Skoda Vision E concept.
PRAGUE: Skoda had previously stated it intended to bring 10 electrified models to market by 2025, with six of them being all-electric and the other four being plug-in hybrids.
Considering how ambitious other manufacturers are being with their electrification plans lately, it probably shouldn't come as too much of a shock that Skoda is now moving things forward faster by announcing five of its electrified vehicles will arrive in the next two years.
It had already been confirmed by the brand that a plug-in hybrid version of the Superb will be launched into the market in 2019, and it will then be followed by the brand's first all-electric model in the form of the Citigo-e, which will be a close relative of the VW e-Up and Seat e-Mii.
Skoda outlined in its report on its 2017 financial results that in 2020, the brand will introduce a production version of its Vision E electric crossover concept built using the Volkswagen Group's electric MEB platform, and that model is designed to sit in the range between the Karoq and Kodiaq in terms of its size.
Superb.
That then leaves two as yet unconfirmed models to arrive by 2020, but they're not expected to be all-electric models so are likely to be plug-in hybrids.
Skoda's CEO Bernhard Maier has already hinted in the past that the next model to get electrified will be the Kodiaq, so a plug-in version of the Octavia is a good bet to complete the promised quintet.
One thing that has yet to be decided is a naming strategy for Skoda's standalone electric models. It's an issue Skoda isn't alone in having to address, although it might choose not to separate them out from their conventionally powered models at all.
While the likes of Mercedes and Volkswagen have settled on the specific names of EQ and ID respectively for theirs, a number of other brands are not bothering to do similar.
Autocar reported Skoda's sales and marketing chief, Alain Favey, admitting, "it's a very good question. We haven't yet come to a decision on the naming strategy for electric-only models. We are discussing it."
