By Leos Rousek
PRAGUE--Volkswagen AG's (VOW.XE) Czech unit Skoda Auto AS said
Thursday that its global sales rose 12.5% on the year to a record
high in six months through the end of June, driven by a rebound in
demand for the car maker's new models.
The car maker said steady demand for its eight reworked or
recently launched passenger models contributed to the 522,500
vehicles it sold in the first half. Never before have Skoda Auto
sales exceeded half a million cars during the January-June period.
Apart from Europe the company targets customers in India, China and
Russia.
The booming sales helped the car maker to nearly double its
operating income to 425 million euros ($569 million) in the six
months to end-June from EUR243 million in the corresponding period
of 2013. Skoda Auto, fully owned by Volkswagen, doesn't report net
profits for its half-year periods
Skoda said it plans to boost its annual sales to at least 1.5
million cars by 2018, compared with 920,750 vehicle sales in 2013,
the company said.
Skoda is the Czech Republic's biggest exporter by sales. Its
performance in the first half is a boost to the Czech economy,
which is seen expanding about 3% in 2014 after two years of
contraction.
Write to Leos Rousek at leos.rousek@wsj.com, @LeoRousek
Go to http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope for the new WSJ and
Dow Jones blog on Central and Eastern Europe, covering business,
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