The Chinese appetite for SUV’s is unstoppable, last months sales figures showed that sales of SUV’s jumped by 49% despite high oil prices, the demand for Skodas is also extremely high with China become the brands biggest market.
Skoda’s total world sales in the past five months exceeded 400,000 units, the same period over in 2011 netted just over 373,400 sales – an increase of 8%, the Chinese market took 25% of sales (roughly 100,000 units), by 2018 Skoda wants to have sales of 1.5 million with China taking 25% of sales which means that Skoda China needs a production capacity of at least 380,000 vehicles.
In 2013 both the Mission L compact and also Yeti will be produced in China via the Shanghai-VW joint venture, both models will undergo a certain amount of ‘Chinese-ification’ before hitting the market. The Yeti will be stretched longer to fit the needs of Chinese consumers who require slightly more space in the rear than other markets. Skoda will also work to widen its Chinese dealership network from 390 outlets to 550 dealerships in the next few years.
Any word on the price for the Yeti? I sat in one in Germany and they are not bad. Maybe not much legroom in the back for tall people but overall a nice and fun car. Wonder how much it will cost over here in China.
No official price in China yet, but I would imagine the 1.8TSI will launch first followed by the 1.4TSI – I think starting price should be around 250k, but that is dream territory perhaps.
The reason for the stretch version is not consumer demand but to overcome legal requirements . The govt does allow models already launched elsewhere into china , hence a stretch version is a “new” car . Also why many manufacturers launch “Chinese versions” of cars already in the market
What you wrote doesn’t make sense – did you leave out some words?
WARNING!! Im back!!!!