The Hindu : SkodaAuto to expand dealer network

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 05, 2002

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Business

SkodaAuto to expand dealer network

By Our Corporate Reporter

CHENNAI JUNE 4. SkodaAuto, now a fully owned subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, the German Auto giant, has entered Tamil Nadu after its recent inauguration of the dealership in Hyderabad. The company has appointed Millennium Motors (a unit of DRS Industries) of the Coimbatore Pioneer Mills group, a leading member of the PSG Group, as dealers in Tamil Nadu.

Addressing presspersons here today, Bipin Datar, Head (sales & marketing), SkodaAuto India, said after the introduction of SkodaOctavia in Delhi and Mumbai in November last, the network was fast growing across the country.

The objective was to create a network of sales and service totalling 17 full fledged dealers and 27 service points by December end. Both the versions — 1.9 litre turbo diesel and 2 litre, 111 BHP petrol versions — carried the same price tag of Rs. 10.69 lakhs ex-showroom (Chennai) and the company was hopeful of selling 6,000 numbers of this mid-size car in the first year, Mr. Bipin said.

The cars were being imported to India in semi-knocked down (SKD) form before being assembled at the company's Aurangabad plant. SkodaAuto would be introducing the Octavia Elegance and the top of the line Laurin and Klement in the `D' segment by September, Mr. Bipin said. The intention was also to launch `Superb' which would be the best example of the most modern car comparable with the E class, he said.

D. Shivakumar, managing director of Millennium Motors said, the dealership, currently operating from Chennai, would be opening service facilities at Coimbatore and other important towns in Tamil Nadu.

Founded in 1895, Skoda was taken over by Volkswagen group in 1991. Today, it has representations in 73 countries with 2,900 dealerships. India is its first production base outside Europe. The manufacturing base in Prague in the Czech Republic produces over 4.50 lakh vehicles per annum and 82 per cent of production is exported.

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