The Automotive Industry in the Moravian-Silesian Region and Its Future
POSITIV 3/2021 45
The percentage of electric vehicles in the fleet is steadily
increasing, although they still represent a minor part of
the fleet. Fully electric cars, together with plug-in hybrids,
accounted for 3.1% of all vehicle registrations in the first
half of this year and their percentage is growing steadily.
The EU average is around 15%. Last year‘s pandemic
year recorded the biggest increase in registrations, with
5,241 electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrids) put
into operation, and more than a fourfold year-by-year
increase. Despite this, we are below the EU average,
ranking eighteenth out of twenty-seven countries. The
escalation of electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrids)
is led especially by the Nordic countries, together with
Germany, where the number of newly registered EVs
is in the tens of thousands. The absolute champion in
Europe is Norway, where two out of every three cars sold
were EVs and together with plug-in hybrids accounting
for an incredible 75% of all automobiles sold. Hand-in-
hand with the rapid take-up of electro-mobility, there are
also new challenges that have to be solved, whether it
be the still-lengthy charging process, the lack of charging
stations (especially high-speed ones) or the capacity of
the grid.
The Moravian-Silesian Region also believes in the use of
alternative types of propulsion. In this case, however, it
is not just about electromobility, but about the use of
hydrogen as a fuel. In 2018, the Moravian-Silesian Region
and the City of Ostrava agreed to support hydrogen
technologies in public transport. At the same time, the
Moravian-Silesian Region and the company Vítkovice
Cylinders from the Cylinders Holding Group signed
a memorandum of cooperation in this area. This step
means a gradual transformation to a so-called coal-free
era for the region. The aim of the common approach
is to support emissions-free transport, which will help
improve the environment and satisfy the targets of the
EU Green Transformation Plan, of which transportation is
an important part. At the same time, a new, progressive
and innovative sector will emerge that has the potential to
create new jobs and reduce unemployment.
This covers the production of technological units from
cleaning and filling plants to transportation equipment
and can provide work for several thousand people in
the region. At the moment, preparations are already in
progress for the purchase of the first hydrogen buses,
which should start operating in 2023 and would initially
serve Havířov and its surrounding zones. The next
step will be the use of hydrogen propulsion in railway
transport. The advantage of hydrogen transportation
compared to electric mobility is rapid refuelling at
the level of conventional fuels. Additionally, hydrogen
production can be completely emissions-free. In this area,
the Moravian-Silesian Region has reached an agreement
with the Ostrava coking plant on the future production of
hydrogen from coke oven gases for buses, which would
normally be burned without any purpose and thus pollute
the air.
Jan Světlík goes even further in the field of hydrogen
utilization with his Cylinders Holding group and Vítkovice
company, which own large reclaimed tracks of land
in Ostrava. Vítkovice is working in cooperation with
Cylinders Holding on a vision to transform more than
100 hectares of reclaimed area of the former slagheap
in Hrabůvka into a so-called hydrogen district H2, which
should offer energy systems using hydrogen and other
alternative sources, emissions-free transport, modern
‘green houses’ and space for entertainment, job offers
in innovative companies and a setting for science and
research. The whole process of using hydrogen in practice
should be facilitated by the planned Centre for Energy
and Environmental Technologies-Explorer (CEETe), which
is expected to start operations by 2023 on the grounds
of VŠB-TUO. One of the main tasks of the centre will
be to explore the use of various sources of hydrogen
as an emissions-free energy source, fully in line with the
principles of circular economy.