William Malcolm

Czech New Car Sales Up 18.7% In First Half Of 2021

Sales of new passenger cars in the first half of the year increased by 18.7 percent year on year to 112,805 cars. The increase in six months was affected by last year’s cessation of production and the closure of car showrooms due to coronavirus. In June, the market grew by 8.6 to 22,561 cars. Compared to 2019, 12 percent fewer cars were sold this year. This follows from the data of the Association of Car Importers.

The best-selling was traditionally domestic Škoda Auto with a year-on-year increase of 8.5 percent to 39,644 cars, the second Volkswagen increased sales by 36.5 percent to 10,463 cars and the third Hyundai grew by 27.8 percent to 10,225 cars. Toyota moved up to fourth with an increase of 22.7 percent to 5,130 cars and the fifth is a premium Mercedes-Benz with 4,945 cars, which is half as much as in the first half of last year.

“Disrupted production and supply chains with an impact on delays in the delivery of vehicles are also reflected in the overall figures. Registration, especially of passenger cars, is also affected by EU legislation, which continues to significantly push manufacturers into very expensive new technologies,” said Josef Pokorný.

The best-selling models are the Škoda Fabia 8,011 cars, the Škoda Octavia 7,892 cars, the Škoda Karoq (5878), the Škoda Kamiq 5,869 and the Hyundai i30 5,535. In terms of business classes, SUVs are in first place with a share of over 42 percent, followed by the lower middle class with 17 percent. Two-thirds of the cars sold had a petrol engine, 27 percent were diesel. A total of 78 percent of cars were bought by companies.

Overall, light commercial vehicle registrations rose 26 percent to 9,326 cars.

The first is the Fiat s1238 registered car, the second is Peugeot and the third is Renault. Truck sales rose by two-fifths to 4,443 cars. The best-selling brands were Mercedes-Benz, DAF, and MAN.

Bus sales fell 12 percent to 603 vehicles. The first is the domestic Iveco Bus brand with 246 registered buses, followed by SOR with 215 and Solaris with 39 vehicles.

Motorcycle sales increased 12.4 percent to 12,691 machines. Compared to 2019, it was 17.5 percent higher. The first is the Honda brand with 2385 registered motorcycles, the second is Yamaha with 1045 machines sold and the third is CF Moto with sales of 907 motorcycles.