Key highlights
- Skoda Kushaq local assembly in Vietnam starts
- CKD kits are being supplied from Pune
- Slavia sedan assembly to start soon
Skoda has officially begun the local assembly of its products in Vietnam. The first car to be locally assembled is the Skoda Kushaq in the CKD (completely knocked-down) form. Read more details below.
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Skoda Kushaq and Slavia to be sold in Vietnam as CKD
Skoda stepped into the Vietnamese car market back in September 2023, when it started selling the Karoq and Kodiaq SUVs as CBU (completely built units). Both of these models are imported directly from Europe to Vietnam.
However, Skoda has now successfully established its first local assembly plant in Vietnam, collaborating with the Thanh Cong Group. This new production facility has a welding shop, a paint shop, and an assembly line for the final roll-out.
The first model to roll-out is the Kushaq SUV, which is followed by the Slavia sedan. As of now, Slavia’s local assembly is set to begin in the coming weeks.
As per the company, it has curated an in-house 2 km test track to check every model internally after the final assembly by surpassing it through various real-life road difficulties.
Additionally, Skoda has a target of testing the Kushaq up to 3.30 lakh kilometers in Vietnam to check its durability against the road, traffic, and weather conditions. In fact, the other models will also undergo similar tests in future.
Moreover, the CKD kits used for the local assembly have been imported from Skoda’s Pune facility. The LHD Kushaq and Slavia models are being exported as CKD units for the first time from India.
Apart from the LHD (left-hand drive) configuration, the Vietnamese-spec Kushaq and Slavia will have adaptive cruise control and blind spot monitoring. Both of these safety features are not available on the Indian-spec cars.
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Our verdict
While Skoda is currently struggling to increase its dipping sales in India, its export quantities and the CKD unit exports for Vietnam can balance out the cost-benefit ratio. Meanwhile, the Kushaq compact SUV has proven to be a success in its initial stage in India.