Fifty-year-old Schäfer will replace Bernhard Maier as head of the Škoda Auto, according to a source. In recent days, Martin Jahn, who recently graduated as executive vice president of sales and marketing for one of the Volkswagen Group’s joint ventures in China, has been speculated about as a possible successor to Maier.
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Already at the official announcement of the end of Maier in office on July 31, the carmaker confirmed that the successor will be appointed at the first meeting of the Board of Directors in August. According to behind-the-scenes information, this will happen on Monday, August 3.
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Bernhard Maier, outgoing Chairman of the Board of Directors of Škoda Auto
Photo: Škoda Auto
Schäfer began his career in senior management in the automotive industry at Daimler. He has been working for the Volkswagen Group since 2012, where he first held a position in production planning and production capacity abroad. The market in South Africa has been leading since 2015, including the entire sub-Saharan region. He also served as president of the African Automobile Manufacturers Association.
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Maier, whose further involvement is not yet known, was called to head the Czech carmaker in November 2015. Under his leadership, Škoda launched the Kodiaq, Karoq or Kamiq SUV models, and the company also focused on electromobility, digitization and connectivity.
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Too premium Škoda
Volkswagen’s director Herbert Diess said in Saturday’s issue of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Skoda was “not aggressive enough” to compete with the Koreans and the French in terms of the volume of cars sold.
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“It is useless to us when Škoda is developing towards the third premium brand within the group,” he said. According to him, the Mladá Boleslav carmaker must strengthen its position in the segment of cost-effective cars.
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The consequences of the covidu-19 pandemic hit Škoda Auto hard: the carmaker’s operating profit fell by almost three quarters in the first half of the year to 228 million euros (roughly six billion CZK) from 824 million euros a year ago. Škoda Auto’s revenues fell by more than a quarter in the first half of the year to 7.5 billion euros from 10.2 billion euros a year ago.
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