MG (a jump from last year’s 410 cars sold to this year’s 2,609 units), which have improved a lot ( perhaps at the expense of Dacia), Tesla in the Czech Republic also follows the global trend of a fast-growing brand thanks to an aggressive sales policy (its 1,618 cars sold represent a year-on-year improvement of more than fivefold). On the other hand, large declines were experienced at Opel (by a third), Citroën (by almost a quarter) or Seat (by a quarter).
Octavia rules all
Škoda’s dominance is also clearly visible in the sales of individual models – those from Mladá Boleslav neatly lined up at the top of the top ten best-selling cars. Only the outgoing Superb, whose weaknesses were exploited by two Hyundais, the popular i30 model (which was the third best-selling car last year) and the SUV Tucson (which improved slightly in sales and in its position by one rung) fell. The top ten is rounded off by the VW Golf.
BrandSales 2023 Year-to-year change Ranking 20221. Škoda Octavia21 815 units+56.9%1.2. Škoda Fabia10 775 units-18.0%2.3. Škoda Scala9 784 units+50.6%6.4. Škoda Kamiq9 447 units+38.3%5.5. Karoq9,032 units+13.5%4.6.Skoda Kodiaq8,659 units+36.9%8.7.Hyundai i307,728 units-6.2%3.8.Hyundai Tucson6,495 units+11.7%9.9.Skoda Superb6,309 units-2, 2%7.10.Volkswagen Golf5 461 units+74.9%-
They are certainly happy at BMW with the new X1 (improved by more than two times) and at Lexus with the new NX (improved by almost three times), MG’s results were driven by ZS (improved by five times) and HS (newly introduced model), SsangYong Korando cars also sold almost double, the Toyota Corolla improved by 80% and the VW Golf by 75%. On the contrary, Citroën, which buried its Berlingo (and it will be difficult to revive it), is very sorry, at Opel they are lamenting the deterioration of the Crossland despite its modernization (which, however, also made it more expensive) and at Seat the neglected Arona, Dacia is already trembling for a new generation with the Duster or Peugeot with 3008.
Electric cars boost only very slowly
The vast majority of newly sold cars are powered by gasoline (66%) and a quarter run on diesel, but the number of electrified cars is growing – a total of 40,000 were sold last year (including 6,640 electric cars and 5,653 plug-in hybrids), which is almost a fifth of all cars sold. Pure electric cars have improved by 50% year-on-year, but still make up a paltry three percent of total sales. However, this number should increase this year, also thanks to the introduction of a subsidy for electric cars.
Photo: Association of Automobile Importers
Six and a half thousand sold electric cars is still very little.
The leapfrog of the year in the field of electromobility is of course Tesla, but its sales of a total of 1,618 cars are made up of four models (and almost half of them are Model Y). The best-selling model is the Škoda Enyaq iV (1,442 units sold, representing a year-on-year improvement of 11%), followed by Tesla Model Y and Model 3, sales of other competitors are in the low hundreds or high tens of units.
ModelProdeje 20221.Škoda Enyaq iV1 442 ks2.Tesla Model Y1 075 ks3.Tesla Model 3408 ks4.Hyundai Kona331 ks5.Volkswagen ID.3254 ks6.Volkswagen ID.4176 ks7.Kia EV6139 ks8.BMW i4135 ks9.Mercedes-Benz EQS131 ks10. Hyundai Ioniq 5130 ks
Lagers and rarities
There are also a number of cars on the Czech market that are not sold by the hundreds or thousands, but rather by tens or even units. If we leave aside the real exclusives from Rolls-Royce, Ferrari or Maserati, a few unexpected surprises peek out from them. For example, Škoda scraped out the last piece of Yeti and Rapid, at Fiat they found a dusty Freemont in the corner of the warehouse, at Toyota a similarly overlooked Avensis and at Mitsubishi an abandoned Lancer, at Smart they discovered a sunken ForTwo in a drawer.
In addition to lucky finds, the statistics also show completely neglected models such as the Audi A5 convertible (seven cars sold), the large sedan DS 9 (three units sold), the Honda e electric cars (one unit) or the Jaguar I-Pace (two units). The only Talisman sold also clearly shows why Renault decided to bury it (the previous year’s 28 units are not much better).
Photo: Tomáš Kopečný
The DS 9 is a very beautiful car… but nobody wants it.
As you can see, last year’s development of the Czech car market brought a number of surprises – many premium brands jumped up, while many traditional brands weakened. This is often due to the success or failure of one of two key models.
And what awaits us this year? In today’s political and economic situation, it is very difficult to make any long-term forecasts, so let’s just look forward to the next influx of attractive four-wheeled novelties and wish the automakers strong nerves (and a well-polished crystal ball).
2024-01-08 15:00:00
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