It should come as no surprise that there are a number of car brands that never even reach our shores to be sold here. Skoda is one such brand under the umbrella of the Volkswagen Group, but that trend of not being sold in the US may be about to change. Skoda has been a profitable and successful passenger vehicle brand that has been sold in Europe for several years but has been reserved for other parts of the world, never needing to adhere to the US regulations that are much stricter than in other parts of the world.
Before Volkswagen fell victim to its own demise when the discovery of the use of cheat devices in their vehicles was found the passenger car market of the brand was on the rise. It appeared VW would finally have the sales numbers they wanted and then the bottom and the trust fell right off the edge when the cheat device was discovered and the report of inflated emissions was found. Because of this the American consumers have slowed the purchase of any VW product, but most of the consumers in the US don’t know how many brands are actually related to VW.
As one of the three big money makers for Volkswagen Group, Skoda could see a chance to enter the US market and become a great new venture for the group. The other two major money makers for the Volkswagen Group were Porsche and Audi and because of these three it appears Volkswagen will be able to weather the storm of the scandal that it created. Even the buyback of the many cars that have the defeat devices installed will still allow the company to show profits which many other automakers wouldn’t be able to do at all.
What makes us think Skoda is planning to hit the US market? Recently the brand filed trademarks with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the names of the Skoda Superb, Octavia and Yeti. This is the very first filing by this company in North America and it certainly makes us think they are trying to find a way to bring some of their passenger vehicles to our shores and begin a sales boom here. The reason for these patents would be to keep American companies from using them before Skoda can bring three of its models to us for sale.
Because the Volkswagen name now brings thoughts of mistrust and skepticism, this is a smart idea for the group to expand one of their most profitable brands and allow it to become even more profitable by selling the smaller vehicles with the Skoda name in the US. When you see the VW nameplate it now represents a decline of nearly 86 percent over last year, but when you see other brands that are part of the Volkswagen group the thoughts are not nearly the same even though names such as Porsche, Audi and Bentley are also part of the VW Group.
How the Skoda brand will makes its way to North America is yet to be seen, but they may need to partner with Audi to be sold in showrooms that are separate from VW. The tarnishing of the VW brand may never be able to recover in the US which may mean a need to bring in Skoda and replace the VW location in order to gain back the sales and confidence that was lost during this scandal that has now been looming over the VW name for the past nine months.
Will Skoda come to the US and will it be successful? We will have to wait and see what happens, but the filing of trademarks for names certainly gives us the idea that the move is in the works.