Autumn issue of the Český autoprůmysl magazine
If a quarterly journal wants to maintain a certain degree of relevance in the three-month interval, it must contain topics that are timeless or forward-looking. I dare say that in
Automotive Leaders Forum for the third time, this year on the topic of “sustainability”
8/7/2024 |Articles are machine translated
Minister of transportation Martin Kupka at this year's Automotive Leaders Forum 2024. | Photo: Josef Horázný
More than a hundred guests gathered at the unique work and social event Automotive Leaders Forum at the Mánes Gallery this year. This time the Automotive Industry Association prepared it with an emphasis on sustainability. The evening included a tour of the exhibition on sustainability in the automotive industry and the announcement of the best automotive companies for 2023.
At the third edition of the Automotive Leaders Forum, which took place on 27 June 2024 as last year in the functionalist building of Galerie Mánes, the Automotive Industry Association invited not only representatives of AutoSAP member companies but also other guests, both from the state administration and cooperating organizations. More than a hundred people thus marked the highest attendance in the event’s history.
The evening began with a tour of the exhibition specially prepared for the occasion, where companies from the automotive industry, both AutoSAP members and non-members, presented products that meet the highest sustainability criteria. These included new eco-friendly materials for use in vehicle interiors, as well as examples of recycling or production processes that leave no carbon footprint. Exhibitors included Tawesco Automotive, Plastika, Antolin, Wolters, Praktiksystem, GKN Powder Metallurgy Engineering, Treves, Van De Velde Packaging, Silon, Minth Group, Ronal, Eissmann Group Automotive, Sage Automotive Interiors, Qinshift and Trask solutions.
The second part of the evening began with short speeches. Firstly, Martin Jahn, President of the Association of the Automotive Industry and member of the Board of Directors of Škoda Auto, greeted the attendees and mentioned, among other things, that the domestic automotive industry has already returned to pre-crisis values in terms of production volume and has repeatedly confirmed its competitiveness. The importance of this sector was also stressed by Transport Minister Martin Kupka, who, among other things, recalled the Czech Republic’s success last year in negotiations on the softer Euro 7 standard.
The theme of sustainability, which was the subtitle of this year’s Automotive Leaders Forum event, was not only reflected in the exhibition, but also in two presentations. Škoda Auto Board Member Karsten Schnake titled his presentation “Sustainability as a business case”. In this context, he spoke about both regulatory requirements and the strategy being implemented throughout the Volkswagen Group. He gave examples of how VW Group companies use environmentally friendly materials or how they deal with the circular economy. He stressed that the customer always comes first.
Soňa Klepek Jonášová, founder of the Institute of Circular Economy, gave a presentation on the identical topic (“Sustainability and Circularity as Opportunity”), which she conceived as part of the Green Deal. She mentioned, among other things, some of the results of a survey on corporate sustainability: for example, that 81 percent of companies with more than 250 employees already have a sustainability specialist on their team.
The evening also included the traditional announcement of the winners of the Automotive Business of the Year competition. The winners for 2023 were 3M Czech Republic, exe and Tawesco Automotive among companies with up to 250 employees, and Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech, Iveco Czech Republic and Škoda Auto among companies with more than 250 employees. Representatives of the awarded companies received handmade original glass sculptures from the workshop of glass master Lukáš Šulc from Železný Brod.
An equally important part of the Automotive Leaders Forum was the subsequent informal networking, which took place to a pleasant musical accompaniment and especially during the consumption of mostly sustainable delicacies.
The Automotive Industry Association would like to thank all the partners of the event, which were Škoda Auto (general partner); ČEZ ESCO, EY, Panattoni, Renomia, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing, T-Mobile (main partners); ACEA, Hofmann Wizard, Iveco Bus, Onsemi, Pražská energetika, QPAG, Thein and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Czech (partners). The media partner of the whole evening was the magazine Český autoprůmysl.
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