Skoda's Deep History
We visited the Skoda factory and the Skoda museum in Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic. Being one of the oldest automobile manufacturers with a history of more than 120 years, Skoda maintains this spirit in its new models and adds new values to the brand. With its heart in Mlada Boleslav, Skoda has become a stronger global brand with both its museum and the world's most modern production facility. The Czech brand, which has always been inspired by its history as well as producing radical and remarkable models, continues to keep this history alive. The brand, which attracts visitors from all over the world to the city of Mlada Boleslav, develops the models of the future by bringing the past and the present together with its own automobile laboratory.
More than 12 Million Production Since 1905: Mlada Boleslav Factory
The Mlada Boleslav factory, which is defined as the "heart of production" of the Czech manufacturer Skoda, still maintains this feature. More than 12 million vehicles have been manufactured since 1905 at the factory, which has a history of more than 100 years and has been constantly renewed and expanded.
The Mlada Boleslav factory, which started its life as a small facility where the founders of the brand, Laurin and Klement, produced bicycles, is one of the most important and powerful facilities of the automotive industry. While more than 20 thousand people are working in the factory, the capacity has increased to 1200 units per day with continuous investments. A new body line and fully automatic paint shop were added to the factory, which has been completely renovated and developed since 1991, when the Volkswagen Group and Skoda partnership began, with the investments made in 2012, while a new environmentally friendly press line was built in 2013.
Mlada Boleslav realizes "50 percent" of Skoda's production worldwide. However, after 9 hours of bodywork, 8 hours of paint and 4 hours of final assembly, the total production process of a vehicle from scratch takes 1 day. The production capacity of the factory is 600 thousand vehicles per year.
All Skoda's History in One: Skoda Museum
Expanding and differentiating day by day, the Skoda Museum builds a bridge from the past to the future with the "Skoda Archive" as well as the brand's collection of legendary models. The museum, which was seriously renovated in 2012 and changed its concept, is open not only to visitors in the Czech Republic, but also to the whole world with Google Street, moreover, 24/7.
In the 1800 square meter Skoda Museum, there are 340 different pieces that have made a place in the history of the brand, from mass production cars to racing vehicles, prototypes, engines, motorcycles and bicycles. Among them are cars such as the "Voiturette A", the "L&K-Skoda 110", the first model produced by Skoda, the Skoda 860, the Skoda Superb 4000 and the Skoda 1101 Tudor Cabriolet.
The "Skoda Archive", located within the museum building and established in the 1950s, hosts important documents of the company's history since 1894. All similar agreements and documents, meeting minutes, posters, technical drawings and documents related to different products and concepts from bicycles to buses, even color catalogs of models are archived here, including the agreement signed between Laurin and Klement on the establishment of the company.
Skoda's Strategy for 2018
While evolving inspired by its past, Skoda took an important leap forward with its “2018 Development Strategy” and within this framework, it continues to fully implement its promise to present a new or renewed model every 6 months. The brand, which has increased its global sales performance every year and delivered more than 1 million cars for the last two years in a row, has proven that it is a global player with its remarkable development.
One of the most important factors in this success, the "new model attack", continued without interruption. Combining the model attack that started with the renewed logo, the values of the brand with the design elements appealing to the emotions, Skoda included being attractive as well as being a price/benefit focused brand. In addition, Skoda has renewed almost all of the vehicles in its range, entered the classes it has not been in until now with products such as Rapid and Rapid Spaceback, and aims to expand its customer range even further with the mid-upper class SUV model, which it announced in 2017 that it will be named Kodiaq.
Giving great importance to the sales and after-sales services of the brand, Skoda is among the brands that increase customer satisfaction the most in Turkey and in the world. Skoda has recently taken action to change the face of its showrooms and in a very short time, more than 1500 of them in the world, in Turkey. It broke a record by making more than 30 of these transformations.
Keywords: Mlada Boleslav Factory | Skoda | Skoda's Long History