Skoda Auto's new director betting on electric future

There's a new boss at the wheel for Skoda Auto, as Volkswagen carried out a shake-up of top management across its various brands. Thomas Schafer arrived to take over the Czech Republic's largest automobile producer from South Africa, where he was in charge of Volkswagen's activities. Czech labor unions and market observers have been waiting to see what direction Schafer takes the company in. After VW boss Herbert Diess told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Skoda isn't aggressive enough about selling more cars than the Koreans and the French, concerns arose that the German brands wants the Czechs to concentrate on building a larger volume of cheap cars. It didn't help that Diess added that it didn't make sense for Skoda to act like VW's third premium brands. Schafer tried to set a new direction through a letter to employees in which he said he would concentrate on the electrification and digitization of the company's products. He said that these were keys for Skoda to remain attractive to its customers. "In the near future, the automobile will electric and completely connected with its surroundings," he predicted. He said Skoda's latest model, the electric-only Enyaq iV represents the future.