Auto India, Car India

Welcome back!

The Czech car maker wants to introduce Rapid in the international market. The company has decided that after the launch of Rapid on November 16, the car will be exported to other nations across the globe.

The company has high hopes from Rapid. The company expects that this car will become its best selling model in the country and its sales will be more than that of the compact car Fabia. The Skoda Auto India Marketing Head Tarun Jha said that “This car is specifically designed for India and the launch will be the global launch for the car. At a later stage, it may be introduced in different markets across the world.”

He also added that “We have not decided anything about the exports yet as the car is meant for the domestic market. However, we may export the Rapid to some neighboring countries later.” It seems that the company is betting heavily on this new model. However, as of now, none of the models are being exported from the country and Rapid will be its first model to be exported from the country.

The best-selling car of the company is Fabia and about 1,200 to 1,500 units of Fabia are sold each month. Thomas Kuehl remarked that Rapid will give competition to the petrol variant of Honda against Rapid and against the diesel variant of Hyundai. Currently the company plans to increase its network of dealership in order to meet the demand of the model. At present, the company has about 82 dealerships and by the end of this year, this number will go up to 100, and next year, another 20 outlets will be added.

The company plans to increase its sales by targeting these cars in Tier-II and III cities. Skoda Auto India had already announced some time ago that it will start production of its base model of Rapid from Chakan near Pune in the Volkswagen Group’s plant. Fabia is also manufactured in this plant and so are Volkswagen’s Vento and Polo. This plant can produce about one lakh units per year. The car maker has made a huge investment in this plant.