The third-generation Volkswagen Touareg (source: Courtesy of Volkswagen Slovakia)
The Slovak arm of the German carmaker Volkswagen Slovakia (VW SK) continues to grow in Slovakia. The Bratislava factory grew not only in size but its product portfolio also increased. The number of employees hit a record high of 13,700, confirming its position of the largest private employer in Slovakia.
“For the first time in history, in 2017, we have worked on launching three SUV vehicles of three different brands at the same time,” said Ralf Sacht, the chairman of Volkswagen Slovakia’s board of directors. “Since the autumn, we are also completely producing the new generation of Porsche Cayenne. We have added the brand new Audi Q8 to our portfolio and we have successfully launched the third-generation Volkswagen Touareg.”
VW SK manufactured 361,776 vehicles last year, a decrease of 26,921 compared to 2016. The company ascribes the decline to the launch of new models.
“We are very satisfied with the number of cars we manufactured last year,” said Sacht. “The strike of our employees did not have any impact on the number of cars produced. We fully met our plan for 2017.”
In terms of individual models, SUVs Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7, and Porsche Cayenne made up approximately 57 percent of the company’s output last year. The share of small urban vehicles from the NSF segment - Volkswagen up!, Volkswagen e-up!, ŠKODA Citigo and SEAT Mii - comprised 43 percent of the production.
The biggest and oldest carmaker in Slovakia did not specify shares of individual types of engines but its management said that they did not register a declined interest in its diesel cars.
VW SK recorded revenues of €7.55 billion euros last year and a pre-tax profit of €240 million. The latter increased from €234.1 million in 2016.
The average wage of VW SK blue collar workers, including all the benefits, was €1,854 per month.
Last year, the company’s investments amounted to €368.6 million, which since the company’s establishment in 1991 have already accumulated €4.35 billion.
With production expansion in the Porsche segment, the area of the Bratislava factory exceeded 2 million square metres. This required an investment of about €800 million.
