ŠKODA SUPERB iV recuperating around Ještěd

As ŠKODA’s first plug-in hybrid, the SUPERB iV ushered in lots of new features. Hop in as it ascends the iconic Ještěd peak and recuperates on the way back down!

18. 2. 2021 eMobility

Ještěd

Ještěd is a peak 1,012 metres high located to the southwest of the city of Liberec in North Bohemia. Although it is only the 347th highest mountain in Czechia, it is one of the best-known, thanks to the unique television transmitter and the hotel that has been open since 1973. The building is in the shape of a single-piece circular hyperboloid and is almost 100 metres tall. The structure was designed by Karel Hubáček, co-founder of the acclaimed Czech architecture studio SIAL. In spring 1969 Karel Hubáček received the August Perret Prize, the highest award of the International Union of Architects, for his creative use of technology in architecture. In the year 2000 the building was declared the “Greatest Czech Building of the 20th Century”.

Thanks to her plug-in hybrid ŠKODA SUPERB iV, Anna’s journey from the pretty village of Kryštofovo Údolí was swift but consumed minimal fuel. With its 13 kWh battery housed beneath the floor of the luggage compartment, the SUPERB iV can travel up to 62 kilometres on electric power alone.

Beneath the bonnet the SUPERB iV has a four-cylinder 1.4 TSI petrol engine generating 115 kW as well as an 85 kW electric motor. A six-speed DSG automatic gearbox delivers power to the wheels. By using the transmission selector lever, Anna helps gain the maximum benefit from energy recuperation on the drive from Ještěd back down to the village. This makes the electric motor “reverse” its function, so electricity flows back into the battery instead of discharging from it. The energy is generated by engine braking while driving downhill.

The driver can easily change the recuperation effect and thus also the intensity of engine braking without touching the brake pedal. With the transmission in the standard D, or drive, position, the recuperation intensity, i.e. the amount the car slows down when freewheeling, is lower; selecting B brings a more intensive braking effect, with more energy delivered to the battery. Thanks to this capability, Anna arrives back in the village without using a drop of petrol and also with minimal strain on the brakes, which would otherwise have to work hard on this kind of drive. This also means a safer journey. And at the end of the trip, there was a lot more energy in the battery than when it arrived at the top of Ještěd peak.

Kryštofovo Údolí

Kryštofovo Údolí is a pretty little village nestling in a deep valley around 8 kilometres to the west of Liberec in North Bohemia. It has a population of just under 400. The village boasts highly picturesque architecture, with many buildings featuring on the List of Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic. These include the Church of St Christopher, the local Museum of Folk Nativity Cribs and the stone Railway Viaduct, which also illustrate the considerable diversity of the local monuments. And as the magnificent house by young architect Petr Venclovský shows, modern architecture has its place here too.