Skoda and Landi Renzo - 10 years have passed

For 10 years, Skoda has been cooperating with Landi Renzo, a company that manufactures gas installations. On this occasion, we were invited to the plant of this enterprise to see "from the inside" how the production process of these units looks like. Incidentally, we also learned a bit about how the two companies work together. We invite you to our report.

The event took place in Italy. The tenth anniversary of the "wedding" of Skoda and Landi Renzo proved to be a good opportunity to present the course of this cooperation to a wider audience. We recently tested several models with this setup, we were also curious about how it looks “from the kitchen”.

There is no secret in the bottom line, but it is worth mentioning. Skoda factory settings, although many may call them that, are not exactly "factory". They are added to ready-made, already assembled models by authorized services. Landi Renzo units, however, are designed for Skoda models - they are based on a specially prepared project and arrive at the Dealership pre-assembled - to reduce the human factor during assembly.

A whole team of people worked on how the individual components should look. The goal was not only to develop a setup that would work well with Skoda engines, but also to create a kit that could be installed quickly and easily. Services that install these units are scattered throughout Poland. Their employees are properly trained according to a strictly defined procedure. This is to stop the "fantasies" of some installers. For what? So that in the course of subsequent checks and corrections, employees do not come across any fancy patents. A certain field for "window dressing" still remains open, but the preset setting should effectively limit it.

Research work on the type of equipment used was carried out for quite a long time. In this way, the chances of uptime can be increased. Engines with these "factory" gas settings are covered by a two-year warranty - 2 years for the engine and 2 years for installation. The warranty can be implemented at all authorized Skoda service stations in Poland.

Since this issue has already been clarified, we are moving towards cars. It's time to get behind the wheel of a Skoda powered by LPG.

Around Lake Garda

The views are really beautiful. Lake Garda is famous for its beautiful roads around and is a popular holiday destination. Ben Collins' famous Aston Martin DBS chase scene was also filmed here, for the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, of course. While the chase scenes were filmed without special effects, we were not going to repeat the exploits of Ben. We don't even have a V12 under the hood anyway.

However, we have slightly smaller units - we have Fabia 1.0 with LPG, Octavia 1.4 TSI and Rapida at our disposal. The route was almost 200 km, so we could already sum up some results. Fabia with this installation is really trouble-free, although the 75-horsepower engine is clearly weak. There is no question of overtaking or ambitious, fun driving.

The situation is different in Octavia with 1.4 TSI. The new engine, with 10 hp more power, keeps the pace going for a great driving experience. We do not feel any alarming symptoms or oddities here - there are no extra petrol injections, no moments of changing the drive source. The gas-powered Octavia is so fun to drive that... we don't even want to get into the Rapid.

However, the installation added to the finished car has its drawbacks. For example, we could not measure gas consumption in any way. There was no refueling, and the computer only shows results for gasoline. 

However, we got to the Landi Renzo factory - let's see how it looks.

Under the veil of secrecy

Having reached the factory, we get information that it will not work to take pictures inside. Industrial secret. So it remains for us to describe what we met there.

The scale of this project is particularly impressive. The site where the Landi Renzo gas installations are being built is really big. Inside, we see a lot of machines and robots that have taken on some of the tasks of people. However, the last word is up to the person, and many components are assembled by hand. 

Therefore, we are not surprised by the large scale of employment. We are surprised by the large percentage of Polish workers. The plant also has a test center - several dynamometers and workshop stands, where employees test solutions before they are introduced to the market.

After a quick "trip" we are still waiting for a conference at which the owner of the company, Mr. Stefano Landi, will speak. In a nutshell, the Italians value cooperation with the Poles, they are satisfied with both the employees and the cooperation with the Polish branch of Skoda. The President also expressed hope for the next 10 years of trouble-free cooperation.

We leave looks behind us

The beginning of cooperation between Skoda and Landi Renzo was not easy. Ultimately, the routes of these two companies coincided for 10 years. Thanks to this collaboration, vehicles that have so far had very good value for money can also compete with operating costs. After all, driving on gas is very cheap.

Customers appreciate this because, although we sometimes like to complain, Skoda is still one of the leading manufacturers in terms of sales in Poland. Cars with gas installations will definitely make their contribution here.