Skoda to focus on premium vehicles for the Indian market

Skoda has reportedly revised its strategy for the Indian market. While all other automakers are fighting to get a share of the country's huge small car business, Skoda will be focusing on the premium vehicle segment. The company's Managing Director, Sudhir Rao, revealed these future plans, and also confirmed three new launches in the premium space in the next one year.

The MD has further confirmed that there are no plans to enter the small car business in the next two years. The automaker is currently banking huge on its sedan offerings - Octavia, Superb and the recently launched Rapid facelift.

Out of the three new launches scheduled, the most important introduction will be the company's flagship SUV - the Kodiaq, which marks Skoda's first attempt to build a 7-seater offering. The automaker had already confirmed that the Kodiaq will be making its Indian debut later in 2017. Another model confirmed to launch in 2017 is the Octavia RS, which is the standard Octavia's performance-oriented sibling.

Skoda saw its sales peak in India in the year 2012, when it managed to sell over 35,000 vehicles in the country. However, every passing year since then saw a decline in the market share. This loss of customer base was attributed to the company's inefficient after sales service experience and some cases of unreliable dealerships. Acknowledging the above two factors, the Czech automaker has been working on improving the customer service experience, by launching new prepaid maintenance packages, a 4-year standard warranty, and a MySkoda App for easier single-window interaction. The company has even terminated a few dealerships that were found to be at fault in some customer reported cases.

With all the changes made, Skoda is expected to end this year with 16,000 unit sales, and is aiming at taking this number to 20,000 during the next year.

Source: ET Auto