The new generations of the Škoda Superb and Volkswagen Passat will be developed jointly in Mladá Boleslav, but production will take place at the Slovak neighbors in the Volkswagen factory in Bratislava. The head of the VW Group, Herbert Diess, stated for Monday’s issue of the Automobilwoche trade magazine that the investment in the modernization of the Slovak factory should amount to up to one billion euros (CZK 26.6 billion).
Rošády with production has been being solved at Škoda Auto for the second year in a row. There will be no new Volkswagen plant to be built in Turkey, which would also produce Škoda models. The reason is both the declines in demand that carmakers around the world are facing, as well as the long-term uncertain political situation in Turkish territory. The factory was to be able to produce up to 300,000 cars a year and employ 4,000 people.
However, the production capacity of the Škoda models in the Czech Republic is still at the limit and the Group had to decide quickly where the next generation of the Škoda Superb and Volkswagen Passat models will be produced. At the same time, the cars should come to the market as early as 2022. The development of the cars will take place together in the Mladá Boleslav technical center “Česana”.
While Czech factories are at full capacity, others owned by the group in Europe have a looser capacity. That is why the possibilities of moving the production of models of various brands of the concern beyond the borders have been addressed for a long time. Randomly, the Škoda Superb and Volkswagen Passat to Slovakia, the Škoda Kodiaq to the factory in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, where the Seat Tarraco and VW Tiguan are being built, or the relocation of Seatu Ateca production to Spain. It is advantageous for the Group to combine the production of technically related models into one factory in terms of production and logistics.
Škoda also has fully occupied production lines in Mladá Boleslav, where a new Enyaq iV electric car is being built, as well as a new generation of Octavia, Fabia, Scala, Kamiq and partly also Karoq. After all, there is so great interest in Karoq that its production partially moved to the Bratislava factory at the end of this summer.
The Škoda Superb and Kodiaq are manufactured in Kvasiny in the Rychnov region, where another part of the Karoq SUV is also produced. With the advent of electric cars, it will be necessary for VW to change the composition of races across Europe. The fragmentation of Karoqu’s production is logistically very disadvantageous for the group.
According to the source Aktuálně.cz, however, the group is now clear with production plans for the next few years. Although Škoda Superb will develop in the Czech Republic together with Passat, the production lines will move to Bratislava. For example, the Audi Q7 and VW Touareg are created there, but also the VW up !. The Kodiaq model should therefore remain in Kvasiny, the production of which, on the other hand, was strongly sought by the head of the German trade unions, Bernd Osterloh, in order to make the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg more busy. We have already informed about it on the Hospodářské noviny website here and also here.
The relocation of the Superb and Passat also makes sense, given Herbert Diess’s statement for Monday’s issue of Automobilwoche. “We have decided to increase capacity in Bratislava,” the director of the Diess Group told the magazine. The group intends to invest up to one billion euros (26.6 million crowns) in the modernization of the factory.
He also appreciated the location of the factory in Slovakia and stated that the cost of production in Slovakia is similar to that in Turkey. The only downside is that Volkswagen hoped that thanks to the Turkish factory, it would be able to gain a larger share of the local market.
The relocation of production of Škoda models abroad has long been criticized by the Škoda unions, led by foreman Jaroslav Povšík.
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