German-built Skoda Karoq to hit market while brand upgrades Czech plant
The Volkswagen Group brand will pass some production for the SUV to Osnabrück
Skoda Karoq production has extended to Germany in order to meet demand while the company’s flagship Mladá Boleslav facility in the Czech Republic is upgraded with a new paint shop.
This means that, for a limited time, some examples of the Yeti successor will be built at the Volkswagen Group’s Osnabrück factory, where the Volkswagen Tiguan is made.
The site also paints Skoda Fabias and has assembled the Porsche 718 Cayman since 2017.
Skoda has yet to officially announce the move, but Automotive News Europe reports that the brand will produce Karoq models in Germany into 2019 to meet high demand for the SUV.
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Last month, CEO Bernhard Maier said during Skoda's annual results conference that customers in some markets had to wait for up to 10 months for their car to be delivered. He said this was too long and could encourage the brand to open another factory.
The Karoq is a key component in Skoda’s recent sales growth. It was introduced last year and sits beneath the larger Kodiaq in Skoda’s SUV line-up. Both models have received high demand from buyers, helping Skoda grow its sales in the first quarter of this year by 12% to 316,176 units.
In 2017, the brand expanded its European market share to 4.48%, up from 4.36% the year before. Globally, it grew sales by 6.6% to sell 1.2 million cars.
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Those numbers are forecast to be beaten when a smaller SUV model, based on the recent Vision X concept, makes production at the Mladá Boleslav plant. The same factory will also build Skoda’s first electric vehicle, which is due in 2020.
That EV will be part of 10 electrified models planned by Skoda before 2025, of which six will be full EVs and the other four plug-ins.
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