Volkswagen stated on Friday there were no strategies at present to change where Czech subsidiary Skoda makes its automobiles, as it looks allay the fears of unions and politicians in the republic about losing task to Germany.
Skoda’s primary union on Thursday threatened to cut down on overtime work if the VW group were to move output to Germany.
Dealing with possible cuts in production capacity at home, Volkswagen managers and labor leaders wants to gain from Skoda’s success by taking on a few of the Czech business’s operation in Germany and make the lower-cost stablemate pay more for shared technology, company sources have stated.
In general VW employees’ representatives are demanding the transfer of some Skoda production to their underused German plants to balance out dropping output of the VW Passat and aging Golf that could otherwise threaten more tasks.
“At the present, no changes (in production) are planned for the Skoda brand,” a spokesman at VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters stated on Friday.
However, tensions between VW’s numerous automaking brands are expected to increase ahead of a November 17 supervisory board conference which is due to authorize annual investment budgets across the group.
Skoda CEO Bernhard Maier has informed staff that the Czech unit would just use VW’s wider production network to manage peaks in demand, according to a letter sent to workers.
Skoda now ranks as VW’s 2nd most profitable car brand behind Porsche and production capability at its three Czech plants is extended to the limit.
The company will need to think about raising capacity to be able to meet consumer demand, Maier stated.
“To meet the big consumer interest in our vehicles, we continue to count on the effort and versatility of the whole workforce and the useful cooperation with the (Czech) KOVO union,” he stated in the letter to staff.
“As a matter of principle, our Czech factories are and will stay first choice,” he added.
