Skoda Worldwide shipments fell by 16.7 percent last year as the Czech company faced various challenges.
The company delivered 731,000 cars to customers in 2022, with all its global nameplates falling – except for the high-priority Enyaq electric SUV.
Like many of its OEM peers, Skoda cited problems such as semiconductor shortages, the war in Ukraine (from which Skoda gets its wiring harness), other supply chain issues, rising energy and raw material prices and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.
Skoda’s annual decline was steeper than most Volkswagen Group brands: Volkswagen Cars fell 6.8 percent, Volkswagen Commercial fell 8.6 percent, and Audi fell 3.9 percent. However, SEAT/Cupra fell 18.1 percent, due to the former not the latter.
It’s not all doom and gloom for Skoda, with the brand fueling the success of its first EV and growth in the potentially huge Indian market – where sales more than doubled.
The company also claims to have a high order backlog, as you can imagine.
MORE: Volkswagen Group’s EV sales, detailed by surprising order bank
“Never before in recent history has Škoda Auto faced such a broad challenge as last year,” claimed the brand’s CEO Klaus Zellmer.
Deliveries in key Skoda regions fell almost uniformly barring India: Western Europe (377,000, down 7.8 percent), Central Europe (148,000, down 9.8 percent), China (44,600, down 37.4 percent), and Eastern Europe excluding Russia (31,600 , down 11.9 percent).
Skoda’s biggest market overall is Germany (134,800 deliveries, down 1.8 percent), ahead of its home country of the Czech Republic (71,200, down 11 percent), and India (51,900, up 127.7 percent).
Škoda deliveries by region in 2022
- Octavia: 141,100, -29.7%
- Kamiq: 96,300, -20.3%
- Kodiak: 94,500, -4.2%
- Fabia: 92,700, -6.5%
- Karoq: 87,700, -26.4%
- Great: 60,800, -8.0%
- Enyaq: 53,700, +20.0%
- Scala: 39,500, -17.9%
- Kushaq: 26,800, +110.2%
- Slavic: 20,900
- Fast: 17,300, -72.8%
2023 will be a busy year for Skoda, with new generations of the Kodiaq and Superb due to be revealed, as well as facelifts for both the Kamiq and Scala.
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Australia
This result was echoed in Australia, where Skoda deliveries fell 29.2 percent to 6502, due largely to a lack of stock.
But Skoda Australia expects much healthier stock levels from early 2023, with “full normalization” of supply from its European plants expected by the middle of next year.
Thus, the local arm of the Czech brand is forecasting all-time records since the brand was launched here in its current incarnation in 2007 – a combination of delivering existing orders and expanding its customer base.
While Skoda management won’t confirm its domestic sales target on record, company sources tell us around 12,000 units for calendar year 2023 is the target. The brand’s best year to date in Australia was 2021, when it recorded 9185 sales.
MORE: Skoda aims for record sales in 2023 as Australian supply improves
MORE: Skoda Scala, updated Kamiq due in 2023, to join new Superb, Kodiaq
