One of Škoda’s tasks under the leadership of the new boss, Thomas Schäfer, is to place more emphasis on developing markets. At the same time, the Czech carmaker could enter some of them directly with its electric models, he admitted in an interview with the German trade magazine Automobilwoche.
Asked by editor Burkhard Riering, can he imagine Skoda entering some markets, such as Africa, directly with electric cars, Schäfer replied: “Africa is a special case, it could really happen there.”
This may be due to the fact that modern combustion engines have a problem with the lower quality of African fuel and with stricter emission standards, this problem could be exacerbated. “The Euro 7 emission standard will mean that we will not be able to export cars from Western Europe to developing countries,” he said, adding that the idea of a single car to be sold worldwide is definitely gone. “The complexity given by local regulations is too high for that,” explains Schäfer.
Since January this year, Škoda has been responsible for the Group’s activities not only in India, where it is leading the India 2.0 project, but also in Russia, including the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and North Africa. “There are many markets where I see a great opportunity for Škoda,” Schäfer said.
According to him, the model cases are Algeria and Egypt. “In such countries, a car industry can be created that employs the locals and serves the market locally. There is no need to support the import of used cars.” At the same time, Egypt alone, with its one hundred million inhabitants, offers the potential of a market of seven to eight thousand. “We want to be there,” says Schäfer.
According to the head of Škoda, other African markets could initially bet on natural gas. “In Western Europe, CNG is not a topic, it has not found its political support. In Africa, in countries where gas is available locally, but it has a chance, in my opinion. We are considering making it a technology that bridges conventional internal combustion engines with electric cars,” he said. . According to him, hydrogen fuel cells are not an alternative at present, this decade, due to their high price.
According to Schäfer, Škoda will take a step-by-step approach to electrifying its model portfolio. In 2030, electric vehicles should account for 60 percent of its sales. “We are working on electric cars smaller than the Enyaq iV, so that we also have representatives of lower segments on offer. We will offer some such car relatively soon. Later, I can imagine that we will have an electric car the size of the Octavia,” he said.
According to Schäfer, Škoda is also working on a new generation of Simply Clever solutions. “We are succeeding in bringing simple, practical and innovative solutions for customers, such as a window scraper in the tank lid. But we are currently thinking about how to transfer this innovative approach to digital services so that they too can make everyday life easier and more comfortable.” “says Schäfer. That is why a special team was created in Škoda, which considers what is possible and what is suitable for the brand.
The first example of such an approach is the Powerpass service, which will be introduced from the second quarter of 2021. Unlike the scraper in the tank cap, this is not a fundamentally original solution. It is a single charging card, resp. a mobile application that will make 195,000 chargers available to Škoda owners across Europe. Billing will be on a monthly basis and there will be three tariff models to choose from. Similar cards or applications are offered today by a number of other car manufacturers, such as Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes or BMW.
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