Kolkata: It is not because of the cab aggregators like Ola or Uber but thanks to the economic slowdown that auto sales dipped as high as 20 per cent. At least that’s what Skoda Auto India topbrass feels. That’s not all. There is no immediate respite either. The passenger car market is likely to remain fairly flat throughout 2020 and is expected to pick up from 2021. Skoda Auto India’s own sales dropped from 17000 units in 2018 to 15,000 units in 2019.

However, this negative sentiments notwithstanding, the Czech automajor is in the process of shelling out nearly Rs 8,000 crore in India to fund its ambitious roll-out plans, strengthen designing and engineering capacity, overhaul and ramp up manufacturing facility and increase localization under India 2.0 initiative.

"Talking about the auto industry, in general, sales were down upto 20 per cent across board for the last few months. Our sales in calendar 2019 will be lower at 15,000 units as compared to 17,000 in 2018. There were certain issues which had an adverse impact including cyclical slowdown of the economy and maybe, the US-China trade war. Besides, banks are shying away from extending finances to some extent. In 2020, sales are expected to remain ‘fairly flat’. Going by the indications so far, the market is expected to pick up in 2021,” said Zac Hollis, director (sales, service and marketing), Skoda Auto India Private Limited.

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