Skoda Considers Alternative Sites Outside Czech Republic

Skoda’s officials are facing a pleasant problem as sales of the VW Group owned company continue to rapidly grow. Skoda has already increased its Czech production capacity but that doesn’t seem to be enough. So, in order to satisfy increased demand in the European market, Skoda is searching for an alternative production site outside the Czech Republic. Horst Mühl, Skoda production and logistics director, told Automotive News, “If capacity is not enough, say in 2008 or 2009, we will look for alternative capacity”. He added, “It could be Bratislava, Slovakia, or another VW group site.” -Continued after the jump

The Volkswagen group's Bratislava factory is located about 320km (200 miles) southeast of Skoda headquarters in Mlada Boleslav and it produces the VW Touareg, Audi Q7, a VW Golf model and the Porsche Cayenne (apart from the powertrain that’s adds in Leipzig, Germany).

According to Czech officials, while production was 430,000 units in 2004, this year Skoda will produce more than 600,000 units. What’s even more spectacular is the fact that Skoda recently raised its output forecast to 1 million cars in 2010 from an earlier reported 800,000.

Today, Skoda builds most of its cars in the Czech cities of Mlada Boleslav, Kvasiny, and Vrchlabi. There are also 30,000 units made by the Shanghai-Volkswagen joint venture this year while Skoda also builds whole cars or made knockdown kits for assembly at plants in India, Ukraine, Bosnia and Kazakhstan.

Via: Automotive News (sub. req)