Skoda working on 'beautiful' all-electric city car
Friday, 4 March 2022
Like stablemates Volkswagen and Cupra, Skoda is working on a small, electric city car. It will ride on the MEB Entry platform, also underpinning the ID.2 and Urban Rebel from the other brands. And, as you might expect, it will carry Skoda’s design language.
Speaking to Autocar UK, Skoda’s boss, Thomas Schafer, said that an announcement is coming, “but rest assured it will be differentiated from our sister brands and a beautiful concept that really fits Skoda.”
As for when the production car will be ready, Schafer added: “Our colleagues from Seat, Cupra and Volkswagen are pushing ahead a little stronger on that side. Within the group, we’re balancing this a bit.”
Considering the Cupra and VW models aren’t due until 2025, Skoda’s offering will land some time after that.
**READ MORE:
* Volkswagen to reveal all-electric retro Kombi in March
* VW reveals electric city car destined for production
* Cupra debuts crazy UrbanRebel concept EV
**
It will be interesting to see how Skoda prices its small EV, considering Volkswagen has already confirmed the ID.2 will be targeting £17,000 (NZ$33,686). Skoda has usually undercut the other Volkswagen Group brands in price, but that price point is already very low.
Skoda’s small car will likely emulate the ID Life concept’s dimensions of 4091mm long and 1845mm, although it remains to be seen if the Czech brand will build a small SUV, to slot below the existing Kamiq, or a lower-riding city hatchback. The latter would replace the discontinued Citigo iV overseas.
If Volkswagen puts the Life into production largely as-is, it would come as a T-Cross-sized crossover. Meanwhile, the Cupra Urban Rebel is much closer to an electric hot hatchback than a crossover SUV.
Power for the ID Life is sourced from single electric motor producing a decent 172kW/290Nm, notably up on current small electric vehicles like the Mini Electric (135kW/270Nm) and the Peugeot e-208 (100kW/260Nm).
Volkswagen says its small hatch will hit 100kmh in 6.9 seconds. A 57kWh battery provides around 400km of range, and DC fast charging will be supported out of the gate.
Expect the Skoda offering to have figures closer to this than what Cupra claims for its Urban Rebel. The Spanish brand says its crazy car makes 250kW continuous power, with a peak of 320kW and a 0-100kmh time of 3.2 seconds. It’s unclear if this is from one or two motors, although we’d expect this to be dialed back for the production version.
All will become clearer in the next little while when Skoda shows off what it’s planning for its small EV.