NEW DELHI, Mar 22: Czech automotive brand Skoda is eyeing up to 12 per cent sales growth in India this year on the back of ‘ten product actions’ and network expansion in the country, according to a senior company official.
Skoda Auto India, which has launched the facelift version of its mid-sized SUV Kushaq, has set its eyes on crossing the 1 lakh annual sales milestone in future, but not in 2026, having sold close to 72,000 units in 2025, its Brand Director, Ashish Gupta, told PTI.
Helped by the GST reforms, passenger vehicle retail sales in India stood at 44,75,309 units in 2025, as compared to 40,79,532 units in 2024, a growth of 9.7 per cent, as per the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA).
“I expect a growth of 4-5 per cent in the market this year, and 4 to 5 per cent on such a high base would be a great growth,” he said when asked about the growth outlook for PV sales in the domestic market.
As for Skoda Auto India, he said in 2025 the company had almost 100 per cent growth, selling close to 72,000 units, but “replicating 100 per cent growth every year is just impractical. Our base has become higher… at least a 10 to 12 per cent growth is what we are expecting this year.”
When asked if crossing the 1 lakh annual sales is a target on the horizon, he said, “We would like to breach that mark soon, but we have to be realistic… We have to see what product portfolio we have… 10 to 12 per cent growth (in 2026) on the high base that we have for our network, is substantial growth for a brand like us.”
Gupta further said, “We are now the number seven brand in the country in terms of volumes (behind Kia India). We want to outpace the market.”
This, he said, will be on the back of “a lot of product actions and network expansion”.
On the ‘product actions’ for 2026, Gupta said, “There are a lot of product actions lined up this year…a total of 10 product actions.”
Elaborating, he said the company has enhanced the compact SUV Kylaq range with the introduction of two “new price points and two new variants”, which was followed by a freshly updated Kushaq SUV that hit the market last week.
“We have product actions lined up in the Kodiaq SUV in the next couple of months, followed by an action on the Slavia, and a new variant, the Kylaq sports line, comes into the market somewhere around August-September,” he said.
This will be followed by a facelift of the sedan Slavia and another batch of the Octavia RS sedan coming to India, Gupta said.
On network expansion, he said, currently Skoda has a presence in 183 cities, and “we plan to be in 200 by the end of this year”.
“All these product actions and the new network that we have added, becoming fully performing, I think should help us to maintain the momentum for the year,” he added.
When asked about the impact of war in West Asia on market sentiment, Gupta said inquiries and bookings at the dealership continue to be strong.
“But there is an amount of uncertainty in customers’ minds in terms of taking deliveries. The next two weeks will tell us whether customers are holding off on taking deliveries of cars. From an interest point of view, the momentum of interest continues,” he noted.
Gupta, however, cautioned that if “this situation prolongs beyond some reasonable amount of time, it will start having an effect on the customer sentiment and naturally, on demand”.
He further said, “This will also lead to supply chains becoming more constrained. It will also add pressure on commodity prices and on the manufacturing side.”
It will also add pressure on the demand side, in terms of fuel prices and mainly on sentiments, he said. (PTI)
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