The 15 million car threshold underlines the dynamic growth of the brand. In the past six years alone, one third of the total 15 million vehicles rolled off the assembly lines. Just one year ago, at the beginning of 2012, ŠKODA had produced its 14-millionth car.

“The entire ŠKODA team is very proud of the 15 million celebration,” says ŠKODA chairman of the board, Prof. Dr. h.c. Winfried Vahland. “Producing 15 million cars is a symbol for the great development of the ŠKODA brand. We have been building vehicles for 118 years and automobiles since the year 1905. Thus we are among the automobile brands with the richest traditions in the world,” says Vahland. In the coming years, ŠKODA plans to continue to speed up development and sell at least 1.5 million vehicles per year by 2018. By launching the Citigo, Rapid and the new Octavia, the greatest model offensive in the company's history has had a successful start. In total ŠKODA will launch eight new or facelifted models in 2013.

A class of its own

In the coming days, the new ŠKODA Octavia will be launched in the Czech Republic and Germany, while other markets will follow in the coming weeks. “The ŠKODA Octavia is the brand’s core product and outsells other ŠKODA models by far,” says the ŠKODA CEO. In 2012, Octavia accounted for about 44% of the brand’s worldwide sales. Like no other car, the Octavia symbolises the rapid success story of the brand over the past two decades. Since 1996, about 3.75 million Octavias have been delivered to customers.

ŠKODA UK will launch new Octavia in the coming weeks to the UK market. In 2012, the UK broke through the 50,000 cars barrier for the first time with more than 53,000 cars and a market share of 2.6%, a record for the UK.

Domestic investments in the future of the ŠKODA brand

For the production of the new Octavia generation, ŠKODA set in motion one of the most comprehensive modernisation and expansion projects in the history of the main plant in Mladá Boleslav. The core of the measures consists of an increase in the capacity of the assembly line for the ŠKODA models Octavia and Rapid, from 800 to 1,200 vehicles per day. For this purpose, a new body shop and a fully-automated paint shop for interior car body parts were installed at the plant in Mladá Boleslav, among other projects. This month will see the ground-breaking for a new, even more environmentally-friendly pressing line. Besides the ŠKODA Octavia and the ŠKODA Rapid, the ŠKODA Fabia is produced on another assembly line in Mladá Boleslav.

At the ŠKODA plant in Kvasiny, Czech Republic, the production capacity for the ŠKODA Yeti was recently doubled to 100,000 vehicles per year. Furthermore, ŠKODA modernised the plant in order to manufacture the ŠKODA Roomster, which moved to Kvasiny. Until the end of 2012, the Roomster had been produced in the ŠKODA plant in Vrchlabí. The company invested about 7.2 million EUR in relocating the production.

The relocation of the Roomster production to Kvasiny took place within the framework of the conversion of the ŠKODA plant in Vrchlabí, Czech Republic, into an exclusive component factory. Since October 2012, it has been producing the direct shift transmission DQ200 with dual clutch (DSG) for the Volkswagen Group. Together with the Volkswagen Group, the Czech manufacturer invested about 170 million EUR in the preparation of the plant for DSG production.

The international growth markets

In order to prepare for the planned growth, ŠKODA has also been expanding its capacities in China, Russia and India:

In China, the ŠKODA Yeti has been built in cooperation with Shanghai Volkswagen since the end of 2012. This year will also see the introduction of the Chinese version of the ŠKODA Rapid, followed by the new ŠKODA Octavia.

In Russia, the compact SUV ŠKODA Yeti began to roll off the assembly lines at the Russian GAZ plant in Nizhniy Novgorod a few weeks ago. Beginning in mid-2013, the plant will also manufacture the new ŠKODA Octavia for the Russian market. The manufacture of the new ŠKODA Rapid for the Russian market has been planned to begin in spring 2014. 

Driving the same Fabia S2000 that took him to victory on the 2011 Cyprus Rally, Andreas entered the event as part of preparations for his 2013 WRC programme with Volkswagen Motorsport.

With the thermometer little more than -24c for most of the two-day Rovaniemi-based event, Andreas and co-driver Mikko Markkula faced a tough battle against a host of local drivers who started the winter classic with considerably more experience of the stages.

With the event regulations favouring Group N cars, many of which enjoyed a 100bhp advantage over Andreas’s PrintSport-run S2000-specification Fabia, the double-IRC champion had to drive at his very best to stay ahead of the pack.

Fastest times on four of the opening day’s five stages gave Andreas a slim lead at the end of the first leg. However, his advantage was short-lived when his Fabia S2000 picked up a puncture on the opening stage of the second leg. The loss of four minutes to change the tyre dropped Andreas and Mikko down to eighth.

With nothing to lose, Andreas threw everything into the four remaining stages, clawing back time and giving the crowds plenty to cheer. At final service, leader Juha Salo was forced to change a gearbox, picking up time penalties that set up a thrilling final two stages. Despite pushing to the maximum on the fast, snow-covered stages, it proved a challenge too far for the young Norwegian, who was unable to overturn the time deficit. After 10 action-packed stages, Salo took victory by just 1m 37s.

Despite missing out on top honours, Andreas thoroughly enjoyed being reunited with his Fabia S2000: “This has been a great rally and being back in the ŠKODA feels like coming home. We had to fight hard the last two days – some of the stages are crazy fast – but we have had great fun.” Andreas continues his preparations for 2013 with another Fabia S2000 outing on the Finnskog Rally in Norway this weekend (2nd Feb).

The result gives the Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion and former ŠKODA UK Motorsport driver the lead in the Norwegian Rally Championship, but more importantly it completes a highly successful two-rally pre-season test programme in which Andreas and new co-driver Mikko Markkula were able to fine-tune their pace note system under competitive conditions.

The 63.2 mile (101.72km) Rally Finnskog was held on snow and ice-covered forest roads near Kongsvinger in Norway. There were four different special stages, each tackled twice.

Østberg led initially, before a fuel pump problem on SS3 gave a hard-charging Andreas the lead. Despite the normally-aspirated Fabia S2000 being less powerful that Østberg’s turbocharged Fiesta WRC, Andreas held onto the lead until the penultimate stage.

Just 1.1 seconds separated the dueling duo as they entered the final stage, and despite it being a treacherously slippery 14.7 miles (23.67kms) long, Andreas was only 9.2 seconds slower than Østberg at the flying finish.

Coming two weeks after finishing 2nd on the Arctic Rally in Finland, the performance on Rally Finnskog concluded what had been perfect pre-season preparation, as the thoughts of Andreas and Mikko now turn to their next rally together – their debut for Volkswagen Motorsport on Rally Portugal (11th - 14th April).

Andreas: “Rally Finnskog was another really good event for Mikko and I to establish our pace note system even more and the fight we had with Mads Østberg in his World Rally Car showed that we can be very fast in a car together. Mikko and I have done some testing together, but it’s a lot better to do some proper rallies and I’d like to thank EVEN management for letting us drive its ŠKODA Fabia S2000 and contest the Arctic and Finnskog events. It has been two very valuable rallies for us, before the serious business starts in Portugal.”

Article source: www.skoda.co.uk