Skoda remains committed to offering models other than SUVs as it progresses towards full electrification and will replace its most popular cars with EV equivalents.
One such example is the Skoda Octavia, which remains the brand's best-selling model despite the growing popularity of SUVs and is tipped to be succeeded by an electric equivalent.
In the first nine months of 2021, Skoda sold 159,400 Octavias, meaning it substantially outsold the brand's three SUVs. In the same period, Skoda sold 99,100 Skoda Kamiqs, 96,600 Skoda Karoqs and 82,600 Skoda Kodiaqs.
Nonetheless, SUVs account for a huge proportion of the brand's sales, and its first three bespoke EVs will all sit in this segment. The Skoda Enyaq iV will soon be followed by a smaller crossover and Skoda's entry-level EV, due around 2025, will be a compact, urban-oriented EV in the vein of its Volkswagen ID 2 sibling.
However, sales and marketing boss Martin Jahn told Autocar that Skoda doesn't plan to become exclusively an SUV manufacturer.
"We're committed to the needs of our customers," he said. "In the future, we will always try to find shapes and bodystyles that our customers are expecting. I think that we will continue with the range of cars of Skoda Octavia and Skoda Superb. We still see a need for these cars, so they will continue for some time."
And such cars still have a place in the brand's future electric line-up beyond that, according to Jahn. He said: "We will be looking at bringing a car similar to Octavia, a car with a similar purpose: for people who are a bit more conservative, who don't want an SUV, or for company fleets who don't want to have SUVs but want different body shapes."
That suggests that any electric Octavia equivalent won't share the current car's name, and indeed Skoda is following a similar product strategy to parent company Volkswagen in marketing its new bespoke EVs separately from existing combustion models. Skoda could offer its own version of Volkswagen's upcoming 'Aero-B' electric saloon, which itself is essentially an EV equivalent of the Volkswagen Passat.
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Sure SUVs are profitable and can accommodate batteries under the floor but if you want the whole market to be EVs by 2035 then there needs to be more choice of body styles.
Sure SUVs are profitable and can accommodate batteries under the floor but if you want the whole market to be EVs by 2035 then there needs to be more choice of body styles.