SkodaAuto plans exports to south-east Asia

The company will initially export 100-200 cars by 2008.

SkodaAuto India, the Indian subsidiary of the Czech auto maker Skoda, has plans to export locally assembled cars to the south-east Asian (SEA) markets. To begin with, it would export 100-200 cars by 2008.

"We have plans to export to markets in south-east Asia including Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, once our existing plan to enter the nighbouring markets like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka becomes functional. It is logistically advantageous for the company to export cars from India rather than exporting CBUs (completely built units) from Europe to these countries," said a SkodaAuto India senior official.

The company is currently appointing dealers in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka for the exports of its cars assembled in the country to Bangladesh, said Lukas Folc, the newly appointed managing director of SkodaAuto India.

SkodaAuto India has a capacity to manufacture 30,000 cars every year. On the domestic front, it is aiming to increase its dealership to 51 by the end of this year from the current 41. The company sold 13,500 sedans in 2006 "" good growth over 9,000 in 2005.

"We will launch six new cars every year. By 2009-2010, we expect the company's capacity to touch 1 lakh," Folc said.

Meanwhile, SkodaAuto India today launched the manual transmission version of the recently launched Skoda Laura.

Based on a bigger A5 platform, the Laura comes with pumpe duse engine that ensures direct injection system for high performance and low emission.

It is priced at 15.64 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai). The company will launch a hatchback called Fabia and is also geared to launch Roomster in two years.