► Skoda unsure as to whether Superb Estate will continue into EV age
► But firm remains committed to estate car segment
► Octavia and Superb Estates could be merged into one product
The future of the Skoda Superb Estate could be in doubt in the electric age as the firm looks to consolidate its two current wagon offerings into one EV estate car.
Skoda revealed its Vision O show car at the Munich motor show, and though it remains a concept, it’s a definitive indication that the firm will produce an electric estate car in the coming years – as confirmed by Skoda CEO Klaus Zellmer.
At the reveal of the Vision O, CAR Magazine spoke with Johannes Neft, head of technical development. When asked if it was a coincidence that the Vision O sits in size between the current Octavia Estate and Superb Estate, Neft gave a strong ‘no’ as an answer before a PR cut in to stop him saying anything further. The existing ICE Octavia and Superb are both expected to remain on sale for plenty more years.
Neft said: ‘We have not decided if the Octavia and Superb will both continue, we have to check and this will also depend a bit on the size we want the car to be, and if we are going more in the direction of Superb or are we staying with Octavia.’
‘But if you grow the Octavia, you are getting very close to a Superb.’
Despite the growth in the popularity of SUVs, including Skoda’s own, the Octavia continues to sell in significant volumes and was the eight most popular car in Europe last year, with 200,000 still sold every year. Sales of the Superb lag far behind, in 2024 it sold 34,000 estate versions.
Skoda’s boss Klaus Zellmer said he ‘very much believes’ in the estate car segment but stressed that getting the value right on that car is ‘one of our highest objectives’.
‘We need to stay in that price bracket [of the Octavia] because if not our customers will go somewhere else and we don’t want that.’
Skoda first previewed an electric estate car three years ago when it showed models of its six new EVs – also including the Elroq, Epiq crossover, Vision 7S seven-seat SUV.
While an electric estate was expected to materialise sooner, Zellmer said it was delayed so it could sit on Volkswagen’s new Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) which unlocks more potential than its current MEB underpinnings. It will also allow for more electric range, a must for Skoda’s high-mileage estate car customers.
‘We postponed [the Vision O] because that car has to come with a new platform because with this long-distance driving you need the autonomous driving functions that are easier to realise in a new platform and not in the current platform,’ said Zellmer.