Škoda has previously stated that it will be forced to significantly reduce or even stop the operation of its production plants in the Czech Republic by the end of the year due to a lack of chips. On Monday, it resumed production in most operations after a two-week outage, during which employees stayed at home at 80 percent of the average salary.
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“Despite the continuing demand for our cars and the high level of orders, we must reduce our production,” said Christian Schenk, a member of its board of directors, in a press release on Škoda Auto on Monday. The report goes on to say that the carmaker expects to produce about 250,000 fewer cars by the end of the year due to lack of parts.
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In the first nine months of this year, the Czech carmaker delivered a total of 700,700 cars to customers, which is less than three percent less than in the same period last year. Nevertheless, in this period it managed to almost double its operating profit to 900 million euros (approximately 23 billion CZK) from 469 million euros a year ago. The reason was the favorable development of exchange rates and margins.
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“Demand for our cars remains high. Our purely electric Enyaq iV, the new generation of the Fabia model and the redesigned Kodiaq model are in great demand by customers, ”said Martin Jahn from the sales and marketing department on behalf of the company.
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At the same time, however, he added that the carmaker has a large number of unfinished cars in stock. It has to wait until the situation with semiconductors improves. According to the company’s estimates, this could gradually happen in the second half of 2022.
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