After Volkswagen announced last year that it would abandon the development of new natural gas vehicles throughout the Group, the market is dead. Other manufacturers have long since withdrawn. However, there are still some latecomers coming into the trade, which were already designed before the spectacular decision of March 2020. One of them is the new Škoda Octavia, and to anticipate the most important conclusion: it is one of the best natural gas vehicles we have driven in the past 20 years.
Michael Spehr (misp.), Technology & Engine, economy Follow I follow
As usual for some time in the VW group, the Octavia monovalent is designed, so has only a small gasoline emergency tank with 11.8 liters, but takes up a total of 17.3 kilograms of gas with three CNG tanks. It is not possible to switch between the two drive modes manually; natural gas is used until the tanks are empty. Then the switch to petrol is automatically carried out, which is also needed for a few minutes at the start of the engine.
The natural gas Octavia, which we drove as a station wagon, was previously only available with seven-speed DSG, front-wheel drive and in the two upscale equipment lines Ambition and Style. Now it is also available with a manual six-speed manual transmission and in the Active and Clever versions. The 1.5-liter engine always delivers 130 hp, the maximum torque is 200 Newton meters. This means that the vehicle, which weighs 1560 kilograms and includes the driver, is not a sprinter, but well motorized. The standard sprint is completed in ten seconds, and if you want to make rapid progress, you can reach a comfortable cruising speed between 180 and 215 km / h with a certain effort, but significantly faster than in most other natural gas vehicles.
Goes fast, but the number of gas stations is low. : Bild: Hersteller
Anyone who thinks about the environment, wants to save and reins the foot of the gas, however, is rewarded with consumption of less than four kilograms for 100 kilometers, and that is a very spectacular value. In this way, the natural gas range also increases to a considerable 430 kilometers. In the mixed operation we achieved an average consumption of 4.7 kilograms of H-gas and thus consumption costs of only 5.60 euros for 100 kilometers. The manufacturer states an average consumption of 3.6 kilograms and CO2 emissions of 99 grams per kilometer. The base price of the cheapest natural gas variant amounts to 26 740 euros and is therefore between the comparable gasoline engine, which of course has 150 hp, and below the 150 HP diesel.
The natural gas Octavia brings all the advantages of gasoline or diesel, you are amazed at the ample space, the impeccable workmanship and high appearance of the materials. Despite the natural gas tanks stored in the underbody, the cargo volume decreases only slightly, it amounts to up to 1700 liters in the station wagon with the rear seats folded over. There were only two things that bothered us: the very lame automatic start-stop, when it came to getting the engine switched off at the traffic lights or crossroads back on its feet, and the lane keeping assistant, which cannot leave it at a warning, but repeatedly sounds an intrusive acoustic alarm.
