Skoda Auto aims to sell one lakh cars per year in India from 2025: Official

Coimbatore, May 10 (PTI): With the launch of two more cars in two years, Skoda Auto is targeting to sell one lakh vehicles per year in India from 2025, a top company official said here Friday. The company is scheduled to launch it new Karooq brand in the middle of the next year and another vehicle in 2021, which are 95 per cent localised -- as good as Made in India -- under India 2.0 project, Skoda Auto India Pvt Ltd director (sales, service and marketing) Zac Hollis told reporters.

Stating that the company has sold 17,244 vehicles across India, with South contributing 48 per cent in 2018, he said he expected sales to grow and touch 18,000 vehicles this year. Though there was a slump in the sales in the first four months due to the elections, the sales were expected to pick up and reach top-level in the second half of the year, he said.

Hollis was here to open the company's largest workshop in India and also outside China - SGA Cars India - for which the company is investing Rs 8,000 crore which also includes the cost for developing the design.

Asked about plans to introduce e-car in India, the official said once the country was ready with proper infrastructure, Skoda would foray into that market.

He ruled out opening a manufacturing plant in South, despite contributing nearly 50 per cent of the sales, but there were plans to double the dealer network across 50 new cities, including the South over the next three years.

The company has yet to decide on stopping manufacturing of diesel cars, he said.

SGA Cars dealer principal S Arputharaj said there was good growth in the sales in the last three years and the company was giving a six-year warranty for the cars.

The workshop facility boasts of nearly 50,000 sq ft premium service area, equipped with 50 bays and a capacity to serve 20,000 SKODA vehicles per annum, he said.