PRAGUE (Reuters) -- Skoda Auto, the Czech unit of Volkswagen AG, sold 762,600 vehicles in 2010, an 11.5 percent rise and a record year for the brand.
Sales grew in all Skoda markets, with the fastest growing seeing growth of more than 40 percent, Skoda chairman Winfried Vahland said on Thursday. Skoda, the Czech Republic's second biggest company by revenue, was set to at least double sales by 2018, he added.
In December, a newspaper report said Skoda would double sales in five years but Skoda spokesman Rudolf Dreithaler said in a statement that this was wrong and the plan was 2018.
Cars and car parts are the Czech Republic's biggest export and a key driver of economic growth. Skoda, over 100 years old, generates revenue equivalent to 5 percent of Czech gross domestic product and its performance is a broad gauge for the overall economy. It exports more than 90 percent of its output.
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