AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/04 Report--

According to foreign media reports, in the second week of the official departure of Bernhard Maier, Skoda officially announced on August 3 that Thomas Schaefer, the former head of the South African branch of the company, will serve as its chairman, and the appointment will take effect immediately. This personnel change is part of the management restructuring of Volkswagen Group.

According to public data, Thomas Schaefer is a mechanical engineer who joined Daimler in 1991 and began his career as an automobile company. From 2002 to 2005, Thomas Sch ä fer served as a founding board member of DaimlerChrysler Malaysia, expanding and restructuring sales, production and supplier systems. From 2005 to 2012, Thomas Sch ä fer was responsible for vehicle delivery, customer center and xKD's global emerging market operations at Daimler AG in Germany; Thomas Sch ä fer joined Volkswagen Group in May 2012 and has been in charge of Volkswagen Group South Africa since 2015, serving as chairman and managing director of the company and responsible for the development of the group brand in sub-Saharan Africa.

Skoda is the largest carmaker in the Czech Republic, and its sales continued to decline in 2020 due to COVID-19 's attack on the global market. However, even without COVID-19 's raid, Skoda's performance in recent years is not optimistic.

Skoda's cumulative global sales fell 1 per cent to 1.2 million in 2019, with sales in China falling 17 per cent to 282000, according to the data. Skoda's cumulative global sales fell 31.3 per cent to 426000 vehicles in the first half of this year, with sales in China falling 38.5 per cent to 77000 vehicles.

Although Skoda said it saw signs of market recovery in the second quarter, it is an indisputable fact that the brand's sales have declined in recent years. Although there has been some improvement in sales after the company restarted its business plan, Skoda's output is still weak in many core markets, such as China, mainly due to demand in Europe.

In fact, in order to revive sales in the Chinese market, Skoda launched a "government reduction" self-rescue measure in April this year. However, the measure did not revive Skoda's sales in the domestic market, with Skoda brand sales in China falling 21.4% to 48400 vehicles in the second quarter of this year, far more than the market level.

Prior to this, the development of Skoda brand also raised concerns about it, coupled with the pressure of COVID-19 's epidemic, how to achieve recovery in core markets such as China has become a top priority for Thomas Schaefer after taking office. Whether Thomas Schaefer can lead Skoda back to its former glory remains to be tested.

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