Washing words or a fundamental change?

Behind Skoda's sustainability course

The transition to the electric car does not begin and end with the plug of the charging station, but long before that, with the change of perception regarding the production of cars and the manner in which it is done.

This is how Skoda intends to change the world

Shashi Cohen

09/28/2022

Wednesday, September 28, 2022, 11:41 a.m. Updated: 12:24 p.m.

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Skoda Vision 7S is fully electric and rich in recycled materials (Photo: Shashi Cohen)

Skoda is fighting climate change and has introduced a plan for carbon neutrality, which includes switching to electric models, extensive use of recycled materials and reducing CO2 emissions in factories by more than 50% by the end of the decade.

It's just a shame that the expensive recycling processes may hinder the manufacturer's ambitions to significantly reduce the damage to the environment.

It seems that until a year and a half ago, almost no one in Israel knew the phrase "sustainable mobility", until Tesla came along and made the concept more popular when every customer who placed an order, immediately received the message: "Thank you for your contribution to accelerating Israel's transition to sustainable energy" .

Since then, the word "sustainability" has become one of the hot words in the automotive industry in the electric age and it signifies not only a shift to the production of electric and environmentally friendly vehicles, but also the extensive use of recycled materials in the production processes, the use of more environmentally friendly materials throughout the production and logistics chain, and a shift to factory production fed by green energy.

This bumper is returned from an old one on another car (Photo: Shashi Cohen)

"Our suppliers produce 7 times more air pollution than our car factories"

Last week, Skoda presented us its ambitions to fight global climate change and under the slogan "ŠKODA STRATEGY 2030" revealed ambitious goals for turning the manufacturer into a greener company.

The main goal: reducing more than 50% of their CO2 emissions in factories by the end of the decade compared to 2020. Already today, Skoda boasts that the company's factories are quite energy efficient and add that their suppliers produce 7 times more CO2 emissions than the car assembly plants.

The road to the goal of "carbon emission neutrality" which refers to achieving zero net emissions of carbon dioxide is still long, but the company has a long list of steps that, if it does implement them, it may reach the goal.

Already today, two out of three Skoda factories in the Czech Republic consume close to 90% of electricity from green energy sources, and according to the company, by the year 2030, all production will be made using green energy. Today, the factories have dropped to only 3,000 tons.

Current Skoda Octavia.

340 recycled plastic bottles inside (Photo: Shashi Cohen)

From the soft drink bottle to your Octavia

Among the leading changes that Skoda will implement in its models in the coming years, you can find the promise of more extensive use of recycled materials.

For example, if in the past only the metals, glass, tires, air conditioner gas and oils were recycled, then today Skoda meets the requirements of the European Union and at least 85% of the vehicle parts can now be recycled.

At the same time, only 15% recycled materials are currently used in the production of a new Skoda Octavia, and Skoda wants to significantly improve this figure in the coming years, with the emphasis being on a wider use of recycled plastic.

According to Skoda, about 350 million tons of plastic are produced every year in the world, but only 10% of it is recycled.

Already today, recycled plastic is widely used in every Skoda Octavia Station, and thus the floor of the trunk, the upholstery and the carpets are made from a cycle of 340 1.5 liter drinking bottles.

The leading model in the use of recycled plastic or the electric Aniac, when customers who purchase the "Lodge" trim level will receive a passenger compartment rich in recycled plastic (seat upholstery,

Passenger cabin in the VISION 7S model.

A floor made of recycled tires (Photo: Shashi Cohen)

Wooden decks for the passenger compartment made from sugar factory waste

During the event, Skoda Octavia was also presented in a prototype version that includes extensive use of innovative recycling technologies, including the production of plastic fenders from used fenders, with a promise of the same durability and strength and without the use of special additives.

The wheel arches and wheel linings will also be made of recycled plastic in the future, and inside the passenger cabin there will be an innovation with the use of vegetable waste from a sugar factory (from sugar beets) which is combined with the familiar ABS plastic and creates wood-like surfaces to decorate the passenger cabin.

At the same time, the company admits that the aforementioned innovations will be difficult to implement already in the near future, because their transportation costs and the more complex production process make this business more expensive and the adoption of such technologies may cause production costs to become more expensive, a move that apparently may be stopped by the board of directors The company... to our question why the use of recycled plastic bottles does not also flow to the other models of the manufacturer, we received the answer that "if in the past the purchase of used plastic bottles was particularly cheap,

An energy storage room will extend the use of batteries for up to 15 years (Photo: Shashi Cohen)

Getting down to the little details: Skoda's famous umbrella is also being updated

As part of the effort to achieve carbon emission neutrality, which is also possible with the help of emission offsets in factories with the development of green energy sources in the near and far environment, such as the construction of a power plant in Finland based on the production of electricity from wind energy, Skoda works on all levels and even the manufacturer's famous umbrella, the one on the side of the driver's door , which started as a gimmick in 2003 in the Skoda Superb and has reached almost all the manufacturer's models in recent years, is undergoing a change.

The new umbrella has a fabric made from recycled plastic and its coloring is done with a new technology with minimal chemical damage to the environment, along with the use of a recycled plastic handle.

If you chose the more prestigious wooden handle, then the manufacturer guarantees that for every tree that is cut down for the purpose of making the handles, a new tree will be planted instead.

If you thought that this was something negligible in terms of impact on the environment, consider that Skoda produces around one million cars on average every year, which include one million umbrellas...

Getting around the battery factory by bicycle with a license number according to the type of department to which they belong (Photo: Shashi Cohen)

A second life cycle for batteries used in electric vehicles

During the visit to the Czech Republic, we were also invited to a rare tour of Skoda's new battery factory near the main car manufacturing plant in Mladá Boleslav.

This is a factory that was established in 2019 and initially produced the small batteries for the "mild hybrid" models, and a little later also the larger batteries for the manufacturer's plug-in hybrid models, and starting in May 2022 began producing the really large batteries that serve 100% models Electric like the two configurations of Skoda Aniac.

This is the first plant of the Volkswagen concern to manufacture batteries outside of Germany for the manufacturer's MEB electric platform models, and the batteries that are produced are probably also intended for Audi, Volkswagen and Seat electric models.

The factory's production capacity is 250,000 batteries per year and the factory is already in an expansion phase that promises a production capacity of 380,000 batteries per year by the end of 2023.

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The news is according to Skoda, and it is not all good

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At the factory, Skoda also presented us with its plans for the future treatment of used batteries, in which the company will give the batteries a "second life cycle" that will extend their life up to 15 years, during which every 5 batteries of an electric Aniac will be turned into an energy storage room that will be supplied to Skoda dealerships, factories, companies and more.

The capacity of the energy room is up to 300 kWh, and enables, among other things, the supply of electricity to the business, the charging of electric vehicles through a fast charging station up to 150 kWh, the storage of energy and its use as leftovers in the event of a power outage due to load or weather problems for example, as well as storage Energy during low hours when the electricity rate is cheaper and its use during peak hours.

According to Skoda, about 4,000 such stations will be deployed in the coming years and the expected return of batteries after use is 75,000 by 2030, out of the 2 million Skoda electric cars expected to be on the road by the end of the decade.

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