Although the sales of cars in Europe are falling in general, the sales of new vehicles and therefore also the numbers of registrations in the Czech Republic keep growing. In September, the number of new vehicles registered in the country grew by more than 32%.
Altogether 109,000 new passenger vehicles, 45.972 lightweight utility vehicles, 8,282 freight vehicles, 800 buses and 23,849 motorcycles (including mopeds) were registered over the first nine months of this year in the Czech Republic.

Passenger cars
Compared with the same period of 2007, the total number of registered new vehicles grew by 10.43 %. Just like in the previous years, the brand scoring the largest number of registrations was Škoda (market share 31.13 %), followed by Ford (7.49 %), Renault (6.51 %), VW (6.26 %), Hyundai (4.89 %), Peugeot (4.86 %), Citroën (4.76 %), Kia (3.84 %), etc.
With 47.76 % of the market, the largest segment in terms of newly registered vehicles is that of small vehicles (mini + small), followed by the lower-medium class (16.06 %), the medium class (13.21 %), MPVs (10.84 %), etc. Vehicles with petrol engines account for 70.7%, the share of diesel engines is 24.2 %.

Companies increasingly prefer lightweight utility vehicles
As a result of the currently applicable Czech legislation, the category of lightweight utility vehicles plays a major role in the new vehicle registration statistics. As it is possible to deduct VAT from the purchase price in this particular category, the number of registrations of LUVs (N1 – up to 3.5t) has been growing for quite a long time, while, on the other hand, the number of new passenger cars bought by companies is decreasing. For the first time since 1994, this year the number of registered LUVs was larger than that of newly registered passenger cars owned by companies. Compared with the same period of 2007, the total number of registrations grew by 10.13 %.

Passenger vehicles and LUVs in total
With 154,972 passenger and lightweight utility vehicles (up to 3.5t) in total, the number of vehicles in these two categories registered over the first nine months of 2008 is 10.38% higher than that achieved over the same period of 2007.

AUTOSALON BRNO 2009 – Central Europe's largest showroom
The increase in the sales of new passenger vehicles goes hand in hand with dynamic growth of the overall market offering. Vehicles produced by domestic manufacturers are very popular in the Czech Republic, and as there are currently three big car manufacturers in the country that sell altogether five brands in the local market, the choice is more than generous. On top of that, next year all car connoisseurs are going to have a unique chance of seeing and touching everything in one place and choosing the best, most beautiful and most useful models at AUTOSALON BRNO, a regularly held trade fair that is unique in the whole of Central Europe. To support the event's growing prestige, a brand new hall offering state-of-the-art exhibition premises will have its premiere at the 2009 Autosalon Brno.

New passenger vehicle registrations in the Czech Republic over Jan-Sep/2008
Top ten brands