Electric estate is ‘spiritual successor’ to Octavia
SKODA believes that its new electric estate can be a “spiritual successor” to the Octavia, with appeal for that model’s huge customer base. But the firm is remaining tight-lipped on plans for any further generations of the model with combustion-engined power.
The existing Octavia was introduced in 2019 and will receive significant upgrades in early 2024. These are believed to incorporate additional, more efficient hybrid powertrains (including a new PHEV), improvements to the cabin tech and styling tweaks that will feature Skoda’s latest corporate identity.
The updates should see the Octavia through until 2027, by which point the European Union’s contentious Euro 7 emissions rules will be in place. Skoda is aiming, meanwhile, for 70 per cent of its European sales to be EVs by 2030 – so the firm may settle for a further upgrade of the Octavia to see it through the final few years of the decade.
Such a move would mirror that being made by Volkswagen, which has confirmed that there will be no combustion-engined Golf Mk9.
Skoda’s plan could make the electric wagon – revealed in sculpture form last week and scheduled to make its debut in 2026 – a hugely significant model, designed to attract Octavia hatch and estate owners to pure-electric motoring.
Skoda CEO Klaus Zellmer declined to confirm that the all-electric estate will be the official successor to the current models. But he confirmed that his engineers are targeting a boot capacity of 600 litres for the car, only just shy of the current Octavia Estate’s 640 litres.
“The phrase ‘spiritual successor’ is appropriate,” Zellmer said. “We do now have in our planned line-up a car that’s ideal for Octavia customers looking for a battery-electric vehicle – one that’s not an SUV. Will it be exactly like an Octavia on dimensions and so forth? I can’t tell you because we’re still working on it. But I think it will be the perfect option for someone who drives an Octavia today.
“It has to make sense technically but also economically, because we want to meet a certain price point.”
Skoda’s board member for technical development, Johannes Neft, said that the estate’s low-roofed stance makes it a tricky EV to engineer. “It has the biggest challenge,” he said, “but it’s really in one key area: height. We’re working hard on this because the starting point with an EV is always a little higher. But a lot of this is about feedback, too; we want to hear from our customers if having a combi [estate] in our EV line-up is something that they want. The early feedback has been encouraging.”
The timing of Skoda’s electric estate means it will be based on an evolution of the MEB architecture that underpins the existing Enyaq. Called MEB+, it’s likely to deliver a range of more than 400 miles and charging rates of up to 200kW.
“The electric wagon is designed to attract Octavia hatchback and estate owners to electric motoring”