William Malcolm

Czech Auto Sales Drop 1.3%

Sales of new passenger cars in the 1st quarter fell by 1.3 percent year-on-year to 49,534 vehicles. In March, sales were 46.5 percent higher than last year. The Association of Car Importers announced this today. Last year, March sales of passenger cars fell sharply due to government measures in connection with coronavirus.

This year’s year-on-year increase in March to 20,053 cars partly improved the quarterly balance but remained the second-worst result since 2014. The passenger car market thus stagnated year-on-year at low numbers as in the previous year.

According to the consulting company PwC, sales of passenger cars could increase by about ten percent year-on-year to 224,000 vehicles this year. According to PwC’s automotive expert Pavel Štefek, the outcome will depend on overcoming the pandemic and returning the company to normal. It will also depend on unemployment development and possible delayed erosion of consumer and especially business confidence.

“As a significant risk for new car registrations in the second half of the year, we see unsatisfied demand due to limited availability of manufactured vehicles, primarily due to the global shortage of processors and chips for cars. It will also depend on car manufacturers how they can cope with their supply chain problems. Strings, “he said.

The first is Škoda from January to March, with a year-on-year decrease of 10.7 percent to 17,902 cars, followed by Volkswagen with a nine percent increase to 4,873 vehicles, and the third is Hyundai with sales of 4,503 vehicles, which is two percent more than last year. Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Peugeot, and Toyota finished next. The best-selling models were the Škoda Octavia (3849), the Škoda Fabia (3700) and the Hyundai i30 (2585).

The most popular business class are SUVs with a share of 40.7 percent, in second place in the lower middle class with almost 17 percent, and in third place small cars. In terms of fuel, petrol cars lead with 64 percent of the market, and diesel had 29.3 percent, and electric vehicles one percent.

Sales of new light commercial vehicles increased by 17.9 percent year on year to 4,304 cars. The first is the Fiat brand with 573 registered vehicles, followed by Volkswagen with 507 cars and Peugeot, which sold six fewer cars. Truck sales increased 8.8 percent to 1972 vehicles. The first is the MAN brand with 355 cars, the second DAF and behind it Mercedes-Benz.

In the bus category, sales increased by 73.5 percent to 392 vehicles. In March, however, it fell by 12.7 percent year on year. The first is the SOR brand with 152 registered vehicles, followed by Iveco Bus and Setra.

Sales of new motorcycles increased by 25 percent to 3,600 machines than the first quarter of last year. In March, the increase was 88 percent. The first is the Honda brand with 560 motorcycles, followed by CF Moto and BMW.