Since the 1920s, Czech automaker Skoda has developed an expertise in packaging and exporting partially built cars that are assembled and sold in other countries.
The knockdown center in Skoda’s Mlada Boleslav plant has shipped 300,000 car kits to factories in central and eastern Europe and beyond as the automaker has broadened its global reach.
Skoda cars are or have been assembled from kits at plants run by the Volkswagen group or independent automakers in Poland, China, India, Bosnia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan -- and starting later this month, Russia.
The process for each destination varies to fit tax laws in each market -- and how advanced the local plant is.
The simplest kits start with fully assembled cars before CKD-center workers remove the number of parts necessary to qualify for reduced import duties at its destination.
More complicated kits are collections of stamped parts from the body shop in Mlada Boleslav that will be welded together, painted and assembled at more modern CKD plants.
