Martin Jahn is an automotive industry manager, until now a member of the Škoda Auto board for sales and marketing, who is moving to the leadership of the Volkswagen brand.
Martin Jahn is an automotive industry manager and president of the Association of the Automotive Industry (AutoSAP).[1] Until September 2026 he was the Škoda Auto board member for sales and marketing and the only Czech on its board.[2]
Move to Volkswagen
According to Hospodářské noviny, Jahn announced on 2 September 2026 a move to the post of sales director of the Volkswagen brand.[2] iDNES.cz reports that he is heading to the board of the Volkswagen brand in Wolfsburg, where he had earlier worked in the top structures of the group’s management, and that from October 2026 he will sit on the supervisory board of Škoda. He remains president of AutoSAP.[1] According to Novinky, he was to leave Škoda at the end of September 2026.[3]
At his last meeting with journalists as a Škoda representative, Jahn said that when he announced his move to Volkswagen on 2 September, he did not know that the head of the brand, Klaus Zellmer, was leaving for Volvo.[2]
Statements on Škoda’s development and the market
Jahn said that Škoda Auto has its capacities in Czechia fully used and a sufficient range of cars for the next two to three years. According to him, the carmaker must also produce outside Czechia, because it will not be able to produce all the cars in demand domestically. The share of electrified cars across Škoda is approaching 40 percent, and Jahn said that combustion-engine cars and electric cars will no longer be possible to build on the same line.[1]
According to Jahn, Škoda had stuck with combustion engines and was considering further model upgrades, but the rise in fuel prices linked to the war in Iran and the Hormuz crisis quickly changed customer behaviour, in his words, and in some countries sped up the shift to electric cars.[1][3] He rejected that the Volkswagen group dictates models to the Czech manufacturer: “They won’t cut anything from us, we will do what sells at a profit.”[3] As the main problem of the shift to electromobility he named the lower profitability of electric cars and the cost of batteries, because in his words battery cell production in Europe is not competitive at the European price.[1][3] Škoda spokesman Jozef Baláž said that the carmaker has around 36,000 employees and no layoffs are planned.[3]
Sources
- iDNES.cz — 29 September 2026
- Hospodářské noviny — 25 September 2026
- Novinky.cz — 26 September 2026