Skoda Auto to Produce in China

13/04/2005

Czech car manufacturer Skoda Auto is to start production in China, an official said Monday.
The company's spokesman Jaroslav Cerny said that Skoda signed a deal with Shanghai Volkswagen on Monday to start producing its Octavia model in China in 2007.

Skoda Auto is owned by German manufacturer Volkswagen AG.

The company is planning to produce some 40,000 vehicles in the Shanghai plant in 2007 and hopes to increase the annual production to about 80,000 cars in the following years.

Skoda Auto currently sells some 2,000 cars in China each year.

"At the beginning, the cars will go to the Chinese market, but we hope we could later export them also to the neighboring countries," Cerny said.

Skoda Auto is the country's largest and most profitable exporter. It sold 451,675 cars of its three models, Fabia, Octavia and Superb, in some 90 countries in 2004. Apart from its three plants in the Czech Republic, the company also has plants in Ukraine and India.