Skoda assembly in Hebei province.

In the 1950s and 1960s there was a strong relationship between Czecho-Slovakia and China. Skoda trucks, buses and cars, and Tatra trucks were exported to China to help the development of the country.

Skoda engineers helped the Jinan General Auto Works with the development of the Huanghe (Yellow River) JN150 truck.

First Huanghe JN150 truck, based on the Skoda 706.

Tatra worked together with Changzheng, read Sam’s article. 

Skoda cars were in use in China over the years.
China had imported 15.000 Skoda Formans through barter transactions in the mid to late 1980s. The small Skoda Favorit and Forman were popular, till their replacement the mid 1990s.

In 1995 17% of the Chinese car import was Skoda, Skoda was the number one of the imported cars.

The following story is unveiled by our reader Jirka (JFK). The source is Svet Motoru (32/96 and 36/97), a Czech car magazine, which shows an article about the Beijing Auto Show, April 1996.
In 1991, Volkswagen bought 30% of Skoda. In 1995 this was 70%. But at that time Skoda operated still independently of VW. In 2000 Volkswagen acquired the full 100%. At the 1996 Show, Skoda exhibited a Felicia and a Felicia Combi.

At the 1996 Beijing Show Skoda announced the agreement with ‘a company’ in Shijiazhuang city, Hebei province, for the assembly of the Skoda Felicia and Skoda Felicia Combi. Under the supervision of Czech workers.
There is no newspaper article which gives the name of the Chinese partner, it could have been an automotive partner (Shijiazhuang had the next automotive industries in 1996: Shijiazhuang Auto Works, Huabei Traffic Machinery Works -PLA9420-, Shijiazhuang Auto Refit Works, Hebei Bus Works,  Shijiazhuang Xinsheng Special Vehicle Refit Works, Shijiazuang Miners Ambulance Refit Works, Shijiazhuang Tractor Works -making trucks-), or it could have been a partner outside the automotive world.

The idea was the mass production of Skoda cars in China. To start with a first batch of 100 Skoda Felicia LX cars. They were sent to China in skd form (semi-knocked down) in containers.

Of course I have tried to find pictures of these locally built Skoda’s. Skoda Mobil magazine gives a picture of a Beijing registered Felicia, but it is not clear if that is an assembled car.

At that time Chinese-made or Chinese-assembled foreign cars were not obliged to give the name of the joint-venture in Chinese characters at the rear of the car. So my problem is that there was no difference between the ‘assembled in Czech Republic’ or the ‘assembled in China’ cars.

The Felicia was announced for 112.000 yuan, the Felicia Combi for 125.000 yuan. It seems that the Combi was more popular than the hatchback.

The whole ambitious project ended after the first hundred cars. Why? There could be a number of reasons:
1. the Chinese had hard negotiated to get a good contract to start two Volkswagen companies: FAW-VW and SAIC-VW. A third company, semi-legal via a VW partner who came in via the back-door was not in accordance with the Chinese government policy.
2. It is also possible that Skoda was not happy with the Shijiazhuang-partner.
3. A third reason: Volkswagen was already quite active in the market segment: Golf, City-Golf, so the Felicia was an unwanted in-house competitor.

This item is thanks to our reader Jirka (JFK) who did a lot of research and Irena Hozakova from the Skoda archive, who came up with the Skoda Mobil magazine articles. 

Then, we had to wait 11 years: Skoda’s were made in China from 2007, by Shanghai (SAIC)-Volkswagen.
Skoda sales figures in China, 1992: 613, 1993: 9857, 1994: 3027, 1995: 5267.

A perfect match: one child policy and a Skoda!