Η Skoda μέσα σε λίγο περισσότερο από έναν χρόνο, κατασκεύασε 100.000 Superb τρίτης γενιάς. Η παραγωγή του αυτοκινήτου ξεκίνησε τον Μάρτιο του 2015, με το Superb να βρίσκεται στην αγορά από το 2001 και να έχει πουλήσει περισσότερες από 850.000 μονάδες.
Η τσέχικη εταιρία παράλληλα ανακοίνωσε πως προσθέτει τον 1.0 TSI τρικύλινδρο κινητήρα στην Octavia. Αυτός αντικαθιστά τον 1.2 TSI και αποδίδει 115 άλογα με 200 Nm ροπής. Με τον 6αρι μηχανικό κιβώτιο τα 0-100 χλμ/ώρα τα κάνει σε 9,9 δευτερόλεπτα, έχοντας τελική ταχύτητα 202 χλμ/ώρα, μέση κατανάλωση 4,5 λίτρα/100 χλμ και εκπομπές CO2 99 γρ/χλμ. Ο κινητήρας μπορεί να συνδυαστεί και με το 7άρι DSG.
Τέλος η Skoda έκανε γνωστό πως για 90 χρόνια, οι πρόεδροι της Τσεχίας (και της πρώην Τσεχοσλοβακίας) οδηγούν αυτοκίνητα της. Το πρώτο αυτοκίνητο που χρησιμοποιήθηκε για τις ανάγκες του προέδρου της Χώρας ήταν το Skoda Hispano-Suiza, με τον σημερινό πρόεδρο να χρησιμοποιεί μια Superb τρίτης γενιάς.
[learn_more caption=”Δελτίο Τύπου”]
Jubilee: 100,000 third-generations ŠKODA Superbs produced
› Since 2001, more than 850,000 ŠKODA Superb models manufactured; 100,000 third-generation ŠKODA Superbs since March 2015
› Brand’s flagship in demand on European markets and China
› Substantial investments into ŠKODA Kvasiny plant, and employee recruitment
Mladá Boleslav/Kvasiny, 11 May 2016 – ŠKODA has produced 100,000 third-generation Superbs. The milestone vehicle ran off the assembly line at the ŠKODA plant in Kvasiny. Since the model was introduced in 2001, the Czech car manufacturer has produced more than 850,000 Superbs. The production capacity at Kvasiny was expanded and modernized for the production of ŠKODA’s flagship. The top model inspires customers worldwide.
“The production of this highly modern car is a testament to the outstanding competence of the Kvasiny plant and its employees,” says Michael Oeljeklaus, ŠKODA AUTO Board Member for Production and Logistics, adding: “The name Superb represents one of the best and most successful models in the automotive mid-class. The third-generation model will continue the Superb’s success story in the coming months and years.”
Since production began in March 2015, the new ŠKODA Superb has demonstrated the emotional power of the brand with its new design. ŠKODA has now produced a total of one hundred thousand ŠKODA Superbs of the third generation. Never before have such high demands been made on the design of a ŠKODA car, never before have so many new technologies gone into the development of a new model. Never before have there been so many new, ‘Simply Clever’ ideas, and never before have ŠKODA engineers created so much space for the driver, passengers and their luggage. There are a host of new assistance systems from higher vehicle classes ensuring increased safety, better environmental protection and higher comfort. The third-generation Superb is more powerful than ever before and, at the same time, up to 30 percent more economical thanks to the new EU-6 engines.
The success of this model has not only been demonstrated by the high number of orders from around the world, but also by receiving numerous awards such as the ‘Red Dot Award’ for excellent product design and the title ‘Car of the Year’ in many European countries.
Since 2001, the ŠKODA Superb model family has crowed ŠKODA’s model range. This ties the Czech automaker to their tradition of great prestigious vehicles from Mladá Boleslav that was established in early 20th century. The Laurin & Klement FF, dating back to 1907, was the first eight-cylinder model in Central Europe. In the 1920s, the first president of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, among others, owned the luxurious ŠKODA Hispano-Suiza; the eight-cylinder ŠKODA 860 was an impressive sight in the early 1930s. 1934 was the first year a prestigious ŠKODA model with the name ‘Superb’ rolled off the production line: the ŠKODA 640 Superb.
67 years later, in 2001, the ŠKODA Superb was once again at the top of ŠKODA’s model range. To date, the automaker has produced more than 850,000 ŠKODA Superbs of the first, second and third generation. Customers have always appreciated this model’s overall package: extremely generous space, timelessly elegant design, modern, tried and tested technology, high level of comfort, maximum safety, best functionality and excellent value for money have made ŠKODA’s flagship synonymous with top quality from the Czech Republic. The first generation Superb (2001 to 2008) had the character of a classic notchback saloon and set new standards, especially in terms of space. The second model generation came out in 2008: A vehicle with new, versatile uses, more technology and a timelessly elegant design. The ŠKODA Superb has also been available as an estate since 2009, and the third-generation estate version of the Superb has been running off the production lines since June 2015.
At the Kvasiny plant, the company made significant investments into new production technology, assembly and logistics areas ahead of the new ŠKODA Superb’s start of production. A total of CZK 1.7 billion went into the new body-construction line alone. The Kvasiny site is being prepared for the brand’s SUV campaign. By 2018, ŠKODA intends to invest a total of CZK 7.2 billion into Kvasiny and create 2,000 new jobs. The production capacity will be gradually increased to 280,000 vehicles annually. Kvasiny is one of ŠKODA’s three production sites in the Czech Republic. The site currently employs more than 5,000 people, and is one of the largest industrial employers in the Hradec Králové region.
ŠKODA vehicles have served Czech presidents for 90 years
› 90 years ago, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first President of Czechoslovakia, received a ŠKODA Hispano-Suiza as a state limousine
› Features of the ŠKODA Hispano-Suiza: Powerful OHC engine, top speed of 140 km/h
› Sitting Czech President Miloš Zeman was the first person to use the current third-generation ŠKODA Superb
Mladá Boleslav, 11 May 2016 – Exactly 90 years ago, a ŠKODA Hispano-Suiza became the official car of the first President of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. Ever since, various ŠKODA models have served as official cars of several Czechoslovakian and Czech heads of state and government. Miloš Zeman, the sitting President of the Czech Republic, has confidence in the third generation of the ŠKODA Superb.
“High quality and prestigious ŠKODA vehicles, each one the brand’s top-of-the-range model of its time, were frequently the first choice as state car of the Czechoslovakian or Czech heads of state,” said Andrea Frydlová, Director of the ŠKODA Museum. “Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who became the first President of Czechoslovakia in 1918, was also the first person to use a ŠKODA Hispano-Suiza. Today, ŠKODA continues this tradition with the current third-generation ŠKODA Superb, which our President Miloš Zeman uses to travel to his appointments. Unfortunately, the original vehicle used by ‘TGM’ – as Masaryk is known here – could not be preserved. In the ŠKODA Museum’s restoration workshops, however, a similar ŠKODA Hispano-Suiza is currently being meticulously restored.”
The first ŠKODA state limousine was developed during an important time of change for the car manufacturer: in 1925, the Lauren & Klement company from Mladá Boleslav merged with a strong partner, the ŠKODA engineering company, based in Pilsen. In Western Bohemia, the ŠKODA plants manufactured an exclusive small production run under licence of the prestigious French brand Hispano-Suiza. 100 of the most technically sophisticated and fastest cars of the 1920s were thereby built in Pilsen: the ŠKODA Hispano-Suiza.
At the beginning of May 1926, the first vehicle was sold to the office of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937) for 280,000 korunas. The corresponding order was placed on 25 July 1925, and included several requests that the head of state made himself. After the bespoke body design had been approved – a limousine with a glass partition wall between the driver and the passenger compartment in the rear – the Parisian specialist company, Carrosserie Kellner Frères, manufactured the elegant shell. The original ‘N-1’ number plate was replaced with ‘P-118’ in the 1930s; the ‘P’ stood for Prague. After the then 85-year-old President resigned his post in December 1935, the ŠKODA Hispano-Suiza sat in the garage of his official residence, Prague Castle, until 17 March 1936. Subsequently, the car was returned to the manufacturer – its fate thereafter is not known.
The ŠKODA Hispano-Suiza featured advanced technology which further emphasised the luxurious character of the model range. A 7-bearing crankshaft contributed to the extraordinarily smooth operation of the 6,654 cc six-cylinder engine. It was manufactured from a 350-kg engine block and weighed a substantial 45 kg after the complex build. The mechanically unique brake booster of the limousine, which can weigh up to 2.7 tonnes, used the vehicle’s kinetic energy and progressively supported the drum brakes: the effect was greater with increasing pedal force; braking efficiency was easier to modulate.
Following the end of the Second World War and a time of profound social change, ŠKODA once again supplied a vehicle to the president of Czechoslovakia. The armoured ŠKODA VOS (‘Vládní osobní speciál’; in English: special car for the government) was a prestigious notchback saloon with an opulent chrome trim at the front. A longer version, with armour and 52-mm-thick bulletproof windows, the ŠKODA VOS weighed up to 4,440 kg and had impressive dimensions: 5.70 metres long, 1.95 metres high and 1.75 metres wide. Between 1950 and 1952, around 100 vehicles from this model range were manufactured in different versions. Two Czechoslovakian presidents, Klement Gottwald (1896-1953) and Antonín Zápotocký (1884-1957), drove in one such limousine.
In the following decades up to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, it was predominately models of the Soviet ZIS and ZIL brands that served as state cars at Prague Castle. Four years later, after the formation of an independent Czech Republic, ŠKODA returned to ‘state service’. Václav Havel (1936-2011), a human rights activist and later president, was a big car enthusiast. He insisted on personally testing numerous new ŠKODA models, including the Felicia and the first generations of the Fabia, Octavia and Superb. Václav Klaus, his successor in office, used the limousines of the Superb I and Superb II model ranges during two terms in office (2003-2013).
Miloš Zeman, the current President of the Czech Republic, received his new state car, a third-generation ŠKODA Superb, at Prague Castle on 5 June 2015. The limousine – in pearl-effect Black Magic and with the top-of-the-range Laurin & Klement trim level – is fitted with a turbocharged 2.0 TSI/206 kW petrol engine and DSG automatic transmission.
[/learn_more]