The CAR Inquisition: Skoda’s new top man
New Skoda boss signals how the brand will differentiate without losing sight of its key values
The new boss at Skoda has a lot on his plate. Thomas Schäfer, 50, arrived in Mladá Boleslav in August 2020, slap bang in the eye of the storm. The global pandemic was disrupting production and supply; customer demand was all over the shop, as local lockdowns poleaxed sales and seeded economic uncertainty; and then there were the ‘normal’ challenges facing the car industry, such as how to electrify cars, integrate them with our digital lives and invent new ownership models.
Schäfer was previously in charge of VW’s operations in subSaharan Africa before becoming chairman at Skoda. ‘I had to be airlifted out of South Africa in their lockdown and was brought to the Czech Republic in another lockdown. It’s been an interesting time,’ he reflects. That’s an understatement, as Skoda was perilously close to having to stop building cars.
‘We had to reduce our production speed for hygiene breaks, we had around 1000 staff missing from quarantine or being infected, and we had suppliers where we normally hold two to three days’ stock down to just 30 minutes. Very hand-to-mouth.’
The German-born boss arrived in the middle of perhaps the biggest crisis ever to face the car industry, but he seems sanguine. His unflappable approach has come up trumps, however, and Skoda production dropped by only a fifth last year and the business remained in profit. ‘Every month we have been ahead of our recovery plan. We are now making three per cent profit, which is outstanding when everyone’s making a loss.’
But the pandemic isn’t stopping Schäfer asking more existential questions. Like what Skoda stands for – and what it could become. CAR challenges him on the brand’s DNA: hasn’t the Czech car maker lost its quirkiness, its think-different characteristics that begat the Yeti and Roomster? Isn’t it now just another Volkswagen Group outpost, churning out identikit models based on ubiquitous MQB and (electric) MEB platforms?
‘The Yeti was a great idea,’ he concedes. ‘It was something completely different that nobody had on their radar before. It fitted the customers’ need… but there’s not so much space for experimentation as there was.’
Schäfer’s mission statement now is to electrify the brand, and he sees the new Enyaq as an heir to the Yeti. ‘When you show it to customers, they think it’s really cool. It’s got so much space, it’s very functional.’ And there – in a nutshell – you capture the essence of modern-day Skoda. It’s always been about value and
space – and that half-a-size-more-for-the-same-price approach has made the Octavia and Superb family favourites around the world. ‘We always stand for functionality, space, a lot of car for the money. That won’t change,’ he promises. Skoda’s values are resolutely sensible.
The Enyaq isn’t the brand’s first electric vehicle (EV), following the short-lived Citigo-e iV, but it is the first one spun from the VW mothership’s clever-clogs MEB architecture. It arrives in showrooms this spring, with a sportier crossovercoupe derivative expected at the end of the year. ‘But we need a smaller EV, too, something city-sized, and we need something in the “flat” [not crossover] range – an Octavia of the future. Those are the most important EVs for us this decade,’ reveals Schäfer, confirming the prospect of a new city car paired with the upcoming VW ID.1 previously scooped by CAR.
The challenge, he admits, is to continue offering existing combustion-engine models – the Fabia, Octavia and Superb will all be replaced – while gradually introducing more standalone EVs. Those fossil-fuel dinosaurs will gradually charge up, with a range of mild-, full- and plug-in hybrids coming, and Skoda has promised a total of 10 electrified models by the end of 2022. The revolution is happening but it’s a gradual, phased switchover.
In this new world, there will still be space for vRS models – even with the forthcoming EVs. Look out also for new standalone models produced for India, where Skoda is assuming leadership for the VW Group – though these cheaper, simpler models won’t be exported back to Europe. ‘We are not making a budget car… that is not going to happen.’
It’s been several generations since the old Skoda jokes were laid to rest. Nowadays the brand makes cars that are conservative, capacious and canny, and the new boss plans to refine that recipe. ‘We’re clever, and you get a lot of car when you buy a Skoda. We are in the middle of the biggest transition the auto industry has ever seen and I want to hand over the brand in better shape than when I took it on.’