Martin Jahn studied international relations, which is, in fact, something he still deals with today. As CEO of the government agency CzechInvest, and even subsequently as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policy, he infl uenced the cultivation of the investment environment. Since 2006, he has been working in the automotive industry; specifi cally, for the Volkswagen Group. In 2021, he became a member of the ŠKODA AUTO Board of Directors.
You have worked as a manager, a Deputy Prime Minister in the Czech government and for a long time as a top manager in the automotive industry. What opportunities do you see in the new European Green Agreement for the automotive industry?
ŠKODA AUTO is fully committed to the Green Agreement for Europe and will contribute to achieving these ambitious goals. We are gradually electrifying our entire model portfolio and, through our GreenFuture strategy, we have formulated clear and ambitious sustainable development goals.
However, in order to meet all the commitments, we will need to create entirely new battery production capacities. Only in this way will we be able to cover demand in the coming years. And personally, I would be very pleased if we managed to build a gigafactory in the Czech Republic.
Digitisation and clean mobility are the themes of the day. The management community in the Czech Republic sees this as another opportunity for the development of companies. Does this also apply to ŠKODA AUTO?
Of course. The share of electric cars will soon increase, and one of the main topics will be their full connectivity with their surroundings. My main goal at ŠKODA AUTO will be to focus on the electrification and digitisation of all our products. These two aspects are the future of mobility, and only by focusing on them can the carmaker remain attractive to its customers.
In recent years, ŠKODA AUTO has been investing considerable resources in these areas and plans to continue this trend. Over the next five years, ŠKODA AUTO will invest approximately EUR 2.5 billion in future technologies. These investments will make a huge contribution to the further development of the company and also to maintaining competitiveness in the automotive market.
As a member of the Board of Directors for sales and marketing, I am, of course, also very interested in the possibility of digitising sales. For example, we recently launched a pilot project of a digital showroom, where you can take a virtual tour of the customer centre in Mladá Boleslav on our website. In my opinion, the future is also digital in this area. Viewing stock cars on the internet or confi guring a new car online is already something the young generation who move in this environment every day take for granted. In the future, more and more cars will be sold via the internet. Of course, it will not be a signifi cant increase, but we will gradually get to it. Dealers will play the role of a point of sale and service. Of course, it is not possible to sell cars online without dealers; they will continue to play an important role in our distribution chain. Still, there will be much more going on in the digital sphere.
Your company is a long-term partner of the oldest stage race in cycling, the Tour de France. Even the Czech company Lasvit is the creator of the trophy for the winners. You connect modern design, business and sport. Do you intend to continue this connection?
Our passion for cycling goes back to the very beginnings of the company’s history. Already 125 years ago, in 1895, Václav Laurin and Václav Klement founded a bicycle factory in Mladá Boleslav and thus laid the foundations for today’s ŠKODA AUTO company. The Czech carmaker still operates as the “engine of cycling”, and in addition to the Tour de France and the La Vuelta stage race around Spain, we support a number of other national and international cycling competitions. Of course, bicycles and bicycle accessories are an integral part of our expanded product range.
We have been supporting the Tour de France, the most famous and most popular cycling race in the world, since 2004. Last year, we provided the organisers of this race with around 250 ŠKODA cars and, of course, the main car of the race is never missing, i.e. the Red Car, which is intended for the director of the race, who monitors and controls what is happening on the route from the car. Last year, even our new electric fl agship, the ENYAQ iV, was dressed in red. The cups for the winners of this competition are inspired by the art of Czech glassmakers and were created in collaboration with ŠKODA AUTO designer Peter Olah and the aforementioned Czech glass company Lasvit.
All this perfectly refl ects ŠKODA AUTO’s enthusiasm for this dynamic sport with millions of fans around the world, and our plan is to continue this connection in the future.
What models of ŠKODA cars are demanded by the managerial clientele today? Is there a transition to pure mobility?
Our plug-in hybrid models and our first SUV on the MEB platform — ENYAQ iV — are currently in high demand. ŠKODA AUTO wants to have two more electric models by the end of the decade. However, I believe that the ŠKODA brand will not experience an extremely rapid switch to electric cars as it is also strong in markets where the onset of electric mobility will be somewhat slower than in Western Europe and America. We serve Eastern Europe and Russia, India and, more recently, the North African region. We will still have a combination of electric and internal combustion engines in our portfolio for quite some time.
Thank you for the interview.
