Mlada Boleslav, Central Bohemia, Dec 4 (CTK) – Skoda Auto, the largest Czech car maker, is going to invest EUR214.5m (some Kc5.5bn) in a new paint shop in Mlada Boleslav, and the investment will create 650 new jobs, Skoda Auto said in a press release today.
The total capacity of the company’s paint shops will go up by 600 to 2,700 bodies a day.
The foundation stone was laid on December 1, and the new facility will be put into operation in June 2019.
It will be one of the most modern and environmentally-friendly paint shops in Europe, Skoda said.
Its construction is an important investment in the company’s future, said Michael Oeljeklaus, a Skoda Auto board member in charge of operations and logistics.
Global demand for Skoda cars is on the rise and the company keeps raising production capacities in its existing plants, he said.
Skoda plans a number of innovations in the paint shop aimed at minimising the impacts of its operations on the environment, Oeljeklaus added. Some activities will be done by robots or with their help. A high level of automation will boost the ergonomic design of all workplaces, Skoda Auto said.
The new paint shop and the decision to make electric cars in Mlada Boleslav as of 2020 are part of the car maker’s preparations for the future that will be connected with electromobility, digitisation, internationalisation and new services related to mobility.
Skoda Auto runs three factories in the Czech Republic – in Mlada Boleslav, Kvasiny and Vrchlabi, employing some 30,000 people. It makes cars in China, Russia, Slovakia and India, mostly through partnerships, and in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, in cooperation with local partners.
In 2016, Skoda Auto sold 1,127,700 cars in total, crossing the level of one million cars for the third year in a row.