Škoda claims infrastructure is the hindrance, despite services being available for electromobility – Novinky

In addition to the charging infrastructure, which is of course key for the development of electromobility, there is another obstacle – the readiness of the service network of the given car company to ensure that its customers who buy an electric car do not have to drive across half the country to the service center. However, as already indicated by the demonstration of the replacement of the module in the battery of cars on the MEB platform of the Volkswagen group, this obstacle is now only theoretical.

The brands of the Volkswagen concern, which also includes Škodovka from Mladá Boleslav, are quite well prepared for the repair and maintenance of electric cars. And it was Škoda that explained what it all entails.

Although not every service can do all the work on an electric car here either, everywhere they can accept an electric car for repair. Here, too, the service personnel are trained at three levels, of which the two higher ones – high-voltage technician (VNT) and high-voltage expert (VNE) – can perform other than purely mechanical work on the cars. At least one technician works in every authorized service point, there are thirty-two so-called expert services in the Czech Republic, evenly distributed across the country.

“Due to the absence of many drivetrain components with an internal combustion engine, servicing an electric car takes less time on average, but requires specific technical equipment and technician training. This places high demands on the service network, which are partly different from those of the past. Even the service operations usually have a different character and our authorized partners had to adapt to them in a very short time,” says Jan Pícha, head of Škoda’s service services.

A technician at Škoda, unlike other brands of the Volkswagen group in the Czech Republic, does not need an electrical education, given by the “fifty” – until recently Decree No. 50/1978 on professional competence in electrical engineering, from July 2022 by Act No. 250/2021 on occupational safety in connection with the operation of dedicated technical equipment. It does not open the battery itself or work on the car under high voltage. Only a high-voltage expert can do that, and of course he needs that kind of education.

However, if the module needs to be replaced, the enyaq owner does not have to travel far to a specialized service. Any service can remove the battery from the car thanks to the presence of a high-voltage technician. They will then send it to the expert, where they can take it apart and repair it. Or he can replace it entirely, just like the electric motor.

In addition to technicians, workshops also need specialized equipment. It’s not only about diagnostic devices and tools, but also about the lifting capacity of jacks – electric cars are heavier than conventional cars. However, the car manufacturer can lend some tools to service centers, e.g. an air conditioner filler working with a CO2-filled system, or a so-called module balancer – a charger that can charge a new module to the same level as the other modules in the battery before installing it in the battery.

Changing the module takes two people – here too, two people work on the insides of the battery – one shift. According to Pavel Jína from Škoda, the price of such work, if it were not covered by the warranty, is roughly at the level of 60 to 70 thousand crowns, depending on the hourly rate of service work. According to Jan Hrbek from Škoda, the module itself will cost 45,000 crowns including VAT.

Despite the demanding requirements for service equipment and technician training, according to Miroslav Holan, head of strategy development and business network at Škodovka, infrastructure is still the biggest obstacle. It is gradually expanding – several hundred charging stations were added last year alone, but building a new charger is time-consuming, especially due to the permitting process. The approval process for a fast charger can take a year or two, the physical location of the charger is a matter of months.

According to Holano, it is not so much the lack of electricity in general as the quality of the distribution network that stands in the way of infrastructure development. If an operator wants to build a high-speed charger, he very often also needs a substation and new lines.

In this regard, it may seem like a good way to use energy storage, for example from batteries that no longer have enough capacity to drive an electric car, but can still function as storage. Such stands in Prague’s Chodov; so far it is the only one in the Czech Republic.

The main advantages of such a solution are two. On the one hand, there is no need to build a new power line to handle a three-hundred-kilowatt charger, and on the other hand, its operator does not have to pay for the so-called reserved power. By default, he would still have to pay for enough electricity to charge with a power of 300 kW, even though the rack would be empty most of the day, because such a charger constantly “draws” only a small amount of power from the grid to charge that storage. This also means a faster return on investment.

Škoda wants to offer three more fully electric models by 2026. The plan for 2030 is that 70% of cars sold in Europe will be electric cars; in the Czech Republic, this share should be 50 percent. According to the automaker, 3,892 electric cars were sold here in 2022, of which Škoda had a market share of 33.2 percent.