Skodas Mlada Boleslav plant rolls out its 11 millionth vehicle

Team OD Published: March 24, 2014, 12:53 PM IST

Skoda Auto's main plant in Mlada Boleslav has manufactured its 11 millionth vehicle. The plant is located in Czech Republic and manufactures the Fabia, Rapid and Octavia models. The site is the Czech car maker's largest production facility and has around 10,000 employees.

140321 Rekord - 11 000 000 Automobile im KODA Stammwerk Mladá Boleslav produziert

The plant over its lifetime has rolled out more than 50 per cent of all Skoda cars ever produced. Apart from this facility, cars are also produced at the company's manufacturing plants located in Shanghai and Russia. The Mlada Boleslav plant recently had an expansion to one of its production lines which saw the capacity increase from 800 to 1200 units per day. The plant also got an upgrade with a new body shop and a fully automated paint shop for body interiors as well as an eco-friendly press line.

All these upgrades have been good investment and Skoda claims to have a 10.6 percent growth in the initial months of this year compared to the same time during last year. The company last year delivered 920,800 cars which was a decline from the figure achieved in 2012 but is now seeing an improvement on that front. Skoda has set itself an ambitious target of 1.5 million vehicle deliveries each year to be achieved in the near future.

Record: KODA AUTO has built eleven million cars in Mladá Boleslav

Mladá Boleslav, 21 March 2014 - KODA AUTO has produced eleven million vehicles at its main factory in Mladá Boleslav. Six KODA models are currently produced in Mladá Boleslav: the Octavia, Octavia Combi, Fabia, Fabia Combi, Rapid and Rapid Spaceback. As part of the most comprehensive product campaign in its corporate history, the carmaker has extensively modernized and expanded the production facilities over the past three years. ?"Mladá Boleslav is the heart of the global KODA production network," says Michael Oeljeklaus, KODA Board member for Production. "This, the eleven million vehicles produced, demonstrates the strength and importance of both the plant and the company. More than 50 percent of all KODA cars built to date have left the production lines in Mladá Boleslav, of which one million were produced in the last two years alone. KODA's heart beats in this town and at this factory. The whole team is very proud of the eleven millionth milestone. In the years ahead, KODA will continue to grow with the most comprehensive model campaign in the company's history and our main factory is going to play a key role." The Mladá Boleslav plant is the mainstay of production in the model campaign that the Czech manufacturer launched around three years ago. Almost 10,000 employees work on producing the current KODA Fabia, the new KODA Octavia, as well as the new KODA Rapid and the new KODA Rapid Spaceback. To accommodate the production of the new models, KODA launched one of the most extensive modernization and expansion projects in the history of the plant. The focus was to increase the production capacity of production line I from 800 to 1,200 vehicles every day. Among other things, a new body shop and a fully-automated paint shop for body interiors were installed. In addition KODA built a new, environmentally friendly press line. The investments are paying off: the new models made in Mladá Boleslav are selling very well. Growing by more than 30 percent in West & Central Europe, the new KODA Octavia has been a massive hit in the first two months of 2014. The new KODA Octavia is available as Octavia, Octavia Combi, Octavia Combi 4x4 and the powerful Octavia RS version. The new Octavia Scout and the new CNG-driven Octavia G-TEC are soon to follow in 2014. It has not even been two years since the market launch of the new KODA Rapid, and it has already become the brand's third-strongest model. In 2013, KODA was able to more than quadruple deliveries of the Rapid over the previous year. The KODA Rapid Spaceback has been the brand's first compact hatchback since mid-2013. The Mladá Boleslav plant on Václav Klement Road is the KODA plant par excellence and is regarded as the heart of the company's 118-year success story. In close proximity to the current production halls, the two vehicle pioneers, Václav Laurin and Václav Klement launched the construction of bicycles in 1895, then motorcycles, and from 1905, they began constructing automobiles. Besides the main plant in the Czech Republic, KODA has two other production sites; Kvasiny and Vrchlabí. The Yeti, Superb and Roomster run off the production lines at Kvasiny and the Vrchlabí plant currently produces the DQ200 double-clutch gearbox for the Volkswagen Group. The Czech manufacturer and Volkswagen Group invested around 170 million into producing the DSG. In addition to domestic production, KODA, as part of the international growth strategy, is focusing on increasing local capacities in key global growth markets, particularly of China and Russia. In China there have been built to date at the locations of Anting, Yizheng and Ningbo more than one million KODA vehicles for the Chinese market. The production of the new Octavia for the Chinese market has been set for mid-2014. KODA models are also produced at the Russian production sites of Nizhny Novgorod and Kaluga. The assembly of the KODA Rapid for the Russian market began in Kaluga just a few weeks ago. As part of the company's growth strategy launched three years ago, KODA plans to increase deliveries worldwide over the next few years to at least 1.5 million vehicles per year. In 2013 KODA delivered 920,800 vehicles to customers worldwide, making it the second-best sales year in the company's history. By introducing eight new or revised models, the brand launched more new models in one year than ever before. KODA will continue on this path to growth in 2014. By the end of February, sales were up 10.6 percent over the same period in 2013. Various milestones in KODA AUTO's production: - 19 March 2014: 11 millionth KODA vehicle at the Mladá Boleslav plant - 26 August 2013: 4 millionth KODA Octavia - 9 July 2013: 1 millionth KODA vehicle in China since 2007 - 5 February 2013: 15 millionth KODA vehicle since 1905 - 30 January 2012: 14 millionth KODA vehicle since 1905 - 12 October 2011: 10 millionth KODA vehicle at the Mladá Boleslav plant - 8 April 2009: 12 millionth KODA vehicle since 1905 - 13 July 2006: 10 millionth KODA vehicle since 1905 - 1991: 5 millionth KODA vehicle since 1905