The most important Octavia model returned to the key M13 production line in Mladá Boleslav last week. The carmaker had to stop its production for a few days two weeks ago due to a lack of semiconductor chips. Thus, only the Enyaq electric model was temporarily produced on the line. It was the first time in history that the carmaker only assembled an electric car on this line.
“The start of the Octavia back to the line was not without problems, there were downtimes on the equipment in units of minutes and a total of tens of minutes,” employees in the weekly Škodovácký odborář described. , which is produced on the M13 line, was developed in the middle of the week.
Incomplete Škoda cars have increased significantly. Due to a lack of chips, it has not been able to complete up to five thousand cars a week recently. At the end of June, it had about 33,000 incomplete Škoda cars on parking areas.
The airport in Hradec Králové is full of unfinished Škoda cars
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The place of the festival is a giant parking lot. The chip crisis is affecting Škoda. Thousands of cars are waiting at Hradec Králové Airport. • VIDEO Petr Komberec
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In the first half of the year, Škoda Auto’s sales increased by a fifth year-on-year to 515,300 vehicles. In June alone, however, it fell by five percent year on year to 89,900 cars. The information was published on Friday by the parent company Volkswagen. Sales of the entire Volkswagen Group in the first half increased by 27.9 percent to 4.978 million vehicles.
In addition to Škoda, the Volkswagen Group also includes a number of other brands. In addition to the VW flagship, they are, for example, Audi, Porsche, Seat, Bentley or Lamborghini.
The automotive industry around the world was hit hard last year by the covidu-19 pandemic, which had a negative impact on production activities and demand. This year, car manufacturers are facing a shortage of components, especially chips. It also disrupted the production activities of Škoda Auto.
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Demand for semiconductor chips currently far exceeds supply worldwide, and winter snowstorms in Texas have complicated chip production, with large manufacturers having to stop or cut production. That is why, for example, Toyota in Cologne stopped production completely for a fortnight in March.
The Mladá Boleslav carmaker operates three production plants in the Czech Republic, but also produces in China, Russia, Slovakia and India, mostly through group partnerships, as well as in Ukraine and Kazakhstan in cooperation with local partners. It operates in more than 100 markets.
In May, Volkswagen announced that Škoda Auto had increased its operating profit by 46 percent to 448 million euros (approximately 11.4 billion crowns) in the first quarter. He pointed out that the negative effects of poorer semiconductor availability were offset by various positive factors, in particular the favorable development of exchange rates. Škoda Auto’s quarterly sales increased by about four percent to 5.049 billion euros.
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