Final Word from Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Chair Klaus Zellmer of Škoda Auto told LN that the most important thing for future sales of electric vehicles in the CR will be energy prices. What exactly he meant isn't clear, and LN didn't ask, but he might have been saying that sales of e-vehicles in the CR will depend on the relative prices of electricity on the one hand, and gasoline, diesel and synthetic fuel on the other. PM Petr Fiala told Czech ambassadors in Prague on Mon. that his government has managed in a short period to completely reconfigure the CR's energy flows (natural gas and oil) and, after many years, to regain "energy independence." In reality, the CR is merely exchanging dependence on Russia for reliance on others, without reducing the overall level of dependence. Both Fiala and Energy Envoy Václav Bartuška stressed two years ago that due to its location, the CR will always need help from other European countries because it is at the end of the pipelines. Taken together with what Zellmer said, this could mean that future sales of e-vehicles in the CR will depend to some extent on how much fossil fuel Germany is able and willing to deliver to Czech consumers. [ Czech Republic Lidové noviny Volkswagen ]