15 million ŠKODA vehicles produced since 1905

20-2-2013 — /europawire.eu/ — The jubilee car is a new third-generation ŠKODA Octavia. ŠKODA continues largest model offensive in the company’s history in 2013. In the past twelve months alone, ŠKODA built one million cars.

ŠKODA has produced the 15-millionth car. The jubilee vehicle – a silver third-generation ŠKODA Octavia – rolled off the assembly line at ŠKODA’s main plant in Mladá Boleslav. The vehicle will be used as a VIP sedan at the ŠKODA Technology Center in Česana.

The 15 million car threshold underlines the dynamic growth of the brand. At the beginning of 2012, ŠKODA had produced the 14-millionth car. In the past six years alone, one third or approx. five million vehicles rolled off the assembly lines. The car manufacturer wants to increase worldwide sales to at least 1.5 million units per year by 2018. In 2012, ŠKODA sold 939,200 vehicles – more than ever in one year.

“The entire ŠKODA team is very proud of the million jubilee,” says ŠKODA chairman of the board, Prof. Dr. h.c. Winfried Vahland. “15 million produced cars are a symbol for the great development of the ŠKODA brand. We have been building vehicles for 118 years and automobiles since the year 1905. Thus we are among the automobile brands with the richest traditions in the world,” says Vahland. In the coming years, ŠKODA wants to continue to speed up development and sell at least 1.5 million vehicles per year by 2018. Launching the Citigo, Rapid and the new Octavia, the greatest model offensive in company’s history has had a successful start. In total ŠKODA will launch 8 new or reworked models in 2013.

A class of its own
In the coming days, the new ŠKODA Octavia will be launched in the Czech Republic and Germany, while other markets will follow in a few weeks. The ŠKODA Octavia is the brand’s core product and outsells other ŠKODA models by far,” says the ŠKODA boss. In 2012, the Octavia accounted for about 44 percent of the brand’s worldwide sales. Like no other car, the Octavia symbolizes the rapid success story of the brand over the past two decades. Since 1996, about 3.75 million Octavias have been delivered to customers.

Domestic investments in the future of the ŠKODA brand…
For the production of the new Octavia generation, ŠKODA set in motion one of the most comprehensive modernization and expansion projects in the history of the main plant inMladá Boleslav. The core of the measures consists of an increase of the capacity of the assembly line for the ŠKODA models Octavia and Rapid in Mladá Boleslav, namely from 800 to 1,200 vehicles per day.

For this purpose, a new body shop and a fully-automated paint shop for interior car body parts were installed at the plant in Mladá Boleslav, among others. And this very month will see the ground-breaking for a new, particularly environmentally-friendly pressing line. Besides the ŠKODA Octavia and the ŠKODA Rapid, the ŠKODA Fabia is produced on another assembly line in Mladá Boleslav as well.

At the ŠKODA plant in Kvasiny, the production capacity for the ŠKODA Yeti was recently doubled to 100,000 vehicles per year. Furthermore, ŠKODA modernized the plant in order to manufacture the ŠKODA Roomster, which began in January 2013. Until the end of 2012, the Roomster had been produced in the ŠKODA plant in Vrchlabí. The company invested about 7.2 million EUR in relocating the production.

The relocation of the Roomster production to Kvasiny took place within the framework of the conversion of the ŠKODA plant in Vrchlabí into an exclusive component factory. Since October 2012, it has been producing the direct shift transmission DQ200 with dual clutch, ‘DSG’ in short, for the Volkswagen Group. Together with the Volkswagen Group, the Czech manufacturer invested about 170 million EUR in the preparation of the plant for the DSG production.

…and in the international growth markets
In order to prepare for the planned growth, ŠKODA has also been expanding its capacities in China, Russia and India:

In China, the ŠKODA Yeti will be built in cooperation with Shanghai Volkswagen from the end of 2013. This year, the Middle Kingdom will also see the introduction of the Chinese version of the ŠKODA Rapid, followed by the new ŠKODA Octavia.

In Russia, the compact SUV ŠKODA Yeti has begun to roll off the assembly lines at the Russian GAZ plant in Nizhniy Novgorod a few weeks ago. Beginning in mid-2013, the plant will also manufacture the new ŠKODA Octavia for the Russian market. For the spring of 2014, the manufacture of the new ŠKODA Rapid for the Russian market has been planned.

In India, the compact sedan Rapid is besides other models being produced for the local market at the plant in Pune since 2011.

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15 million ŠKODA vehicles produced since 1905