Engines, gearboxes and now batteries - ŠKODA AUTO starts the production of its own traction batteries for electric vehicles

Today we’re at the M6 production hall of the ŠKODA AUTO factory in Mladá Boleslav. So far, this is where batteries for the plug-in hybrid cars, SUPERB iV and OCTAVIA iV have been produced. But not long ago, ŠKODA AUTO added traction batteries to the line-up. These are used in the all-electric models based on the MEB platform – the ENYAQ iV and ENYAQ Coupé iV. The company invested almost 130 million euros in the new facility. 200 new jobs will be created, and when running at full capacity, the line will produce  more than  250,000 traction batteries per year.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the new production line and find out how the batteries are assembled, how much of this work is automated, and how the employees were trained to work on this production line. That’s the topic of today’s episode and joining me is Christian Bleiel, Head of Component Production at ŠKODA AUTO.