Skoda Auto's operating profit tumbles 54.5% in 2020

Czech car manufacturer Skoda Auto's operating profit plunged 54.5 percent year on year in 2020 to 756 million euros, the company said Wednesday in a press statement, reported Xinhua.

In 2020, sales revenue dropped 13.8 percent year on year to 17.1 billion euros as the world faced a car sales slump, the automaker said in the statement.

Last year, Skoda Auto delivered more than one million vehicles to customers worldwide for the seventh consecutive year, despite the 39-day production shutdown at its Czech plants and widespread sales channel closures in Europe during the first wave of the pandemic in spring 2020, it said.

For 2021, the company is expecting a rebound, though facing uncertainties over the COVID-19 pandemic and an industry-wide semiconductor shortage.

This year, Skoda will continue to focus on combating the COVID-19 pandemic, and providing new models to the market, said the carmaker, giving examples like Octavia Pro which was introduced in China earlier this week, and the world premiere of the Indian model Kusha a week ago.

In the meantime, the Czech carmaker will invest around 2.5 billion euros in future technologies over the next five years, with over half going to electric vehicle development.

"This year is likely to be another big challenge," finance director Klaus-Dieter Schuermann said. "We expect Skoda Auto's group performance to improve, with sales revenue significantly above the level of last year."