Skoda presents a design concept of its new compact model

Mladá Boleslav/Frankfurt, 12 September, 2011 - The VW Group evening at the 2011 Frankfurt International Motor Show saw a world premiere of Skoda's design concept called MissionL. Close to the final production look, this concept car offers a glimpse of the Czech carmaker's new compact model. The new vehicle will be launched in Europe, Russia and China in 2012, and the customers in India will see it arrive in the market even earlier, before the end of 2011.

“This premiere kicks off Skoda's “Model Offensive” for the coming years," says Skoda Board Chairman Prof. Dr. h.c. Winfried Vahland, and goes on to say: “This new compact model and the new products to follow are a guarantee of accomplishing our goal to increase global annual sales to 1.5 million vehicles by 2018. We are going to present a new car approximately every six months over the next years.”

“We have taken a very puristic approach to this design study – we have structured the surfaces simply, but impressively,” says Skoda BOD Member for Technological Development Eckhard Scholz about the philosophy of this concept. “The car's strong, sporty look conveys straightforwardness and a youthful character. Many people look for clean, minimalistic lines these days, and the MissionL concept offers all that,” adds Eckhard Scholz.

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The “Model Offensive” is supposed to support the brand's dynamic growth. Compared with 2010, the sales of vehicles with the winged arrow emblem on the bonnet grew by 18.3 % to 583.600 vehicles over the first eight months of this year. The most dynamic growth is seen in Russia, India and China. The January-August sales in China grew by 29.2 % to 148.862 vehicles, in Russia the sales as at the end of August totalled 43.604 vehicles and the Czech based carmaker is on a steep rise also in India: 18.980 vehicles sold in this country represent 50.4% growth as compared with the same period of last year.

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“One year after the launch of the 2018 Growth Strategy, we can say we are keeping the right course," says Vahland about the last twelve months: “We have laid the foundations for Skoda's product offensive at IAA. The extension of our product portfolio will help us increase the speed of our growth some more in the coming years.”