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Skoda Auto India seeing ‘Rapid’ growth
Vivek Phadnis
DHNS
Last Updated IST
Credit: Reuters Photo
Credit: Reuters Photo

The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in the automobile industry, much like it has in other sectors. It has been tougher for automobile businesses because they were already reeling under a massive slowdown.

However, things are looking up for Skoda Auto India. The Czech auto major launched three new models (the Rapid, Superb and Karoq) not very long ago in India and the response has been encouraging.

“The response has been far better than we imagined. The best response has been for the Rapid 1.0 litre TSI. This is really important for us because we have gone ahead as a brand with the TSI strategy, particularly in small cars,” Zac Hollis, Director – Sales, Service and Marketing, Skoda Auto India, told DH in an interview.

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“People love the economy and power of the car. The demand at the moment is higher than from the same period last year when we had the diesel and petrol,” he added.

With the three new launches getting new TSI petrol engines, Skoda’s fuel preference is very clear. “Our strategy will definitely be more petrol. We see this in the short to medium term as the best fuel for India,” Hollis said.

“We have seen over a number of years that the demand for diesel has been reducing pretty much month on month, year on year. We've not only seen this in India, but all over the world. Diesel is dropping in terms of demand and is now seen as a dirty fuel. Therefore, governments are also legislating and reacting.

“In the medium term, TSI is the way we will go. If you look at the old 1.6 litre MPI engine that we have against the 1.0 litre TSI engine, there is more power, more torque and also 23 per cent more fuel economy. We are ticking all the boxes the customer is looking for in a small to medium car,” he noted.

Apart from the Rapid, the response for the Octavia RS 245 performance sedan has been good too. “We launched that car literally just before the lockdown and we sold pretty much every car. We have had a few cancellations since then for obvious reasons. The response in Bengaluru has been incredible and it is our biggest selling city for the RS 245. There are a few left and we are still taking one or two orders every day or every other day,” he stated.

While Hollis said that Skoda India was no doubt affected by Covid-19, the company’s recovery has been good. “Recovery has been much better than we expected. In fact, we have just agreed to increase production of the Rapid for this year above what we originally planned because the response has been so good,” he observed.

“The market has recovered very quickly. I think the biggest reason is that people feel that having their own personal transport gives them safety and security and they can keep it clean because it is their own. That's fueled demand, particularly at the lower end and there is also a lot of demand for used cars. And we sold more Rapids, for example, in July than for the same period last year,” he said, adding that Skoda India’s used car business is also gaining momentum after Covid-19.

Sometime ago, Skoda India and the Volkswagen Group had announced the ‘India 2.0’ project, adding more investment and looking for growth in the country. Though the Covid-19 pandemic slightly hit plans, the company is still committed to it. “The positives of the project is that we are still sticking to the production dates that we originally committed to. This is a lot of work because of Covid-19. There are a lot of experts whom we wanted to bring in from Europe to assist in production. Obviously, we can't bring them in now. There were also some tools that were to come over from China. Obviously, because of the lockdown in China, this was also delayed.

“Despite this, we are still planning to start production at the same time in Q2 2021. I think the team has done a great job in keeping things on track. This is exciting for us and we have not reduced investment at all of India 2.0 because of Covid-19,” he informed.

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(Published 01 September 2020, 12:11 IST)