ŠKODA AUTO CEO Bernhard Maier said, “With the signing of the memorandum we are taking another important step along the route from purely a car manufacturer to the Simply Clever company for the best mobility solutions. This is the finishing-line photo that we have defined as part of our 2025 Strategy.”
ŠKODA AUTO Board Member for Human Resources, Bohdan Wojnar, added, “Together with the city of Prague and the Czech Technical University, we are working with Smarty City concepts on concrete mobility services that offer our customers real added value.”
CEO of the municipal company Operátor ICT, Michal Fišer, said, “We are delighted to be collaborating with ŠKODA AUTO on global projects in the automotive industry in Prague. We are ready to maximise the collaboration between us.” Operátor ICT is responsible for the development of intelligent solutions and technologies in the capital.
The three partners are implementing concrete projects right from the start of the cooperation. The focus is on car-sharing models using future electric ŠKODA cars and the creation of a pool of electric scooters, for example. Other projects concern the area of ‘Smart Parking’. Drivers should be able to quickly and reliably find their way to an available parking space, thus avoiding unnecessary traffic. In addition, ŠKODA’s current and future mobility services are being connected to a travel card for public transport in Prague. Thus, the card will also provide its users with a car-sharing account in future.
The city of Prague, together with its municipal company Operátor ICT, recently introduced the Moje Praha (My Prague) app, which also includes vehicles from ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab’s car-sharing platform HoppyGo. The app displays the so-called car-sharing atlas, which is continuously being expanded, and shows locations where you can currently find available cars from car-sharing providers.
ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab was also involved in negotiations with the Czech Technical University, which is considered to be the country’s pre-eminent technical university. In future, the think tank will be assisting many of the projects or be responsible for leading them. ŠKODA AUTO will be lending its support as an advisory partner to the Czech Republic and the capital city, Prague, with regards to all mobility projects. Together, the three parties will bid for grants from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) which are available to support changes to mobility in cities.
The memorandum’s topics of digitalisation, the advancement of technology and the expansion of electromobility are among the pillars of the 2025 Strategy – the car manufacturer’s plan for the future. With the development of sustainable urban mobility concepts, the company is consistently continuing the transformation from being purely a car manufacturer into a provider of holistic mobility solutions.
