“Taking into account the market situation, including slower market development in Europe, there are currently no commercial reasons to decide on additional locations in Europe,” said the Group’s CEO, Oliver Blume, quoted by .cz. The Czechs hoped that a plant employing 4,000 people would be built at the airport in Líny near Pilsen. Currently, however, Volkswagen has no plans to start investing there. Neither this year nor next year. The state wanted to build a strategic park there to build the factory. The investment in the gigafactory was to amount to CZK 120 billion.
Volkswagen left the Czechs in the lurch
After Oliver Blume announced that three battery cell production plants: Salzgitter (), Valencia (Spain) and St. Thomas (Canada) will be enough for the company for now, said the Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala. – We cannot wait, we must focus on other battery production projects and we cannot keep the land in Líny for Volkswagen – he said at a press conference. The Czech Minister of Industry, Jozefa Sikela, even wrote on the X platform that the government is negotiating with five companies. “These negotiations are at different stages and have different chances of success. We certainly do not expect that they will all end positively. However, we will do everything in our power to ensure that the Czech Republic makes the most of them,” he said.
The Czechs are interested in somehow bringing this investment to fruition for several reasons. Firstly, according to the Minister of Industry, several million euros have already been spent on preparing a possible battery factory. Secondly, the construction of a gigafactory remains one of the priorities of the government, which wants to locate the entire electric car production chain in the Czech Republic. Prime Minister Fiala assured this at the above-mentioned conference. Moreover, the Vokswagen fiasco was perceived in the Czech Republic as a failure of the current authorities.
Is the Volkswagen recall a government failure?
“I hope all this comedy is over, because some ministers have repeatedly said it’s Volkswagen or nothing! But what is good news for Pilzno is bad news for the Czech Republic. Fiala’s cabinet has lost countless hours and money in negotiations on a project that was doomed to failure. That’s why I ask: Dear government, who will pay for this waste of time of officials, politicians, and especially public ones!?” – asked the mayor of Pilzno, Roman Zarzycký. Local residents protested against the investment and demanded that the area of the “business park” be reduced.
Source: Gazeta
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