300 Charging Points

Three hundred charging points means three hundred plugs that can charge electric battery cars and plug-in hybrids. The cables and their plugs are based on the various types of chargers, which differ from one manufacturer to the next. You can find out more about charging and the differences between chargers here.

Some chargers are wall-mounted, others are stand-alone or in the form of a charging post, they have different charging capacities, use either direct or alternating current, and are made by different companies. The aim of this diversity is to provide adequate charging conditions for each type of charging and to test different types of electric vehicle charging.

Most charging stations are equipped with two cable plugs, in order to charge two cars at once. Due to the different charging capacities of each charger, the time it takes for the test cars’ batteries to charge can vary.

The charging stations are mainly used for testing at the moment, hence the principal “customers” of these chargers are the technical development and quality departments. Tests are being run not only on the chargers themselves, but also on their interaction with the car and on how the car itself reacts. “We have data from cars, and we will also collect data from the chargers. We are testing both the cars and the charging process,” explains Milan Dufek, who is responsible for managing the quality system.

Dozens of cars, both battery-only and plug-in hybrids, are being trial charged. The charging infrastructure plan up to 2025 expects hundreds – even thousands – of vehicles to be using these charging capacities in the next few years. The test cars will be joined in particular by employees’ company cars.

Charging stations will gradually mushroom not only in the plant complex, but also in the staff car parks. “By the end of 2019, we will have 488 charging points. By 2025, the plan is to put 7,000 charging points into operation at ŠKODA’s plants in the Czech Republic and in their immediate vicinity,” says project electrification coordinator Pavel Hanák.

Some charging stations are already available to the public. In September 2018, ŠKO-ENERGO launched the first such public fast charging station at the airport in Mladá Boleslav as part of a pilot project. Three publicly accessible ŠKODA stations were added at the Customer Centre in April 2019.