AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/26 Report--

Last year, the global automobile market was badly hit by the COVID-19 epidemic, and for Skoda brands, the decline in the Chinese market was even more serious, resulting in a sharp decline in the group's financial results last year.

A few days ago, Skoda disclosed its latest financial results for 2020. 2 the results showed that Skoda's total sales revenue was 17.1 billion euros, down 13.8% from 19.8 billion euros in 2019, and its operating profit was 756 million euros, down 54.5% from 1.66 billion euros in 2019. However, the pre-tax return on sales remained at 4.4 per cent in 2020.

Skoda said that mainly due to the COVID-19 epidemic in the first half of 2020, the production line at the company's Czech plant in the local region was forced to stop production for 39 days, while a number of other international sales channels were also closed. In response, Skoda quickly cut costs and replanned production, only to maintain sales of 1 million vehicles in the second half of the year as sales gradually rebounded.

From a specific market point of view, although sales in Europe, which are more seriously affected by the epidemic, have declined, their market share has risen to 5.4%. Specifically, sales in Western Europe were 434500, down 16.5% from a year earlier, with 161800 in Germany, down 15.4% from a year earlier. Central Europe sold 181900 vehicles, down 15.7 per cent from a year earlier, of which the Czech Republic sold 83200 vehicles, down 11.6 per cent from a year earlier, and its market share rose 3.34 percentage points to 41 per cent. Sales in Eastern Europe were 39800, down 20.8 per cent from a year earlier.

In Russia, Skoda sold a record 94600 vehicles, up 6.8 per cent from a year earlier. In Turkey and Egypt, Skoda's sales increased by 56.3% and 52.8%, respectively.

By contrast, Skoda's largest single market, china, which was least affected by the epidemic, fell 38.7% year-on-year last year, far higher than in other regions, with annual sales of only 173000 vehicles. It is worth noting that the Chinese market, which is thought to be far behind other regions, was only less than 20,000 vehicles compared with Germany last year.

In fact, Skoda's sales in China began in 2018, with the global car market declining for the first time. Skoda's sales in China peaked at 340000 in 2018, up 4.9% from a year earlier. Sales declined in the next two years, falling 17.3% to 282000 in 2019, and almost halved to 173000 last year. The decline continues to expand, so that the market share has fallen to 17%. For this reason, Skoda brand has been "named" many times by one of the brands with the highest inventory among domestic dealers.

In the environment of stock competition, the Chinese automobile market is gradually concentrated to the head brand, and the second-and third-line joint venture brands are facing the fate of competitive differentiation or even elimination. Due to market pressure, SAIC Skoda finally chose to reduce the price, even so, Skoda still did not improve in the domestic market.

After all, with the continuous exposure of quality problems and simple configuration of Volkswagen brands in recent years, the discounts of models have increased significantly, and the newly established more economical "Jetta" brand is seizing the market. Finally, Skoda's price advantage has ceased to exist.

In addition, Jia Mingdysi, deputy general manager of sales and marketing of SAIC Volkswagen Motor Co., Ltd. has also said, "as Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda and other brands have occupied a solid position in the Chinese market, independent brands have made the remaining living space smaller and smaller. Now, brands that can survive in the middle market segment are facing greater competitive pressure. "

From this point of view, Skoda's low price is also a general trend. Perhaps the sinking of the brand is not only Volkswagen's group planning, but also Skoda has no choice. As for Skoda's development in China, the company has not given an important strategy in China.

Instead, it will restart investment plans for brands, promising to spend 2.5 billion euros on developing new models and technologies by 2025. Judging from the current market, the growth trend of electric vehicles in Europe is obviously faster than that in the Chinese market.

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