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The ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab has begun a special project in Munich – the ‘CareDriver’ mobility and social service.

Specially trained ‘CareProfs’ accompany people requiring assistance in their daily routine and in their leisure time. ŠKODA AUTO provides its bestselling ŠKODA OCTAVIA to the service provider at special rates. The car manufacturer’s innovation centre, the ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab, supports ‘CareDriver’ as a provider of ideas and investor.

“ŠKODA AUTO is evolving from a pure car manufacturer into a provider of integral mobility services,” said Andre Wehner, Chief Digital Officer at ŠKODA AUTO. “That also includes offering mobility services to those who, for different reasons, cannot live their everyday lives independently.

With its expertise in the field of digitalisation, the ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab supports ‘CareDriver’ to a great degree and significantly contributes to the start-up’s success by assisting with clever concepts and providing technical support.” Jarmila Plachá, the Head of the ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab, pointed out that, “‘CareDriver’ makes a valuable contribution to society. We are therefore supporting the project wholeheartedly.”

The service was launched in February 2017 with the aim of giving families their time and mobility back. In Munich, numerous customers now put their trust in the service. The ‘CareProfs’ as they’re known, are qualified care professionals. They take children to school or help the elderly and people with disabilities go about their daily routine. ‘CareDriver’ also provides accessible transport for people with disabilities thanks to trained staff and specialised vehicles. As and when required, customers can book the service either on the website www.caredriver.de, or via email, WhatsApp, Facebook, an app or by telephone. As an investor and provider of ideas, the ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab is instrumental in the development of the start-up. ŠKODA AUTO provides its bestselling ŠKODA OCTAVIA to the service provider at special rates.

‘CareProf’ applicants are selected following a strict procedure. Each care professional must first be compared against a 10-point checklist, and is subsequently continuously assessed. In addition to experience with children or the elderly, they must also prove their social and communicative skills and have a trade licence as well as a clear criminal record. Candidates must also have held a driving licence for a minimum of 3 years. This means that ‘CareDriver’ customers can count on friendly and qualified staff.

As part of its 2025 Strategy, ŠKODA has defined digitalisation and the creation of digital mobility services as one of the pillars for the company’s future development. Here, a key role is played by the ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab in Prague, which is expected to strengthen the Czech manufacturer’s innovative capability. The ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab orients the entire company towards the opportunities and demands of digitalisation. Structured like a fast-reacting IT start-up, this ideas workshop researches and develops new business models, solutions and products.

Article source: www.skoda-auto.com

Children suggest what gift they would give to Santa Claus and a fleet of four ŠKODA KAROQs transports the wishes to the Finnish town of Rovaniemi – the home of Santa Claus.

‘Celebrate Christmas another way’ – it was under this slogan that ŠKODA collected the best gift ideas for Santa Claus. Thousands of children came up with suggestions for ŠKODA AUTO’s extraordinary Christmas campaign. A fleet of four ŠKODA KAROQs picked up the wishes from several European countries and drove them to the Christmas Village near Rovaniemi in Finland.

He is constantly on the road during the coming holidays, bringing joy to people around the world, yet Santa Claus himself does not receive a single gift for Christmas. This year, ŠKODA prepared a special surprise for him: Before he could load the sled and put the harness on the reindeer, he was visited by four ŠKODA KAROQs in his Christmas village near the Arctic Circle. The four compact SUVs brought the wish lists of many thousands of children from six European countries. However, the wish lists were not for what the children wanted themselves, but rather what they would give to Santa. The gift ideas included, for example, a holiday in the Caribbean, automatic air conditioning for sleigh rides in hotter countries, and a new ŠKODA as a transport vehicle with even more room for gifts.

With the wish lists in their luggage, the ŠKODA KAROQs – one from the Moldovan capital of Chişinău and the other from Berlin – embarked on their Arctic tour. They met in Warsaw and continued their tour north. The route took the compact SUVs to the North Cape, the northernmost point of Europe. Then, the KAROQ caravan dropped off the wish lists in the Christmas Village near Rovaniemi near the Arctic Circle. In total, the four KAROQ covered a distance of 23,400 kilometres.

In addition, ŠKODA took nine families on the trip of a lifetime. The winners of the exciting Lapland tour were drawn from everyone who had submitted a wish list. In Rovaniemi and the surrounding area, they went on a reindeer safari, saw a show put on by the elves and visited the Lapland ice gallery with its unique snow castle. The highlight was a visit to the Christmas Village where they got to meet Santa Claus in person.

An entertaining video shows the highlights of the journey through the Winter Wonderland. It is now available at ŠKODA Storyboard and can be downloaded.

ŠKODA wishes you a Merry Christmas!

Article source: www.skoda-auto.com

ŠKODA SUPERB wins best import car in the executive car segment and new ŠKODA KAROQ is the best SUV costing less than 25,000 euros in the import car category.

The readers and online users of the ‘Auto Zeitung’ have chosen ŠKODA as the best import brand. It is already the eighth time that the long-established Czech brand has won the coveted ‘Auto Trophy’ award. The ŠKODA OCTAVIA also ranks among the serial winners: the compact car has been named best import car in the compact car segment for the third time in a row. A further ‘Auto Trophy’ has been awarded to the ŠKODA SUPERB as the best import car in the executive car segment. Straight away, the readers of ‘Auto Zeitung’ have voted the ŠKODA KAROQ the best SUV costing less than 25,000 euros in the import car category.

ŠKODA has long been popular with the readers and online users of ‘Auto Zeitung’. In this year’s ‘Auto Trophy’ poll, they once again chose the Czech manufacturer as the best import brand – for the fifth time in a row – with 14.2% of the vote. Overall, it is the brand’s eighth triumph in the coveted manufacturers’ rankings.

Another serial winner at the ‘Auto Trophy’ awards is the ŠKODA OCTAVIA. This year, the brand’s bestseller triumphed with 17.7% of votes cast in the category for ‘The Best Compact Car – Import’, thereby completing a hattrick of titles following previous wins in 2015 and 2016. This is the whopping sixth time that the ŠKODA OCTAVIA has taken the prestigious honour at the ‘Auto Trophy’ awards.

To date, the ŠKODA SUPERB has also registered this number of successes at the ‘Auto Trophy’ awards. The brand’s flagship model won the title of the best imported executive car with 24.7% of the vote in this year’s poll.

The new compact SUV, the ŠKODA KAROQ, has joined the list of ŠKODA successes fresh from its market launch. With 19.1% of the vote, the latest addition to the ŠKODA model family triumphed over the competition in the category of imported SUVs costing less than 25,000 euros. In typical ŠKODA style, the KAROQ scored points for its emotive design, state-of-the-art connectivity, offering generous amount of space, high level of comfort and practical ‘Simply Clever’ features.

This year marked the 30th occurrence of Auto Zeitung’s readers’ poll. Since 2014, the ‘Auto Trophy’ awards have carried the addition ‘World’s Best Cars’ due to the fact that readers and online users of 15 international automotive publications from the publishing company Bauer Media Group can also take part in the vote. In the 2017 poll, a total of 41,190 participants registered their vote. In the German speaking areas, they chose their favourites in 20 categories, while eight ratings were put to an international vote. The four categories in which ŠKODA was successful were voted for in Germany.

Article source: www.skoda-auto.com

ŠKODA 1100 OHC is a major milestone in ŠKODA’s 116-year involvement in motorsport. One of only two surviving examples is one of the exhibition highlights at the ŠKODA Museum in Mladá Boleslav.

ŠKODA built the first example of the sports prototype ŠKODA 1100 OHC 60 years ago. The open-top two-seat racing car with the internal type designation 968 demonstrated a number of ground-breaking technical innovations. ŠKODA initially produced two open-top vehicles intended for long-distance races. In 1959, two coupés were built on this basis. One of the red open-top racers is among the highlights of the ŠKODA Museum in Mladá Boleslav.

"The ŠKODA 1100 OHC is a prime example of Czech engineering and construction," says Andrea Frydlová, Director of the ŠKODA Museum. “The car is one of the milestones in ŠKODA's 116-year involvement in motorsport."

ŠKODA began developing the two-seater in the spring of 1956. The ŠKODA 1100 OHC is powered by a longitudinally front-mounted inline four-cylinder with two camshafts in the cylinder head. With a displacement of 1089 cc, it has an output of 92 hp at 7700 rpm; the maximum engine speed is 8500/min. An output of 85 hp was spectacular at the time. As fuel, ŠKODA used high-octane aviation fuel.

With a wheelbase of 2,200 millimetres, a total length of 3,880 millimetres, a width of 1,430 millimetres and standing only 964 millimetres tall, the racing car is exceptionally flat and stretched. Thanks to its very lightweight body made of glass fibre reinforced plastic (GRP), the open-top ŠKODA 1100 OHC weighs just 550 kilograms. This extremely lightweight design contributes significantly to its tremendous acceleration and top speed of 190 to 200 km/h, depending on the axle ratio. Just as important is the low air resistance of the body. In the early stages of development, the racing car still had retractable folding headlights, but these soon had to give way to a more practical solution: fixed headlights with aerodynamic covers made of Plexiglas.

Unlike the predecessor models ŠKODA SPORT and SUPERSPORT, which were based on the robust chassis of the production model ŠKODA 1101, the 1100 OHC is a prototype. The structural basis is a latticed tube frame welded from thin-walled tubes. The car owes its excellent handling characteristics to its near-perfect weight distribution: with a 75-kilogram driver, the ratio is 49.7 to 50.3 percent in favour of the driven rear axle. The clutch, the five-speed gearbox and the transfer case are located at the back and form a single assembly unit. At the front, the wheels were mounted on a trapezoidal wishbone axle; at the rear, on a pendulum axle with trailing arms. The torsion bar suspension of the 15-inch spoked wheels were state-of-the-art technology in the late 1950s.

The sports car’s first appearance resulted in its first win. The experienced factory driver Miroslav Fousek won a race on the municipal circuit in Mladá Boleslav at the wheel of the ŠKODA 1100 OHC at the end of June 1958. In addition to victories at local sporting events, other drivers achieved success in other countries. Due to the difficult political situation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the racing cars from Mladá Boleslav were limited to competing in socialist countries.

In addition to the two open-top vehicles with GRP body built at the end of 1957, ŠKODA also produced two 1100 OHC Coupés in 1959 with a closed aluminium body. Even with this version, the engineers were able to achieve a very low total weight of only 618 kilograms while maintaining the outstanding performance of the open-top version.

Both of the coupés were badly damaged in accidents on public roads. Restorers at the ŠKODA Museum are currently working intensively on renovating a ŠKODA 1100 OHC Coupé based on the preserved chassis and the drivetrain of one of the vehicles.

One of the ŠKODA 1100 OHC is owned by the British importer ŠKODA UK, which mainly uses it at events in the United Kingdom. The other racing car usually stands in the ŠKODA Museum at the brand’s headquarters in the Bohemian town of Mladá Boleslav – unless it is participating in national and international vintage car events.

Article source: www.skoda-auto.com

The independent European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) has assessed the ŠKODA KAROQ.

The compact SUV is the Czech car manufacturer’s latest model to receive the five-star rating, making the KAROQ one of the safest compact SUVs on the road today.

“We are delighted that the new ŠKODA KAROQ has also passed the Euro NCAP tests with flying colours,” says ŠKODA Board Member for Technical Development, Christian Strube. “We are constantly working on optimising the passive and active safety of our models and developing occupant and pedestrian protection, as well as assistance systems. Numerous driver assistance systems are installed in the KAROQ that would otherwise only be found in higher vehicle classes,” says Strube.

Euro NCAP awarded the occupant protection of adult passengers an excellent 93%. In addition, Euro NCAP highlighted the protection of the cervical spine in rear-end collisions. The compact SUV’s emergency braking system worked reliably at low urban speeds and prevented almost all collisions. Euro NCAP also awarded the full score for the protection of pedestrians’ legs. The compact SUV also protected pedestrians’ heads well in the event of in a collision.

Following the ŠKODA KODIAQ, the ŠKODA KAROQ is the brand’s second vehicle to receive a five-star rating in 2017. ŠKODA is currently one of the few car manufacturers whose entire model range has received a five-star rating in the Euro NCAP test.

The KAROQ owes its outstanding passive safety to its high torsional rigidity, generous deformation zones in the extremely secure cabin and the use of high-strength and ultra-high-strength steels, for example in the side beams. In addition, the compact SUV has seven standard airbags: driver and passenger airbags, side airbags, head airbags and knee airbag. Child seats can be fixed in using Top-Tether or the Isofix system, which is also available for the front passenger seat. In the event of a rear-end collision, specially designed headrests (WOKS = Whiplash Optimized Headrests) reduce the risk of whiplash for the driver and front passenger. The proactive occupant protection system also tightens the front seatbelts in the event of a collision and closes any open windows including the sunroof. The system comes as standard in many countries.

The ŠKODA KAROQ is equipped with a large number of cameras as well as radar and sensor-based driver assistance systems. The front radar assistant, which includes city emergency braking with person recognition, helps to prevent accidents with pedestrians. Manoeuvre assist and pulling-away assist help the driver in reduced visibility and warn of hidden dangers.

Other safety features on board the ŠKODA KAROQ include an adaptive-distance assistant, a lane-keeping, camera-based traffic sign recognition, an emergency call function, a traffic jam assistant and fatigue detection.

Euro NCAP is an association of European transport ministries, automobile clubs and insurance associations based in Belgium. The organisation performs crash tests on current vehicle models and then evaluates the safety of the vehicles based on available safety systems. Euro NCAP was founded in 1997. In recent years, the crash test procedures have been continuously tightened and currently include various collision scenarios. While initially only the results of the crash tests were assessed, the evaluation of the active safety systems is now also included in the overall rating.

Article source: www.skoda-auto.com

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