Automotive News Europe — 2023-01-19
Automotive Industry
Automakers in the Czech Republic expect their output to keep increasing this year as the country’s key industry recovers from pandemic lockdowns, a global shortage of chips and the European energy crisis.
Following three years of declines, the production of passenger vehicles jumped 10% in 2022, the Automotive Industry Association said on Wednesday 18 January 2023.
The lobby group expects further growth, despite ongoing supply-chain bottlenecks, surging inflation and tightening environmental regulation.
The Czech economy is particularly exposed to the shortage of semiconductors and other materials because of its heavy reliance on the automotive and other manufacturing industries.
While output at Volkswagen Group’s Skoda brand, the country’s biggest automaker, rose 1.9% in 2022, its deliveries slumped 17% because of a backlog of unfinished cars waiting for imported chips.
“We must prepare for continued volatility and fluctuations in production,” Martin Jahn, head of the association, said in the statement.
“Despite that, I believe any outages will be rather temporary and overall, we will keep increasing production toward pre-crisis levels.”