OverdriveJun 25, 2021 16:16:40 IST
Outlining its strategy for the next decade, Skoda Auto has announced it will launch three new EVs in the European market by 2030. Unlike, Audi, Skoda will not become a fully electric brand by this time but hopes EVs will account for 50 to 70 percent of sales in this region by 2030. The company aims to become one of Europe’s top five carmakers in this period. All three planned EVs will be positioned below the Enyaq iV, although the exact segments these cars will compete in haven’t been revealed.
Skoda Auto CEO Thomas Schafer, however, has confirmed that the Octavia will be offered in electric form eventually. The Octavia is currently available as a hybrid but the BEV version, when launched, will probably be based on the MEB architecture. The brand is also working on a small EV for the European market.
Skoda’s upcoming EVs will all be positioned below the Enyaq iV crossover. Image: Skoda
Production of MEB battery systems will also be launched in Mladá Boleslav this year, and by 2030, electrical components and vehicles will be produced at all three Skoda Auto’s Czech plants in Mladá Boleslav, Kvasiny and Vrchlabí by 2030. Fleet emissions, critical in the European market, are expected to be reduced by 50 percent in 2030.
From the Indian perspective, Skoda is keeping all options open. The Kushaq, with its MQB-A0-IN architecture, will not get an EV variant but Skoda will gauge how EV take-up progresses in the country before reaching a final decision on introducing mass-market EVs in the country.
However, the company’s Chakan facility and the Mladá Boleslav plant will become carbon-neutral by 2030. The focus instead is on becoming the largest European brand in the Indian, Chinese and Russian markets, in keeping with the Volkswagen Group’s strategy of putting Skoda in charge of these markets.
The brand wants to increase global sales from 1 million units a year to 1.5 million years by 2030, driven by growth in these markets.
