PRAGUE -- Skoda said on Wednesday it would invest around 2.5 billion euros ($2.96 billion) over the next five years on future technologies, with more than half going to electric vehicle investment.
The Czech Republic's largest exporter reported on Wednesday a 756-million-euro operating profit in 2020, a year-on-year drop of 54.5 percent as the coronavirus pandemic cut into deliveries.
Sales revenue dropped 14 percent to 17.1 billion euros. Global deliveries remained above 1 million cars for a seventh straight year despite a 19 percent drop after production outages at the outset of the pandemic and a fall in China, its biggest single market.
Skoda said it expected a rebound in performance in 2021.
In reporting 2020 results, the Volkswagen Group brand, seen as a bellwether for the export-oriented economy, said it planned investments of 1.4 billion euros ($1.66 billion) into electromobility development as part of its five-year investment plan.
Investments will also go into digitalization activities and plant modernization.
