By the end of January this year, more than 1,000 internationally approved R5 cars had left the factories, before the new-year the manufacturers of Škoda, Ford, Hyundai, Citroën, Peugeot, Volkswagen and Proton with ten different models had shipped 975 cars to customers.
Since then, another 50 cars have rolled out from the factories according to the manufacturers, now there are a total of 1052 and the figure would have been greater without the COVID-19 which stopped both construction and deliveries.
Among the manufacturers, Citroën Racing was seen to have a strong season opening in the WRC2 / 3 class with several good results. Hyundai Motorsport, too, has seen an upswing and was on the rise.
There is pressure at Škoda Motorsport, just as M-Sport has a long list of customers to grapple with when production and deliveries can start again. Also Proton, which last year saw their car internationally homologated, has five cars out there where more are under construction in the team’s workshop.
For manufacturers, the current crisis without competitions in the world means major losses in the economy with the minimal sale of spare parts and no deliveries of new cars. The worst hit is M-Sport, whose main income comes from the sale of customer cars and the aftermarket spare parts.
Beside the WRC homologated R5 cars, there are a couple of national championships approved cars by Opel, Mitsubishi and Toyota, which are not included in the numbers of sold cars.
