Skoda will debut its first ever electric car in 2020/21 as a variant of the all-new VW Group ‘MEB’ battery-electric platform, in a major push to offer electric variants of several models.
Skoda engineers are part of the planning team working on new VW Group battery-electric technology, which has a target to produce a car with a range of 480-plus kilometres, 15-minute charging time and a cost below a comparative combustion-engined vehicle.
"The group is working on a modular, new electric platform and we are in the team," new Skoda chairman Bernhard Maier told our sister publication Autocar UK.
"There is no alternative to electrification. We have to tackle it," says Maier.
The MEB architecture is being specifically developed for electric cars and was first revealed in the VW Budd-e MPV concept at January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The batteries are packaged in a flat, sandwich floor, a similar idea used on Skoda’s Vision S plug-in hybrid concept at Geneva.
By packaging the batteries in the middle of the platform, Skoda created space to fit a third row of seats into the boot area. Up to now, hybrid SUVs have packaged the batteries under the boot floor, ruling out the fitment of a third row of seats.
Details of Skoda’s variant of the VW Group battery electric car are scant, but to stay true to its brand it will likely combine a more practical and roomy hatchback body and greater luggage space than other versions being developed by the VW Group while offering value-for-money pricing.
The production SUV based on the Vision S, for example, will have a huge 690-litre boot with 2010 litres available with the seats folded down.
‘But we haven’t decided exactly what the BEV vehicle will be yet. We don’t need to make the final decisions yet,’ added Maier.
Skoda’s first battery electric vehicle (BEV) will actually be the second launch in a new range of electrified powertrains that Maier is pushing through as part of the Group’s response to Dieselgate.
The first Skoda with an electrified powertrain will be a plug-in hybrid Superb, expected in 2019, which uses batteries and motors available as part of the MQB platform component set. The more rapid introduction by Skoda of plug-in hybrids and BEVs is part of Maier’s new ten-year corporate plan called ‘Strategy 2025’, which replaces the previous ‘Strategy 2018’ plan, which had no plans for electric Skodas.
A significant element in ’Strategy 2025’ responds to the collapse of the Russian car market, which was previously forecast as a significant growth area for Skoda.
Plans for more electric models, for example of the Fabia and Octavia whose replacements are farther in the future, are likely to firm up in coming years as Maier adapts the strategy to events and market trends. ‘We will check and balance our operational priorities over the next three years,’ he says.
Julian Rendell (Autocar UK)