Czech first-half car sales rise 3%

Czech new car sales rose by an annual three per cent to 94,929 units in the first half of the year on renewed demand following the global downturn, the Car Importers Association said.

Passenger car sales rose by 12.4 per cent to 89,026 units, while light utility car sales fell by 54 per cent to 5,903 cars.

"If the current trend lasts, we could get as high as 200,000 new cars sold this year," the association's secretary Pavel Tunkl told reporters.

In full-year 2009, Czechs bought 181,086 passenger and light utility cars, a drop of 11.1 per cent against 2008 as the global crisis hit.

Czech-made Skoda was the top-selling make among passenger cars with 29,143 units sold in the first half of this year, making up one-third of the total number. Ford, Volkswagen, Renault and Hyundai followed.

Lorry sales fell by 6.4 per cent year-on-year to 2,381 registered vehicles, bus sales rose by five per cent to 291 units, and motorbike sales dropped by 15 per cent to 9,995 units, the association said.