Volkswagen’s Skoda marque had planned to enter the ASEAN market sometime soon but has postponed its plans and instead plans to play a waiting game to see through the current crisis. Skoda chairman Reinhard Jung says the downturn will force a consolidation process in the region and the market will need at least a year to correct itself before it can be seen which players will remain in the game.
Skoda could likely enter the ASEAN region via the FTA between ASEAN and India, which some companies like Hyundai Sime Darby have already taken advantage of. The Hyundai i10 that we get here is locally assembled via CKD packs from India. Skoda and Volkswagen just opened a plant in Pune with a capacity of 110,000 vehicles a year.
Malaysia already has a Skoda distributor, Quasar Carriage’s AutoPraha Sdn Bhd under the Berjaya Group. Read our old Skoda Fabia 1.4 Test Drive Review from 2006. That particular unit has been replaced by a new Fabia (shown above) now of course, which will also be built at VW’s Pune plant.
It was previously announced that 
